National Science Week- Innovation: Powering Future Industries

16 Aug 2023

National Science Week- Innovation: Powering Future Industries

This National Science Week, AIFST is bringing together 3 speakers to present their take on future food industries.

Speakers:

Clare Winkel

Clare is going to discuss the future of the seaweed industry. She has worked in the food industry since 1987, from the meat processing floor up including at CSIRO, Queensland Dept Primary Industry, a private consultant and as an international food safety auditor & trainer. She has a B.Sc from QUT & a MBA from the Aust Maritime College. Clare has audited in 14 countries: in Europe, North America, the Caribbean, South Pacific & ANZ with experience across numerous sectors of the industry including: meat processing, seafood processing (including canning in Alaska), farming, fresh produce and the egg industry. She has lived in 4 countries including in a one street fishing village in Ireland & spent 2 years working across the Torres Strait with the small island seafood processors.

Skye Blackburn

Skye Blackburn has a unique set of skills, and in 2007 combined her knowledge in Food Science and Entomology to establish Australia’s first edible insect farm. The products she has developed for her company, The Edible Bug Shop, use insect protein products in familiar foods, to help consumers include them in their diets very easily. Skye’s passion for edible insects is contagious and once you meet her, you will also believe that edible insects are sustainable, nutritious and an important part of our food future. 

Dr Yasmina Sultanbawa

Professor Yasmina Sultanbawa: Director, Centre for Nutrition and Food Sciences, Director, Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Uniquely Australian Foods and a Professorial Research Fellow at Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), the University of Queensland, Australia.  Her research is focused in the areas of food processing, preservation, food safety and nutrition. She brings together a unique combination of research areas combining process technologies and engineered delivery systems for bioactive compounds to improve nutrition, flavour, quality and food safety. This work has provided commercially applicable solutions to address challenges and opportunities throughout the agri-food value chain. She has worked closely with food industries and developed research partnerships through contract research with commercial entities. This approach has been highly translational in transforming industry practices for the ultimate benefit of human health. Her work on Australian native plant foods is focused on incorporating these plants in mainstream agriculture and diet diversification and working with First Nations communities to develop nutritious and sustainable value-added products for use in the food and beverage industry.