A team from FAO, led by Sub-Regional Coordinator, Eriko Hibi visited the Food Technology Laboratory at the University of the South Pacific (USP) recently.
 
During the visit, a variety of food products which were on display during the Open Day celebration held earlier this year were shown to the team by Food Technology Consultant, Prof. Lutgarda S. Palomar. Prof Palomar gave explanations on some of the products such as, the gluten-free flour, starch from breadfruit, cassava, sweet potato, powder from pumpkin, basil, moringa, oregano.
 
These products that have been used in science-based production of ready mix pan cake, cookies (chocolate chip, oat cookies, etc.). They can also be used as an enricher, thickener, color and flavor enhancers of other food products.
 
FAO enquired about the possibility of collaborative projects including research undertakings such as packaging, process optimization and trial marketing. They explored the prospect being able to extend the technologies to other Pacific Island Countries with FAO as partners.
 
A number of food products that have been developed from ripe breadfruit alone or in combination with sweet potato and lemon grass include a juice or a drink (called QUENCH), marmalade, jam, ketchup, dip, pickles, home-made honey or syrup. USP is proud to proclaim that these products that come mainly from ripe breadfruit have natural colour and flavour without any preservative or NASA (No Artificial Sub-stance Added).
 
This research laboratory which was just recently established at SAFT is internationally compliant.
 
USP is committed to have Food Technology as a core component to complete SAFT’s academic mandate. The initial challenged faced by Prof. Palomar, was to look for indigenous raw materials in the development of food products using minimal processing equipment. New types of chips obtained from cassava and/or breadfruit were the first food products made.

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