Dr Jaspreet Singh
Position: Senior Research Officer, Riddet Institute, Massey Institute of Food Science and Technology. Field: Food science and nutrition.
Jaspreet’s research currently focuses on characterising future carbohydrates to develop novel and healthy food products, this includes food crops, like cereals and potatoes. He characterises these resources to help develop new, custom food products. Jaspreet enjoys his research and thinks food products are a new, interesting field with lots of unsolved problems.
Dr Jaspreet Singh
Dr Jaspreet Singh's research focuses on characterising food crops, like cereals and potatoes as part of work in developing new, custom food products.
Job
Jaspreet leads several research projects at the Riddet Institute. He has recently characterised taewa (Māori potatoes) and kamokamo (Māori pumpkin). He found that taewa have high levels of protein, essential amino acids and antioxidants. Using this knowledge, he has looked at developing new food products from taewa, like crispy snacks and chef-ready potatoes.
Developing taewa snacks
Taewa snacks are made from taewa flour using an extrusion process. The snacks are lightweight, colourful and have a strong New Zealand identity, which makes them an ideal in-flight snack for an airline like Air New Zealand. Dr Jaspreet Singh explains how scientists at Riddet Institute in Palmerston North have developed crispy expanded snacks from taewa.
Find out more about the development of Taewa (Māori potatoes).
Starches from cereals and potatoes are important raw materials for the food industry and other industries. Jaspreet examines starch spherulites (tiny crystals formed during heating and rapid cooling of starch) by using techniques like electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and thermal analysis.
Collaboration is a key part of Jaspreet’s research. He works with food chemists, engineers, nutritionists and the food industry. His research helps develop new processing technologies, healthier food products and can solve food processing problems.
Food products are an exciting area with lots of new, interesting and unsolved problems.
Career pathway
Jaspreet joined a research team at Massey University in 2004. He now leads several research projects at the Riddet Institute and supervises graduate, post-graduate and visiting students.
Jaspreet has travelled a lot with his job. Before joining the Riddet Institute, he worked as a post-doctoral researcher at Kansas State University in the United States and the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) in France. Jaspreet’s PhD helped the food industry make better use of cereals and vegetables during food processing.
It is important to share your research with others, and Jaspreet has published research papers in international journals, written book chapters and presented his work at international conferences. Also, Jaspreet edited a 600-page book entitled Advances in Potato Chemistry and Technology, which was published by Elsevier/Academic Press, USA.
In 2006, Jaspreet was presented with a College Research Award – Early Career from Massey University in recognition of his research.
Personal interests
Jaspreet enjoys spending time with his wife, listening to classical music, walking, reading and understanding different cultures, and visiting museums and art galleries.
This article is based on information current in 2009 and 2018.
Developing taewa snacks
Taewa snacks are made from taewa flour using an extrusion process. The snacks are lightweight, colourful and have a strong New Zealand identity, which makes them an ideal in-flight snack for an airline like Air New Zealand. Dr Jaspreet Singh explains how scientists at Riddet Institute in Palmerston North have developed crispy expanded snacks from taewa.
