Food industry prepares to transform

Asian markets are seeking foods with lower risk factors for diabetes, heart disease and obesity, according to the director of a new food research and training centre in Brisbane.

“These are increasingly serious health problems in Asia,” said Professor Melissa Fitzgerald, director of a federal government-funded centre that aims to lead a transformation in Australia’s food industry.

The new research and training centre, at The University of Queensland’s St Lucia campus in Brisbane, is being established in partnership with the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC).

“We aim to produce future food industry leaders,” Professor Fitzgerald said.

The Australian Research Council has granted $2.695 million to support the centre’s Agents of Change PhD program, and the food industry has granted almost $600,000.

“The program will bridge the public/private divide in the food industry and produce graduates with deep scientific capability, as well as knowledge in business, leadership and commercialisation,” Professor Fitzgerald said.

“Graduates will shape the future of food production, find ways to improve global food security, and carve new agribusiness pathways from Australia to Asia and beyond.”

Professor Fitzgerald said the federal government’s recent white paper, Australia in the Asian Century, outlined the emerging food demands of the middle class Asian market.

“It identified Asia’s need for safe, healthy and high-quality foods and retail-ready ingredients,” she said.

The first cohort of 10 PhD students and three postdoctoral researchers will start at the training centre early in 2014.

“We are offering a creative model for students to pursue PhD-level training on a pathway that leads to industry rather than academia,” Professor Fitzgerald said.

“The program will provide these students with essential skills and the ability to apply them in industry, in order to meet global food demands.

“Our PhD graduates will be business-ready leaders and innovators of tomorrow’s food industry.”

Campbell Arnotts, Heinz, PepsiCo, Simplot, and Goodman Fielder are among the companies partnering with UQ and the AFGC to offer the PhD. Other companies are seeking to join.

AFGC deputy chief executive Dr Geoffrey Annison said each industry partner would be paired with a PhD student who would research an area of specific interest to that company.

“The student also will work in the company, carrying out parts of their research,” Dr Annison said.

“This is an opportunity for industry partners to solve problems and transform their businesses, and to be involved in training the person who will facilitate that transformation.”

Professor Fitzgerald said the program was intended to attract students who may have studied food science at undergraduate level “and want more”.

“Currently there is nowhere in Australia where they can get the scientific quality of a PhD together with the ‘in-company’ experience that is essential to a vocational career in industry,” she said.

Professor Fitzgerald talks about her work on video here

Contact: Professor Melissa Fitzgerald, UQ School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, ph +61 7 3346 8893, m.fitzgerald2@uq.edu.au
Photos of Professor Fitzgerald and her team can be supplied to media; contact Aimee Parker, a.parker3@uq.edu.au, ph +61 7 3346 1629