Dr Skelte Anema is a quiet scientist who hates media attention. No socks and sandals are in sight, but there is a white coat and safety glasses.
Anema says he is a typical introverted scientist who likes to get into the laboratory.
However, spending all day in an office holds no allure for the principal research scientist at Fonterra Research and Development Centre.
His work lies in milk, and particularly their proteins.
This is not the exact science he was used to as an inorganic chemist when he started.
But that all changed 26 years ago, when he and his wife came back after travelling the world, after earning their doctorate degrees.
In spite of being a chemist who had never worked with dairy the then team leader, Mike Boland took a punt on him.
«When I first started I found it hard to work with food,» recalls Anema. «Chemistry was so exact before. But every milk sample is different. It is organic.»
He says it is the coagulation of proteins that form the thickness of yoghurt, or cheese.
«If we want a softer cheese, or to make yoghurt thicker we change the way the proteins interact. We might want a cheese to melt on a pizza. But cheese in a sausage not to run out and melt. It is all about milk proteins.»
Anema initially worked on ultra high temperature – often referred to as UHT – milk. That’s the milk that lasts on the shelf for up to a year.
«But people want it to look like milk, taste and behave like milk. Not become coagulated. When it does, it is not sour, but lumpy and we want it to stay liquid.»
New Zealand sells most of its milk overseas as milk powder.
It can then be re-constituted as UHT, or liquid milk or made into cheese or yoghurt.
Anema says selling milk as powder works for New Zealand as milk is 85 per cent water, and shipping water doesn’t always make economic sense. So it is dried in New Zealand before export.
But value-added milk products are likely to continue their rise, he says.
«That means we’ll keep moving away from commodities like dried milk powder and export more expensive products such as fresh and long-life liquid milk and cream.»
He says in 26 years the research environment has changed.
When he started for the Dairy Research Institute (DRI) there was one computer available for his team and the researchers had to write down their name to book a time in which they could use it.
Now everything is computerised.
Anema approaches a machine that checks 10 samples for milk proteins in half an hour and spits them out to a computer screen. To check a single sample used to take three days.
The scientist still plays a strong role in good science though. Anema provides the example of a Netherlands scientist who used very simple instruments and techniques to find out about some milk proteins.
«It is not just the equipment you have but also how you use them that is important.»
His work on milk, and milk proteins in particular, has been used by many in the dairy industry, daily.
«I had done research on milk protein interactions in processed milk for decades without always realising how important the findings would be for other dairy products.
«I published huge numbers of papers 15-20 years ago looking at the way the proteins in milk interacted, and these interactions have since been found to be important in the stability of milk products during storage.»
He says that is often the way research works.
«You don’t always find out the impact for decades. Now I think I’ve found out what the root cause of sedimentation and gelation of milk is, although it will take time and more research to completely control it.»
That’s the lumpiness in milk.
«Milk is actually a really complicated system. For example, can we make the proteins interact in a way so that we can make a yoghurt that is thinner or thicker? Can we change protein interactions to make cream whip better?»
Being in the laboratory cranks his handle.
«It has been my passion to be a scientist since I was a child. I love finding out about stuff.
«You spend so many hours at work. If you’re lucky like me, you love your work. They say you get paid to do a hobby.»
That inquisitiveness has held him in good stead.
Anema says he goes in to check on experiments even on days off. He wants to find out how they are going.
This has been recognised with named as a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.
He is chuffed at the accolade.
Anema is the third person from the Fonterra Research Centre in 80 years to receive the honour ans the first in 25 years to be given the fellowship.
He says two existing fellows put his name forward.
«It was on how much a person had published. But I think they took into account the commercial impact of my research as well.»
Anema says names stay in the pool for five years.
The fellowships usually go to academics or those from Crown Research Institutes. After three years in the pool, he won a fellowship.
«I have worked here for 26 years and people tell me I am a good scientist. But this is independent recognition and that’s very important.»
Further honours have gone to Fonterra Research and Development Centre’s chief science and technology officer Dr Jeremy Hill. Hill has been made an honorary member of the International Dairy Federation (IDF).
He is the the second New Zealander to receive this award in the federation’s 113 year history.
«I am indeed honoured to be recognised in such a way by the global dairy sector,» says Hill. «I started this presidency by saying that such was the importance of IDF that if it did not exist, the dairy sector would need to create something like it.»
«I have been delighted with the progress IDF has made and the value we have been able to create, for the dairy sector and its stakeholders, including our important role in proving the highest quality nutrition to consumers.»
Source: Stuff
Link: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/87774231/Fonterra-dairy-researcher-wins-top-award