A new centre to help Australian food manufacturers to develop products with health benefits has been launched at the University of Sydney.
The ARC training centre for the Australian food processing industry in the 21st Century (ARCFPTC) aims to boost the the nation's food technology and manufacturing capacity to successfully develop cost effective processes and produce high value products.
The sorts of products targeted are those with health benefits for the prevention and treatment of chronic and acute diseases, whether they be nutraceuticals for pharmaceuticals, dietary supplements, or food ingredients.
The ARCFPTC will work with Australian businesses to develop more advanced manufacturing techniques in order to reduce costs and increase energy efficiency, and it will provide a multidisciplinary research environment that includes fourteen researchers from engineering, agriculture, science and medicine, as well as international collaborators, and ten food and biotechnology industry partners.
The centre will design cost-effective and sustainable processes for producing these types of products with a view to minimising waste while enhancing efficiency and reducing energy consumption, according to Professor Fariba Dehghani, from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and co-director of ARCFPTC.
ARCFPTC was awarded $3 million over three years from the Australian Research Council through its Industrial Transformation Research Program.
Partners in the Centre include Agricure, Lang Technologies, AB Mauri Technology and Development, Peanut Company of Australia, Ecopha, Marine Biotechnology Australia, Batlow Premium Juices, PharmaCare Laboratories, Perfection Fresh Australia and Stahmann Farms Enterprises.
