Food Technology Institute staff inspect equipment used to process the many delicious creations dreamed up by the Scientific Research Council (SRC) each year. - ContributedBy Trudy Simpson,
Staff Reporter
FEW PEOPLE get to live their dream jobs, but Maurice Lewis is one of the lucky ones.
His face glows as he talks about new food innovations whipped up by the Scientific Research Council (SRC) through its Food Technology Institute, which he currently heads.
Like a proud papa, Mr. Lewis waxes about the mouth-watering delights being offered, and in a recent interview reached out to touch his "children" which were displayed in all their glory in his pristine processing plant at Hope Zoo on Hope Road, St. Andrew.
The list is extensive and innovative, to say the least. Who would've thought that mushrooms could ever be made into a jam and that jackfruit could be squeezed into a syrup? Mr. Lewis and his food scientists did. They've also dreamed up other concoctions like papaya, plantain and pumpkin flour; breadfruit chips; bammy biscuit; soursop and lime marmalade; and canned callaloo in brine.
Ways of using local fruits, vegetables and ground provisions are conceived during frequent brainstorming sessions with Mr. Lewis and the SRC team.
"The aim is to develop value-added products from local produce (so) we make products using most of the local material. We use fresh produce and process it to form other products and juices," he explained.
Smiling boyishly he, along with Michael Johnston, General Manager of the SRC marketing firm, Marketech Limited, add that the items can be used as pastry fillers, jams, jellies, toppings and, they noted, consumers are bowled over when they combine these goods with other local produce to make new varieties of juices, snacks and delicacies.
These untraditional creations, while tantalising the tastebuds and teasing the mind with the endless possibilities, also tender help to a troubled agricultural sector. Sorrel farmers, for instance, are reaping some benefit as the SRC team labours to make sorrel a year round commodity instead of a holiday affair.
There's evidence they're succeeding. Sorrel is one of the most promising offsprings of the SRC lab to date. There are now 50 different ways to have your sorrel. There's sorrel jam/jelly, chutney, liqueur, mango sorrel, guava sorrel squash, as well as sauces and salad dressings made from the red sepals.
The Europeans are developing a hankering for the chutney and over the last four years sorrel has taken a number of food awards for its heavenly creations from the folks at SRC. All this comes from a plant traditionally dried to make a drink at Christmas and then discarded.
The SRC has had other sweet -- though quietly kept -- successes. Devon House I scream (ice cream) was once a baby, nurtured in its lab. The agency married it, like most of its other prodigies, to commercial interests. The union has been fruitful as the ice cream has grown into a sought after commodity.
Additionally, Jamaicans know many of its famous brothers and sisters which are marketed as jerk sauces and seasonings made from pimento and scotch bonnet pepper, among other things.
The SRC, a kind of Jack-of-all-trades, also cures and smokes meat, carries out training courses in processing and for a small fee, helps Jamaicans to develop, label and market their own creations or add new product lines. No wonder Mr. Lewis and the SRC staff are such proud, if humble, parents.
