Dr Sunil Panchal

Project Leader

Dr Sunil Panchal completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Nagpur University, India. He completed Doctor of Philosophy in Biomedical Science at the University of Southern Queensland. His research has focused on characterisation of potential health benefits associated with food components including anthocyanins. His research involved studies with rat models of diet-induced obesity and inflammatory bowel disease. He has collaborated with food industries and received prestigious fellowship and research funding from Queensland Government for these projects. He joined Western Sydney University as a Lecturer in Nutrition and Food Science in 2020. His current research focus is valorisation of food waste and by-products for the isolation of nutraceuticals.

Project

Characterisation of capsaicinoids

Food waste is a global issue, as almost one third of food produced is lost before it is consumed (Ishangulyyev et al., 2019). Simultaneously, the resources such as water, energy, land and fuel, used in the food production supply chain are also wasted during this process. When discarded into landfill, both the plant biowaste and food waste impact the environment by the emission of greenhouse gases (Benyam et al., 2018). Fruits and vegetables contribute only 20% to the total food purchased, but they are responsible for half of the food waste (AUSVEG, 2013).