Food Science and Technology Projects

Project Name:
Cocoa Research and Development Activities

Objective:
To carry Cocoa Research – conduct a comparative study of the tray and box fermentation methods and testing for quality including heavy metals and octratoxin (OTA)

Project Coordinator

Tuimaseve Kuinimeri Finau

Project Name:
ACIAR Cocoa Project HORT/2014/078: Aligning genetic resources, production and post-harvest systems to market opportunities for Pacific island and Australian cocoa

Objective:
1. To evaluate the opportunities for Pacific cocoa industries to expand the value of their markets, related to quality attributes and industry organization
2. To develop and deploy improved post-harvest handling systems (fermentation, drying and quality control) to deliver higher quality and better returns to producers
3. To understand the project impact on livelihood development

Project Coordinator

Tuimaseve Kuinimeri Finau

Project Name:
Establishing the Food Innovation Centre

Objective:
Build the capacity of the Food Science & Technology division to cater for various food value added work and associated quality control tests

Project Coordinator

Tuimaseve Kuinimeri Finau

Project Name:
Traditional functional food

Objective:
To study the microbial dynamics of miki mafu and develop a commercial product

Project Name:
Local Ava Project

Objective:
To determine the amount of kavalactone in locally grown and sold ava in Samoa

Project Coordinator

Siope Pele

Project Name:
Developing local healthy products

Objective:
1. To trial the production of local herbal teas and natural products using a solar dehydrator
2. To determine the functionality of the local products

Project Coordinators

Alofisa Akapo

Louis Faumuina