A Novel Rheological and Chewing and Swallowing model for the Smart Design of Texture Modified Foods for Increased Aged Health. Difficulty in chewing and swallowing mean about 40% of elderly people require Texture Modified (TM) meals. Elders able to eat only very soft food textures have a 2.4 fold higher risk of mortality. However existing methods to assess the level of texture modification are poor; achieving a consistent level of TM meal is difficult; and TM meals have poor sensory properties ( ....A Novel Rheological and Chewing and Swallowing model for the Smart Design of Texture Modified Foods for Increased Aged Health. Difficulty in chewing and swallowing mean about 40% of elderly people require Texture Modified (TM) meals. Elders able to eat only very soft food textures have a 2.4 fold higher risk of mortality. However existing methods to assess the level of texture modification are poor; achieving a consistent level of TM meal is difficult; and TM meals have poor sensory properties (appearance, flavour, aroma). This work will use a novel chewing and swallowing model in conjunction with novel food flavour and property measurements to develop new texture modified foods with increased taste, ease of swallowing and nutritional value.Read moreRead less
Addressing Child Nutritional Deficiency Through Development of a Nutritious Food Based on Dried Vegetable or Fruit. A significant proportion of Australian children are deficient in nutrients that dramatically affect mental and physical development. To improve health and wellness, micronutrients must be in a palatable form and be sufficiently absorbed to improve nutritional status. To optimise stability during processing, sensory quality and metabolic absorption, appropriate micronutrient food fo ....Addressing Child Nutritional Deficiency Through Development of a Nutritious Food Based on Dried Vegetable or Fruit. A significant proportion of Australian children are deficient in nutrients that dramatically affect mental and physical development. To improve health and wellness, micronutrients must be in a palatable form and be sufficiently absorbed to improve nutritional status. To optimise stability during processing, sensory quality and metabolic absorption, appropriate micronutrient food fortification technology must be used. This project proposes a unique linkage between three distinct University faculties and Industry, to combine the development of novel fortified dried-vegetable and/or fruit leathers with an efficient process for their production, nutritional studies to assess their absorption, and target market (young children) acceptance studies.Read moreRead less
Surface Modification of Spray-Dried Powders By Surface-Active Proteins. Internal wall deposits in spray dryers lead to product degradation and pose fire hazards. This situation has limited the manufacturing of high value bio-food powders by the Australian bio-food and dairy industry, which exports 13% of the milk powder in the world. The specific economic benefits to Australia from this project arise from innovative surface modification of powder particles by proteins, development of scientific ....Surface Modification of Spray-Dried Powders By Surface-Active Proteins. Internal wall deposits in spray dryers lead to product degradation and pose fire hazards. This situation has limited the manufacturing of high value bio-food powders by the Australian bio-food and dairy industry, which exports 13% of the milk powder in the world. The specific economic benefits to Australia from this project arise from innovative surface modification of powder particles by proteins, development of scientific instruments and predictive tools based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). These outcomes will lead to production of free flowing powders from bio-food materials.Read moreRead less
Industrial Transformation Research Hubs - Grant ID: IH120100005
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$5,000,000.00
Summary
Dairy Innovation Hub: transformational research to underpin the future of the Australian dairy manufacturing industry. Dairy Innovation Hub: transformational research to underpin the future of the Australian dairy manufacturing industry. The University of Melbourne, The University of Queensland and Dairy Innovation Australia will join in this Research Hub to address significant technical challenges facing the dairy manufacturing industry. The Research Hub will develop transformational processing ....Dairy Innovation Hub: transformational research to underpin the future of the Australian dairy manufacturing industry. Dairy Innovation Hub: transformational research to underpin the future of the Australian dairy manufacturing industry. The University of Melbourne, The University of Queensland and Dairy Innovation Australia will join in this Research Hub to address significant technical challenges facing the dairy manufacturing industry. The Research Hub will develop transformational processing technologies and innovative products to enhance productivity, growth and sustainability.Read moreRead less
Understanding of structure development in drying droplets through the stickiness paradigm. The aims of this research are to develop a new model for multicomponent droplet drying. This model will provide predictions of conditions where composition variation exists in the drying particles. Validation of the model will be made using a novel instrument to measure the in-situ development of surface stickiness during drying. Stickiness is an important issue encountered during drying and handling of so ....Understanding of structure development in drying droplets through the stickiness paradigm. The aims of this research are to develop a new model for multicomponent droplet drying. This model will provide predictions of conditions where composition variation exists in the drying particles. Validation of the model will be made using a novel instrument to measure the in-situ development of surface stickiness during drying. Stickiness is an important issue encountered during drying and handling of some key food and consumer materials. Currently, there is no technique to measure the evolution of stickiness during drying. Key outputs will include the model, the instrument, and the development of efficient methods to generate the multicomponent data.Read moreRead less
Nanostructured dairy powder for improved functionality. More than 30 per cent of the total milk produced in Australia is converted to powder for export. This project will lead to improvement in the solubility, and hence shelf-life, of protein rich dairy powders which will be of significant economic benefit to the industry. This project will also benefit the wider scientific community in dairy and food sectors.
