An alternative protein application centre (APAC) has received a $2.2 million grant from the New South Wales government to develop scalable designs and large-volume manufacturing.
APAC will be based within Tech Central in South Everleigh, Sydney, and led by the University of Sydney.
The centre will also carry out R&D on alternative protein production methods, including cellular engineering, precision fermentation, vertical farming, extraction, and texturisation, all while training researchers and practitioners in the food and beverage industry.
Professor Fariba Dehghani and Professor Brent Kaiser are co-leads of APAC.
Dehghani is an expert in food engineering from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, where she is also lead of the Centre for Advanced Food Engineering. The centre develops technologies for promoting sustainable food systems, good health, and nutrition. Her team also addresses global issues arising from growing and ageing populations and increasing chronic disease, while building a safe, sustainable, secure and competitive food supply.
Dehghani said she and her team were thrilled to receive funding for APAC.
“It will further boost our capability for collaboration with the food industry. It will also support our existing research collaboration with multiple industry partners for the development of alternative protein sources for manufacturing innovative and nutritional food products from Australian plants and other sources of protein,” she said.
Kaiser is a professor in legume biology from the Sydney Institute of Agriculture in the Faculty of Science.
He works with Australian pulses – such as beans and lentils – and is working on ways to put more pulses into the protein market. He is working on further developing refining technology, which he says is required to turn Australian pulses into protein ingredients with the correct flavour and functionality needed for food manufacturing.
“APAC will help food companies develop alternate protein foods using a range of protein inputs. These include plant proteins (pulses, cereals, oilseeds, hemp seed), fungal proteins (mushrooms) and more novel approaches through fermentation of fungi using plant sugars and animal-based cell culture approaches,” Kaiser said.
The $2.2 million grant came from the NSW government’s Tech Central Research and Innovation Infrastructure Fund.
Minister for Science, Innovation and Technology Alister Henskens said APAC would provide specialised equipment and deliver collaborative programs with a focus on existing industry and research strengths across the Tech Central Innovation District.
“Tech Central’s status as a nation-leading centre of innovation and development will be enhanced by these projects, harnessing the power of local expertise to bring significant physical and digital infrastructure across its target industries and research areas, from the University of Sydney,” Henskens said.
