Rate My Professor Biniam Kebede

Dr. Biniam Kebede served as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Food Science at the University of Otago. He earned his PhD in Bioscience Engineering from KU Leuven in Belgium, an MSc in Food Technology from Ghent University in Belgium, and a BSc in Food and Biochemical Technology from Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia. After completing postdoctoral training, he joined the University of Otago, where he contributed significantly to teaching and research within the Division of Sciences. Kebede coordinated courses including FOSC 213 Sensory Science and 400-level Advanced Topics in Sustainable Food Processing. He also taught in FOSC 111 Food Principles, FOSC 201 Food Systems 1, FOSC 311 Food Product Development, AGRI 321 Agriculture Production and Food Security, and 400-level Advanced Topics in Flavour Science. His expertise encompasses chemistry techniques such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, novel food processing methods like high pressure and pulsed electric fields, thermal pasteurisation and sterilisation, food fingerprinting for authenticity, shelf life evaluation, kinetic modeling, and chemometrics.

Kebede's research specializations include food provenance, the effects of processing on food quality, the role of diet in gut microbiome and host metabolism, traceability and authenticity of high-value foods, impacts of food processing including fermentation on creating healthier and tastier products, diet's modulation of gut microbiota and inflammation or metabolic disorders, bioactive potential of plant-based and indigenous foods, process-structure-functionality relations, advanced bio-sensors for biochemical changes, metabolomics, foodomics, fingerprinting, big data analysis using machine learning and chemometrics, and native and indigenous foods. He was a member of the Food Waste Innovation research theme at the University of Otago. Key publications co-authored by Kebede include 'Volatile evolutions during solid-state fermentation of oats by mono- and co-cultures: A Flavoromic approach using classical chemometric and machine learning techniques' (Food Chemistry, 2026), 'Dynamic volatile insights of solid-state fermented oats with Lactiplantibacillus plantarum: A future food sustainable development strategy' (Sustainable Food Technology, 2025), 'Multi-source data fusion for soybean origin traceability: Stable isotopes, elemental composition, & volatile organic compounds' (Food Chemistry, 2025), 'Near-infrared spectroscopy combined with multivariate analysis for the geographical origin traceability of New Zealand hops' (Food & Bioprocess Technology, 2025), and 'Metabolites and free fatty acids in Japanese Black beef during wet aging' (Metabolites, 2025).