Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine

今日、世界は持続可能性へと向かっており、食品業界は医薬品ではなく、日常的に消費される治療用食品を供給するという課題に直面しています。農産物は本来、治療の可能性を秘めた機能性化合物の供給源であるが、そのほとんどは収穫後の処理や加工中に失われてしまいます。そこで私は、農産物の既存のポストハーベスト慣行と製造工程が、本来の機能性成分に及ぼす影響を調査することを目的としています。その後、私は日常的な食品（ジャガイモ、米、小麦）の既存の加工法を開発または変更し、本来の機能性成分を保存または強化することを期待しています。私たちはフードバレーとかちで暮らしているので、研究材料には恵まれています。日常食の新しい調理法や改良法の研究に興味のある人は、ぜひこの研究室に参加してください。

As a human being, I see “Food” as nutrition, health, culture, social equity, economic development, quality of life and global peace. Accessibility to “proper, nutritious, safe Food” assures optimum nutrition, there by “good quality of life” that builds a robust workforce leading to development. Any agricultural produce inevitably has to undergo some sort of a processing prior to consumption, thus it might be consumed as it is or with minimal processing or as a highly processed food or an isolated portion of it. The decision to transform a certain agricultural produce to a “proper, nutritious, safe Food” depends on the inherent traits of the respective primary food and the consumer demand. In a health-conscious era, the consumer demand is shifting towards organic, fresh/minimally processed therapeutic foods. However, postharvest handling along the farm-to-table chain can significantly compromise the nutritional quality of agricultural produce and subsequently food products manufactured from them. Further, in the environmentally and economically challenged times, we are facing risks of diminished inputs for agriculture, thus we are responsible for finding new methodologies and/or modifying existing methodologies to utilize what is locally available efficiently and sustainably to deliver “proper, nutritious, safe Food”. Thus, I aspire to research on sustainable processing techniques to enhance the functional capacity of locally available agricultural produce that constitute the daily diet.

Evaluation of regional differences in physico-chemical and processing characteristics of potato cyst nematode-resistant potato cultivar-Kitahime.