Moving across the world and embedding yourself in a new culture, education system and community is a huge decision to make, and it’s one that has paid off for these food science graduates.
Fatimah Umatiya, originally of India, and Pratima Karki, originally of Nepal, are among the first cohort to graduate from the Master of Agriculture and Food Science at the University of Tasmania, which is delivered by the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA).
At the University's Winter Graduations in Hobart (28 August), they were excitedly looking towards what the future could hold, with aspirations to put their newly acquired skills into practice in the agriculture and food industry.
“I studied at bachelor of chemistry in Mumbai and always wanted to do something that relates to food safety and food science, and I wanted to study abroad,” Mrs Umatiya said.
“The course offered by the University of Tasmania suited what I was looking for. The experience has been great, and the supervisors have been extremely supportive and encouraging.”
Looking to the future, Mrs Umatiya is eager to put skills into practice in an industry setting where she hopes to further develop her understanding of the challenges facing industry.
“You know what the challenges are by reading academic papers, but it is so beneficial to go out there into industry and experience it,” she said.
Miss Karki chose to study the Master of Agriculture and Food Science course as it matched-up with her interest in food science and food microbiology.
“I’ve never been so exposed to food microbiology and had so much knowledge available to me,” she said.
“It’s been so much fun and I have learnt so much. It’s been a great way to improve my career and gain insights into food safety.”
Both women had the opportunity to undertake an independent research project as part of the course.
Mrs Umatiya specialised in food microbiology and her project looked at the use of second grade cherries as a sustainable and natural antioxidant to improve the shelf life of ready-to-eat meat products.
“I achieved some amazing results through this research project. There is extensive research about using natural antioxidants but nothing in relation to using cherry antioxidant in shelf stable meat products. I conducted some basic research about if it works in preventing oxidisation in meat and it does work, the formulation just needs to be optimised to get a good product that is tasty at the same time shelf stable. This method definitely has potential,” she said.
“I’ve acquired some good research skills in food microbiology, food chemistry and food analysis and the ability to work independently. My goal is to work in industry in relation to food science or food safety and optimise existing methods and also find some new methods for shelf stable food products.”
“In today’s world, shelf stable food is one of greatest challenges for industry to achieve, why not try and help?”
Miss Karki’s research project focussed on plant physiology of pyrethrum working with Botanical Resources Australia, who are a global leader in the production of pyrethrum.
“For my research project I worked with BRA on a project to improve the production of pyrethrum, which was a great experience,” she said.
“The major objective of my research is to measure the change of endogenous Gibberellic acids over the winter dormancy period of pyrethrum with the use of LC-MS chromatography which is a validated method we used for GA extraction. If there is a change in GA level as plant enters dormancy then we externally apply GA to boost the flower production.
“I was able to link with farmers and I went in the field to check crops and take samples. It’s been an exposure to a whole new world getting out of the lab and into the field.
“Looking forward, I would like to work in research and possibly complete a PhD in the future. In the meanwhile, I would like an industry job to harness more knowledge.”