Flexible and Printable Sensors for Early Detection of Food Spoilage . This project aims to develop a technological platform for the fabrication of flexible sensors that enable the detection of food spoilage and life threatening microbial contamination. By engineering stimuli-responsive inks, colorimetric, chemiresistive, and impedimetric sensor arrays will be printed on flexible plastics and paper substrates. The printed sensor arrays will respond to gases and volatile compounds generated from f ....Flexible and Printable Sensors for Early Detection of Food Spoilage . This project aims to develop a technological platform for the fabrication of flexible sensors that enable the detection of food spoilage and life threatening microbial contamination. By engineering stimuli-responsive inks, colorimetric, chemiresistive, and impedimetric sensor arrays will be printed on flexible plastics and paper substrates. The printed sensor arrays will respond to gases and volatile compounds generated from food deterioration and spoilage, microbial pathogen, temperature and pH by a change in their colour or electrical properties, hence providing real-time measurements. The project will enable to design efficient data-driven decision making tools along the supply chain to enhance food safety and reduce food waste. Read moreRead less
Plant based foods: Towards sustainable and acceptable meat analogues. The project aims to address the need for engineering plant-based food products to deliver a sensory experience akin to meat. The project expects to generate new knowledge on the structural drivers for emulating meat-like texture and taste within burger products. Expected outcomes of this project include new ingredients and food characterisation methodologies, including rheology and sensory, which can be employed in rational ....Plant based foods: Towards sustainable and acceptable meat analogues. The project aims to address the need for engineering plant-based food products to deliver a sensory experience akin to meat. The project expects to generate new knowledge on the structural drivers for emulating meat-like texture and taste within burger products. Expected outcomes of this project include new ingredients and food characterisation methodologies, including rheology and sensory, which can be employed in rational food structure design. This should provide significant benefits in enhancing the consumer acceptance of plant-based foods that is required to support the rapidly growing market opportunity for them and sustainable food production.Read moreRead less
Optimising Removal of Proteinaceous Foulants from Membranes. Removal of proteinacous foulants from membrane systems imposes both significant economic costs in terms of chemical usage as well as significant environmental costs in terms of water usage and production of effluents from the cleaning and rinsing waters. The outcome of this project should allow us to develop methods for the prediction and optimisation of membrane cleaning performance of relevance to major Australian industries includin ....Optimising Removal of Proteinaceous Foulants from Membranes. Removal of proteinacous foulants from membrane systems imposes both significant economic costs in terms of chemical usage as well as significant environmental costs in terms of water usage and production of effluents from the cleaning and rinsing waters. The outcome of this project should allow us to develop methods for the prediction and optimisation of membrane cleaning performance of relevance to major Australian industries including the dairy, food processing and water and waste water treatment industries.Read moreRead less
The Development of New Carrier Technologies for Spray-Dried Fruit Extracts. This project aims to develop new carrier techniques for spray drying fruit extracts based on the use of natural fibres, with the aim of overcoming a key problem in the operation of spray dryers for producing powders, the deposition of particles on walls. Carriers are non-sticky materials that effectively dilute the stickiness of any materials. The significance is that it will use waste products from fruit processing (th ....The Development of New Carrier Technologies for Spray-Dried Fruit Extracts. This project aims to develop new carrier techniques for spray drying fruit extracts based on the use of natural fibres, with the aim of overcoming a key problem in the operation of spray dryers for producing powders, the deposition of particles on walls. Carriers are non-sticky materials that effectively dilute the stickiness of any materials. The significance is that it will use waste products from fruit processing (the fibres from skins) to overcome this problem, and it will also be possible to dry sticky materials using material from the fruit itself, rather than additives such as maltodextrin.Read moreRead less
Development of cloning technology for the Australian Pig Industry. Cloning has the potential to be the most efficient of the reproductive technologies developed for increasing genetic improvement in livestock. Currently up to 5% of cloned embryos develop to term in the pig. This is higher than that reported for cattle and sheep. Moreover the use of this technology in the pig does not appear not to result in the same sorts of problems and losses seen around the time of birth in these species ....Development of cloning technology for the Australian Pig Industry. Cloning has the potential to be the most efficient of the reproductive technologies developed for increasing genetic improvement in livestock. Currently up to 5% of cloned embryos develop to term in the pig. This is higher than that reported for cattle and sheep. Moreover the use of this technology in the pig does not appear not to result in the same sorts of problems and losses seen around the time of birth in these species i.e. the majority of cloned pigs appear normal and are healthy at birth. However before cloning can be used commercially, current efficiencies need to be increased approx two fold for this to be economically viable. The aim of the present study is to improve the efficiency of our current cloning protocol and develop associated technologies such as embryo freezing to facilitate commercialisation. This will ensure that the Australian Pig Industry remains competitive at a pivotal time in its development.Read moreRead less
Identification of Traits and Function by Genomic Matching. Differences between individuals are largely inherited and therefore encoded within the DNA. The challenge is to develop practical means of detecting these differences irrespective of whether they are observable as a phenotype.
