Summary

The jackfruit industry has been largely stagnated for the last decade. Yet on a per hectare basis, jackfruit produces around eight times more edible food than traditional beef products. There are two key impediments to growth:
(1) the availability of high-quality clonal planting material which is necessary for improved and consistent production, and
(2) how the fruit is currently being offered to the market and the effect this has on consumer purchasing behaviours.
This project aims to address the second impediment by reducing these barriers by offering processed value-added products which are convenient, appropriately portioned and remove the knowledge barrier of how to use and prepare the fruit. Jackfruit is currently sold whole or in large chunks, which is acceptable for those that are familiar with the fruit but represents a major barrier for new consumers. Globally, there is increasing demand for plant-based products, particularly in western cultures. This is primarily driven by environmental and social reasons and jackfruit fits perfectly into this movement, particularly as a meat substitute. This project aims to leverage off this movement to drive demand for jackfruit products by developing minimally processed fresh products and cooked and flavoured ready-to-eat products. We will achieve this by bringing together an expert team in jackfruit agronomy (NT DPIR), new product development (Monash University) and sensory testing (e.g. discussions commenced with Woolworths). It is anticipated that if this impediment is removed, through improved offerings of both fresh and processed products, then demand for jackfruit will increase fostering expansion of the industry.

Program

New and Emerging Industries

Research Organisation

Northern Territory Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade

Objective Summary

1. Identify desirable physical and chemical characteristics of jackfruit for different applications/products.
2. Develop a successful system for processing and presenting jackfruit in retail stores to remove consumer barriers to purchase.
3. Identify and develop products which can be developed to align with both existing fruit characteristics and consumer demand.
4. Determine whether clonal selections have superior processing characteristics when compared to existing genetically diverse seedling-based orchards.
5. Evaluate how receptive consumers are to the products developed.
The project will develop three (3) new minimally processed ready-to-eat products and five (5) new cooked flavoured products. These products will be independently evaluated by a sensor testing panel.