Associate Professor
Associate Professor Jayashree Arcot
Engineering
School of Chemical Engineering
Jayashree Arcot is an Associate Professor in the Food and Health in the School of Chemical Engineering. She is the Undergraduate Food Science Program Co-ordinator and Advisor.
Her expertise spreads across Food Science and Nutrition with a focus on micronutrients 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 for understanding the bioavailability of nutrients. 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). 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 Folate Technical Advisory Group of the Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) in 2009. She is the Vice-Co-ordinator of OCEANFOODS (INFOODS, FAO) from 2009. She is a member of the International Humanitarian Food Science and Technology (HFST) Network. 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; nutrition education.
Phone
+61 2 93855360
E-mail
Location
416A, E10, Hilmer Building (entry via E8, SEB)
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
Excellence in Postgraduate Research Supervison 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
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)
My Research Supervision
7 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