Here we focus on livestock. For example, most Australian cattle are horned rather than polled. The inheritance is relatively simple but there is still no DNA test to detect the recessive horning gene.
T ....Identification of Traits and Function by Genomic Matching. Differences between individuals are largely inherited and therefore encoded within the DNA. The challenge is to develop practical means of detecting these differences irrespective of whether they are observable as a phenotype.
Here we focus on livestock. For example, most Australian cattle are horned rather than polled. The inheritance is relatively simple but there is still no DNA test to detect the recessive horning gene.
The genomic matching technique is an in-house patented procedure for identifying such DNA differences. If successful, our test will assist industry to eliminate horning and thereby painful dehorning whilst reducing damage to workers and product.
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Industrial Transformation Training Centres - Grant ID: IC130100021
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,100,000.00
Summary
ARC Training Centre for Advanced Technologies in Food Manufacture. Training Centre for Advanced Technologies in Food Manufacture. This Training Centre for Advanced Technologies in Food Manufacture will enable Australian food processing and manufacturing companies to meet the increasing threats of international competition. It will do this through collaboration between industry and the Training Centre’s food science, nutrition and engineering researchers and the development of innovative technolo ....ARC Training Centre for Advanced Technologies in Food Manufacture. Training Centre for Advanced Technologies in Food Manufacture. This Training Centre for Advanced Technologies in Food Manufacture will enable Australian food processing and manufacturing companies to meet the increasing threats of international competition. It will do this through collaboration between industry and the Training Centre’s food science, nutrition and engineering researchers and the development of innovative technologies.
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Investigation of the immunological properties of a novel adjuvant in sheep. The induction of strong immune responses without side effects is a highly desirable goal in vaccine R&D. The recently developed adjuvant DCtag utilises unique properties of dendritic cells to boost both cellular and humoral immune responses without tissue damage. This project will identify the mechanisms of immune induction of DCtag using unique properties of our sheep cannulation model. This will allow further optimisat ....Investigation of the immunological properties of a novel adjuvant in sheep. The induction of strong immune responses without side effects is a highly desirable goal in vaccine R&D. The recently developed adjuvant DCtag utilises unique properties of dendritic cells to boost both cellular and humoral immune responses without tissue damage. This project will identify the mechanisms of immune induction of DCtag using unique properties of our sheep cannulation model. This will allow further optimisation of DCtag adjuvanticity in sheep, which will then be applied to the delivery of a prototype peptide based vaccine against foot and mouth disease virus, a veterinary disease of global importance, hereby increasing Australia's leadership in biotechnology.Read moreRead less
Industrial Transformation Training Centres - Grant ID: IC140100026
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,997,000.00
Summary
ARC Training Centre for the Australian Food Processing Industry in the 21st Century. ARC Training Centre for the Australian Food Processing Industry in the 21st Century. The Training Centre will educate a new generation of engineers and scientists and foster the capacity of Australian food industries to further develop advanced technologies in manufacturing and product improvement. The key objective is to support industry production of nutraceuticals for the promotion of health and well-being. I ....ARC Training Centre for the Australian Food Processing Industry in the 21st Century. ARC Training Centre for the Australian Food Processing Industry in the 21st Century. The Training Centre will educate a new generation of engineers and scientists and foster the capacity of Australian food industries to further develop advanced technologies in manufacturing and product improvement. The key objective is to support industry production of nutraceuticals for the promotion of health and well-being. In enabling the production of these nutraceuticals the Training Centre will design cost effective and sustainable processes that minimise waste-products, enhance efficiency and minimize the energy consumption. These high value products have enormous potential globally to boost not only partner company revenues but to significantly increase Australian exports in agribusiness.Read moreRead less
Engineering improved fat encapsulation for food powders. Encapsulation of fats and oils into powders has wide applications in the food industry, with products including creamers, soups, infant formula, and nutraceutical powders. Spray drying of liquid emulsions into powders is an integral part to manufacture high value products by extending their shelf life, nutritional content, and functionality. This project will generate new protocols for the production of high-fat powders, with direct commer ....Engineering improved fat encapsulation for food powders. Encapsulation of fats and oils into powders has wide applications in the food industry, with products including creamers, soups, infant formula, and nutraceutical powders. Spray drying of liquid emulsions into powders is an integral part to manufacture high value products by extending their shelf life, nutritional content, and functionality. This project will generate new protocols for the production of high-fat powders, with direct commercial benefits in improved production efficiency and new product development from recovered ingredients. The knowledge will benefit the manufacturing of food powders in Australia, currently valued around $600M AUD pa, and will potentially expand the variety of product offering for the export market.Read moreRead less