This research project aims to address the challenges faced by the vacuum freeze-drying industry, such as high operational costs and prolonged drying times. The focus is on the application of direct ultrasound in Atmospheric Freeze Drying (AFD) to enhance water diffusivity and improve drying efficiency. The research will involve modelling and fabricating a prototype of an Ultrasound-assisted AFD system. The effectiveness of this system will be assessed through the drying kinetics analysis and physical, and chemical characterization of apples and eggplants.

Increasing consumption of fresh produce is an important focus for food growers and retailers, but it has been challenging to achieve. Food is Medicine programs like produce prescription offer a potential new area of partnership between healthcare and food growers/retailers, where healthcare dollars can be spent directly on paying or subsiding healthy produce for individuals with diet-related conditions. Hence food industry is very interested to support this research.

Baker & Co will work closely with the research team at UNSW Sydney through an industry PhD project to develop new formulations suitable for spray drying of oil-based extracts for food applications. The outcomes of this project will enable Baker & Co to potentially develop a new product range of their flavour ingredients that are more suitable for the export market.

This project will result in a high throughput platform for screening thousands of microbial strains and precision fermentation conditions to identify those producing correctly phosphorylated proteins. Selected phosphoproteins will undergo further quality control testing, including dairy product prototyping and digestibility studies, to identify promising new precision fermented dairy products.

Sustainable Innovative Food Technologies (SIFT) Centre Project is a collaboration between WA State Government, the CRC Entity and Murdoch University. SIFT will be an open access facility that food companies can use to research and develop new products.

This project will focus on the use of cold plasma as a chemical-free method to maintain the quality, safety, and shelf life of fresh algal paste, specifically, the “superfood” fresh Spirulina. Spirulina is a biomass of cyanobacteria that can be consumed by humans and currently sold in dried form.

This project will focus on developing protocols to produce Maillard conjugates of non-traditional plant proteins from locally grown seaweed by developing an alternative method of conjugation using ultrasonic treatment.

This project aims to assess the quality and safety of Australian WLS prior to efficacy study in clinical trials. Initially, analyses and quantification of the chemical composition were conducted in the collected supplements.

The main objective of the PhD project is to obtain detailed molecular phenotypes of WA fresh produce (olive oils and edible fruit) using spectroscopic technologies available to the Australian National Phenome Centre (ANPC).

Truffles are an expensive mushroom due to their distinctive taste and aroma. In Australia, the truffle industry relies on one species, which has a limited three-month season. The aim of this project is to assess two new truffle species for Australian conditions, including inoculation and cultivation techniques, environmental conditions (e.g., climate, growing medium, water), and suitable host trees (e.g., Pinus species).