Madhuri Pawar

1. Product Development: Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including food scientists, chefs, and marketing professionals, to conceptualize, design, and develop new food products from ideation to commercialization.

2. Recipe Formulation: Develop and optimize formulations for food products, considering factors such as taste, texture, appearance, nutritional content, shelf-life, and cost-effectiveness.

3. Ingredient Sourcing and Evaluation: Source and evaluate raw materials and ingredients (e:g India-mart) for use in food products, ensuring they meet quality standards, regulatory requirements, and sustainability criteria.

4. Sensory Evaluation: Conduct sensory evaluations and consumer testing to assess the taste, aroma, texture, and overall acceptability of food products, incorporating feedback into product development.

5. Process Optimization: Optimize food processing methods and techniques to improve product quality, consistency, efficiency, and scalability while maintaining safety and regulatory compliance.

6. Quality Assurance and Control: Establish quality specifications and standards for raw materials, intermediates, and finished products. Implement quality control measures, including testing and analysis, to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and internal quality standards.

7. Food Safety and Regulatory Compliance: Stay abreast of food safety regulations, industry standards, and best practices. Ensure that food products comply with applicable regulations, labeling requirements, and food safety protocols.

8. Research and Innovation: Stay informed about emerging trends, technologies, and ingredients in the food industry. Conduct research and experimentation to explore innovative approaches and solutions for product development and improvement.

9. Documentation and Reporting: Maintain accurate records of experiments, formulations, test results, and other relevant data. Prepare reports, presentations, and documentation for internal stakeholders, regulatory agencies, and customers as needed.

10. Continuous Improvement: Participate in continuous improvement initiatives to enhance processes, technologies, and products. Identify areas for optimization, innovation, and cost reduction while maintaining product quality and safety.

Project Title: Screening, isolation, purification, and characterization of microbial pigment from haloalkaliphilic soil and its biological application(s).

Project Activities:

Isolated brown color pigment producing bacterium from genus actinomyces: A haloalkaliphilic soil sample was collected by a colleague from Lonar Lake, Maharashtra, India. This saline soda lake was formed around 52,000 years ago when a meteorite collision created a crater that later filled with water. The soil sample was tested for actinomycetes using various selective media. Strains producing brown coloration were selected and streaked onto fresh plates to obtain cultures. The isolated bacterium was identified as belonging to the genus actinomycetes through different biochemical and molecular techniques. From these, I chose to study five different organisms producing colors ranging from light yellow-red to brown.

Characterization of pigment produced by spectroscopy, IR, TLC, etc.: To determine if the obtained brown pigment isolated from actinomycetes was melanin, I performed characterization techniques by studying its spectrophotometric range, absorption peak, and Rf value, comparing them with a standard pigment.

Purification of pigment by liquid-liquid extraction: I conducted an initial purification study using liquid-liquid extraction methods with various polar and non-polar solvents to determine which solvent yields the highest level of pigment purification.

Scaling up for pigment using OVAT approach: During the scaling-up process, I experimented with different temperatures for culturing, as well as varying the rotation speed per minute while keeping other parameters constant. Additionally, I tested various selective media to determine which one yielded the maximum pigment production.

I intended to conduct a molecular study of the isolated melanin pigment, achieve its complete purification, and explore its biological applications in various industries such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and agriculture. However, due to personal reasons, I was unable to complete this work.

During this project of PhD, I also taught an MSc theory course in life sciences and guided one MSc dissertation.