April - May 2008


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Flora Exotica

Food product development and safety at UWI

Dr. Neela Badrie, senior lecturer of the UWI Department of Food Production, has been working on industrial food product development from exotic tropical fruits and on public health food safety issues. Processed products from tropical crops such as the carambola, cashew apples, cacao pulp, breadfruit and sorrel are some examples of her contribution to specialty tropical crops. Her innovative research involves modification of technology to suit crops, understanding the interaction of components and their effects on microbiological, compositional, sensory, physical and chemical properties.

Over the years, Dr. Badrie has emphasized the development of novel functional products such as healthy low-calorie products, including christophene, and sorrel jams, sorrel wines with antioxidants, low sodium golden apple hot sauces, sorrel yoghurt with flax seeds/soy protein. Her research activities include utilization of waste material such as banana and plantain peel in wines and the by-products such as including cacao pulp in yoghurts and syrups. It is not surprising that some of the industrial products have already found immediate applications locally. Also several professionals have used some her innovative techniques in their work on product development.

Dr. Valentin Diaz Perez of Spain used information from one of her publications (Maharaj and Badrie, 2006), in the technology of osmotic dehydration of carambola in a support programme in Bolivia, working with local producers in the Amazonic area.

Dr. Badrie has also collaborated with researchers throughout the Caribbean and the developing world on food safety and microbiological research. Her research has covered microbiological analysis of street-foods, such as beef patties, hygienic practices of street-food vendors of ‘doubles’, consumer perception to bioterrorism, food safety practices, genetically modified foods and organic vegetables, microbiological analysis of water used for processing poultry, sea-foods and consuming public perception to vending practices of doubles.

In collaboration with researchers of the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC), Public Health Agency of Canada, Ministry of Health, Trinidad and Tobago and the Pan American health Organization/World Health organization, a Burden of Illness (BOI) Study for Trinidad and Tobago is being undertaken.