Exciting new opportunity for Riddet Institute graduate

The Riddet Institute has a key role in supporting the personal and professional development of the next generation of food and nutrition scientists for positions in both academia and industry. Graduates from our Masters and PhD programmes are now employed by many of the top research organisations and food companies in New Zealand and world-wide, and many continue to engage with the Riddet Institute by sponsoring projects or collaborating on research. Mrs Nimmi Taneja is one such graduate, who has now accepted a new role at Goodman Fielder.

Nimmi was part of the Riddet Institute for over 7 years, working as a Food Technologist on a wide range of projects. She completed her Masters of Technology at the Institute as a part-time student in 2013, looking at the optimisation of fermentation conditions of probiotic bacteria to maximise cell number and stability. She was then seconded to Goodman Fielder to work on a collaborative research project jointly funded by the company and Callaghan Innovation.

Nimmi’s role in the project was to develop tangible prototypes by applying the technical inputs from Riddet Institute’s scientific team. The project has gone particularly well, and Nimmi has now accepted a permanent position within Goodman Fielder’s Research and Innovation team. Nimmi finds her new role particularly interesting because it involves identifying underlying technology gaps and scientific challenges for GF’s key platforms, and then helping to develop appropriate science and technology projects that can address these.

“Having the opportunity to be seconded to Goodman Fielder was very valuable because it gave me a chance to communicate the importance of collaboration between academic and commercial partners within the GF R&D team, and how it can contribute to identifying new opportunities and solving technological challenges delivering strategic commercial advantage.” says Nimmi.

“This is yet another example of the Riddet Institute directly contributing to the innovation process of a New Zealand food company”, says Professor Paul Moughan.

2022 © Riddet Institute