Australian bush tucker industry push to transform native foods for international consumption
Australia is famous for lamingtons and the beloved meat pie, but researchers want to transform our traditional cuisine to include native bush foods like Illawarra plums, pindan walnuts and wattleseed.
While Indigenous communities have long known the benefits of bush tucker such as bunya nuts, lemon aspen, riberries, desert limes and Cape York lilly pilly, the foods remain largely untapped for Australian's food industry.
The University of Queensland (UQ) and the Australia Research Council's Training Centre for Uniquely Australian Foods wants to change that and is working in partnership with Traditional Owners to turn the foods into branded products.
Centre director Associate Professor Yasmina Sultanbawa said the health and nutrition benefits of native foods was understudied.
