Dr Okolie Nwabueze, Director, Centre for Technology Marketing and Product Development, Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), says commercializing food research is critical to industrialization, job creation, exports and economic sustainability.
He said this during NIFST’s 12th Regional Food Science and Technology (REFoST) Technical Paper Presentation on Tuesday in Lagos.
Nwabueze said innovation achieved little value when research findings remained confined to laboratories, academic journals and institutional libraries without reaching consumers and industries.
According to him, research outputs must be transformed into products, technologies and services capable of creating wealth, solving societal challenges and driving industrial development.
“Research is only meaningful when it leaves the laboratory and gets to the market where people can benefit from it. If research remains on the shelf, its economic value is lost,” he said.
The technology marketing expert identified inadequate infrastructure, weak innovation ecosystems, poor funding and insecurity as major challenges limiting food research commercialization in Nigeria.
According to him, insecurity continues to affect agricultural production, disrupt supply chains and restrict access to raw materials required for food processing.
Speaking on export opportunities, Nwabueze said international standards are not barriers when producers complied with established quality, safety and regulatory requirements.
“We should not see global standards as obstacles. The real challenge is building the capacity and infrastructure required to consistently meet those standards,” he said.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology (NIFST), Lagos Chapter, Mrs Kikelomo Amoreoluwa, said the summit was designed to bridge the gap between research institutions and industry.
She noted that many innovative research outputs never progressed beyond academic environments in spite of possessing significant commercial and industrial development potential.
Amoreoluwa said one of the highlights of the summit was a Three-Minute Thesis Competition involving final-year students of Yaba College of Technology.
She said the students presented research projects on plant-based meat alternatives produced from soya beans and mushrooms using wheat gluten as a binder.
She said another presentation focused on optimization and quality evaluation of composite flour produced from orange-fleshed sweet potato and okra for functional food applications.
Amoreoluwa noted that the third presentation examined the effect of pre-treatment methods on the nutritional and bioactive content of African spinach and Jatropha tanjorensis (Hospital Too Far leaf) as functional ingredients in bread making.
According to her, the students’ presentations demonstrated the enormous opportunities available for transforming academic research into commercially viable food products.
“We want research outputs to move beyond libraries and laboratories into products that are packaged, labelled, marketable and globally competitive,” she said.
She identified inadequate funding, limited processing facilities and regulatory bottlenecks as major constraints confronting food innovators and emerging entrepreneurs.
The NIFST chairman advocated the establishment of innovation hubs and shared processing centres to support product development and regulatory compliance.
She added that increased government support would enable more innovators to scale their products and obtain necessary certifications for market access.
Prof. Beatrice Oganah-Ikujenyo, Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee, NIFST Lagos Chapter, said food research remained critical to addressing food insecurity and hidden hunger challenges.
She explained that innovation could transform underutilized crops and indigenous food resources into nutritious products that appeal to modern consumers.
According to her, research should not remain within academic institutions but should contribute directly to improving nutrition, public health and economic outcomes.
“Research efforts become truly impactful when they are translated into products and solutions that improve lives, strengthen food security and support economic development,” she said.
Oganah-Ikujenyo said developing a wider range of food products would increase dietary diversity while creating additional business opportunities across agricultural value chains.
She further noted that food innovation offered practical solutions for enhancing food availability, reducing losses and strengthening national food systems.(NAN)
