QUT was delighted to partner with the Department of Environment and Science (DES) to host the 2022 QUT Youth Research Forum.
Cohort 1 focused on food innovations that are human friendly and carbon neutral. The impacts and new opportunities of fermented and cellular protein were explored, with industry challenges given by four industry partners: CSIRO, All G Food, Cellular Agriculture Australia, and Eden Brew.
And the winner is…
We were working to address an industry challenge from the CSIRO that there is low consumption/purchase of plant-based protein. We identified through market research that there may be trust issues coming from consumers based on the ingredients and processes used to produce these products. We felt that we could give consumers the power back, by creating an appliance so that they can grow their own plant-based protein at home, knowing exactly what is in it.Using the appliance (the Mini Myco) consumers could grow their own tempeh, and mycoprotein (the same protein Quorn is made from). There will be temperature and O2 sensors to monitor the growth, as well as a camera which, through machine learning, can detect if there has been any contamination. We had to overcome some obstacles around sterilisation, as mycoprotein is particularly susceptible to contamination. We were able to overcome this by developing a detachable sealed bowl in which the feedstock (beans and grains) could be sterilised in the microwave, after which the inoculum (fungus strain) could be introduced through an air-tight value. We have had to develop two valves as the mycoprotein inoculum is liquid, while the tempeh is powder.
The Mini Myco is operated through a mobile application that consumers can use to ‘set and forget’, however, if they’re feeling adventurous, they might like to experiment. The beauty of the Mini Myco is that it allows consumers the freedom to experiment with flavour profiles through the use of different beans and grains, as well as growing methods (variable temperatures and growing time). All of this data is collected, and the user can share their ‘recipe’ with others through the mobile application. This online community creates the ability to crowd-source methods for other consumers to try and rate. We were able to build two working prototypes to grow tempeh (the mycoprotein strain will take 9 months to arrive so we haven’t tested this yet). It was just Lauren and I on the team, however, we were always working in collaboration with the other 4 teams at QUT. We also had a day when high school students from the QUT STEM Camp came to see us and evaluate our product ideas. We outsourced the development of the mobile application as well as the building of some of the appliance hardware. Lauren designed the shell of the Mini Myco which we were then able to 3D print.
– Meating Culture
Congratulations to the teams – Enjoy the pics!
From our industry partners
As someone who is neither a biologist, food specialist (although, I am a big fan of food!), nor engineer, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to develop an engineering solution to an important future food challenge. The event really opened up possibilities for innovation and creativity, and particularly encouraged cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Each stage of the process was well structured and supported with experts, learning modules and materials to help us come up with the best pitch we could at the end of the week. I really enjoyed every aspect of this and look forward to joining more in the future! – Lauren Fell
Seeing students come together for the Youth Research Forum to solve future food challenges was a great learning experience for me. I am very excited to be mentoring a team over the next three months. I am going to support them with my scientific knowledge to develop a prototype for small-scale mycoprotein production. – Dr Marius Jessen
Thank you to our partners
This program would not have been possible without the support of our industry partners.