Microstructure and Rheology of Starch-Gelatine confectionery products as a function of manufacturing process. We propose to develop a novel continuous extrusion process for manufacturing confectionery jellies. Jellies are traditionally manufactured in a multi-step labour and capital-intensive batch process with inter-batch variability and difficult to automate. Continuous processes offer many advantages including high throughput, efficiency, straightforward automation including quality monitorin ....Microstructure and Rheology of Starch-Gelatine confectionery products as a function of manufacturing process. We propose to develop a novel continuous extrusion process for manufacturing confectionery jellies. Jellies are traditionally manufactured in a multi-step labour and capital-intensive batch process with inter-batch variability and difficult to automate. Continuous processes offer many advantages including high throughput, efficiency, straightforward automation including quality monitoring and control. They are little used in this industry because of the inability to relate product requirements through fundamental microstructural properties to processing conditions. This project addresses these key technical obstacles to gain the competitive advantage of continuous extrusion processing, through advanced mathematical modelling informed by experimentation. The proposed techniques derive from advanced polymer processing and characterisation capabilities.Read moreRead less
Novel Multilevel Modelling Framework to Design Advanced Food Drying Process. In this project, a novel multilevel modelling framework for food drying will be developed by integrating the micro, macro, and dryer scale transport process and considering the dynamic changes in the drying environment under the intermittent application of microwave energy (IMCD). This modelling framework will be the first comprehensive scientific tool for industry for developing next-generation food drying systems, whi ....Novel Multilevel Modelling Framework to Design Advanced Food Drying Process. In this project, a novel multilevel modelling framework for food drying will be developed by integrating the micro, macro, and dryer scale transport process and considering the dynamic changes in the drying environment under the intermittent application of microwave energy (IMCD). This modelling framework will be the first comprehensive scientific tool for industry for developing next-generation food drying systems, which are expected to deliver significant improvement in energy efficiency and product quality and reduction in drying time and food waste. Finally, based on the outcomes of the modelling framework, a smart IMCD drying system will be developed to demonstrate the feasibility of the framework in industry application.Read moreRead less
A Concurrent Multiscale Model for Improved Prediction of Drying Process. This project aims to develop an innovative multiscale model for food drying, which integrates spatial and temporal nonlinear behaviours at different scales. The proposed unifying theory will capture dynamic micro level features and upscale them to macro level features through a concurrent bridging scheme. As cellular elements critically govern the drying process, the fundamental understanding captured through this theory wi ....A Concurrent Multiscale Model for Improved Prediction of Drying Process. This project aims to develop an innovative multiscale model for food drying, which integrates spatial and temporal nonlinear behaviours at different scales. The proposed unifying theory will capture dynamic micro level features and upscale them to macro level features through a concurrent bridging scheme. As cellular elements critically govern the drying process, the fundamental understanding captured through this theory will lead to more accurate prediction of drying kinetics, deformation and quality changes, and hence the development of efficient drying systems. This project will overcome a longstanding research problem and position Australia at the forefront in world drying research to reap substantial economic benefits for Australia.Read moreRead less