First food processing lab in TU

The entrance of the food processing lab in TU.

Taylor’s University (TU) is the first university in Malaysia to have a food processing lab for the School of Bioscience (SOB) and the School of Hospitality, Tourism & Culinary Arts students to experience how the food industry works.

The specific programmes that will be using this facility are those under the Bachelor of Science (Hons) Food Science & Nutrition and Bachelor of Science (Hons) Culinology®.

“This facility, is to give the students an opportunity to see how the machineries work and how they are used in the food industry but in the industry today, most of the machineries are automated.

“The tools and machineries we have in the facility, not all automated, so, students will have to work manually, using the raw mat, the ingredients, into food on their own,” said Puvanah G. Ganesen, Lab Officer under the SOB.

The main objective is to expose the students to undergo phase one, how the product is made before it reaches phase two, when the food is cooked and served.

The key features of the food processing lab is the:

•  Bakery line: Whereby students will make pasta, cake, bread, roti canai, candy, etc.
• Meat processing line: Burger patties, various sausages, mince meat, fish ball, etc. will be made here.
• Beverage line: Ice-cream, tropical food juice, yogurt, etc.
• Instrumentation room: This is where the students research on the various factors of their food, like the pH value, the texture, the moisture, etc.
• Raw Mat room: Raw materials storage room.
• R & D kitchen: A room that only the Bachelor of Science (Hons) Culinology® students will be using to do trial and errors on the improvised recipes on actual delicacies.

Law Seng Lei, 22, Bachelor of Science (Hons) Culinology® student, after her first internship, she understands  how the production line works, like how a company processes the food, how they packaged it and how the production labour worked, etc. before the food is served.

After observing how the industry worked, this facility provided a great opportunity for her to experience and do what she saw during her internship.

23-year-old Bachelor of Science (Hons) Culinology® student, Daniel Chan Voon Hauo, concurred to what Seng Lei mentioned.
Punavah added that, there are plans on making the food processing lab as a source of revenue for the School of Bioscience, this is still being discussed.