Professor Jayashree Arcot
Jayashree Arcot is a Professor in Food Science and Nutrition within the Food and Health group in the School of Chemical Engineering. She is the Undergraduate Food Science Program Director and Advisor.
Her interests spread across Food and Nutritional Science with a focus on food and nutrient security. She has an active research program spanning across food chemistry; nutrient analysis and micronutrient bioaccessibility and bioavailability. Her special expertise is in micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) and bioactives in foods, their sources and bioavailability in humans using stable isotopic techniques and developing new in vitro tools such as 3D cell culture techniques in collaboration with cancer cell biologists. She was the Director of the ARC Training Centre for Advanced Technologies in Food Manufacture (2013-2018) (ww.atfm.unsw.edu.au). She initiated several industry funded projects- nutrient recovery from food manufacturing stream wastes; utilisation of agricultural wastes for producing biodegradable packaging material using nanotechnology ((https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/packaging-made-banana-plants-peeling-alternative); extraction of nutrients using membrane technology from food manufacturing wastes.
She served on the AOAC (US) Stakeholder Panel for Infant Formula and Adult Nutritionals (SPIFAN) as an expert on folate, Vitamin D and Vitamin C analytical methodology. She was a member on the Flour Fortification Technical Advisory Group of the Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) in 2008. She is the Vice-Co-ordinator of OCEANIAFOODS (INFOODS, FAO) from 2009. She is a member of the International Humanitarian Food Science and Technology (HFST) Network. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology (AIFST). She is on the Editorial Board of Food Frontiers; and an Associate Editor and Review Editor for the journal Frontiers in Nutrition; and an Editor of FOODS.
Her expertise in Nutritional science extends beyond the laboratory and has an interest in public health nutrition especially maternal and infant nutrition; addressing micronutrient malnutrition in the Asia Pacific region through food-based interventions; food and nutrient security in the Asia Pacific region.
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
Excellence in Postgraduate Research Supervision Award, 2013- Awarded by Postgraduate Council UNSW, Arc (UNSW Student Life) and UNSW Graduate Research School
Australia-India Senior Visiting Fellowship (2012-2013)- Awarded by the Australian Academy of Science
Research Interests:
- Food composition and development of analytical techniques (biological and chemical) for nutrients in foods
- Fortification of foods with micronutrients: technologies, bioavailability in humans
- Development of isotope dilution methods for the analysis of vitamins and other bioactives in foods using LC-MS techniques
- Bioactive compounds in foods and their activities in vitro and ex vivo
- Micronutrient bioavailability in humans using stable isotopic studies; ex vivo cell culture techniques (2D and 3D organoids)
Current projects include:
- Vitamin analysis of foods especially folate, cyanocobalamin and vitamin D (immunoassays, microbiological assays and LC-MS analysis of vitamers using stable isotope dilution assays)
- Biodiversity of nutrients in plant-based foods (genotypic variations) esp. cereals and legumes
- Fortification of foods (rice and wheat flour) with micronutrients (folate, iron and beta carotene) using edible coating materials and processing methods
- Bioactives in fruits (analysis of phenolic compounds using stable isotope dilution methods; GC-MS and LC-MS analysis)
- Unconventional cereals and their prebiotic potential
- Improving Vitamin B12 in plant-based foods through fermentation; developing new ingredients of high nutritional value through processing
- Nutrient recovery from food manufacturing waste streams; agricultural wastes
- Development of biodegradable nanopolymers as packaging material from agricultural wastes (https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/packaging-made-banana-plants-peeling-alternative)
- Human intervention trials for bioefficacy of micronutrient fortification of wheat flour in Papua New Guinea
- Micronutrient bioavailability (folate) from fortified foods and natural sources using stable isotope techniques in humans
- Bioactive compounds from foods especially lutein and Zeaxanthin, dietary intakes in different age groups, factors influencing intakes (for e.g. age, gender and ethnicity) and prevalence of dry eye disease and macular degeneration of the eye
- Sustainable utilisation of local crops for combating malnutrition in children in the NTT region of Indonesia (https://www.unsw.edu.au/news/2022/05/improving-food-and-nutrition-security-for-young-children-in-indonesia)
- Protein extraction from leguminous leaves to combat child malnutrition in the Democratic Republic of Congo
- Food Safety and Nutrition Risk assessment of School Meal Programs in Sri Lanka through the World Food Program
My Research Supervision
PhD students and several honours and Master's students in the areas of Food Science, Food Chemistry and Nutrition.
My Teaching
Nutrition
Advanced Nutrition
Introduction to Food Science
Food and Health Security