Tea, coffee and cocoa are important commodities providing an essential source of revenue and foreign exchange for many developing countries. Both smallholder farms and appropriately managed plantations can provide important sources of employment and contribute to national wealth.

 

NRI has a multi-disciplinary team of food technologists, biochemists, economists, engineers, pathologists, entomologists and agronomists who work on technical, economic and market aspects of beverage research. Staff are engaged in strategic and applied research to meet the needs of government departments, development agencies, non-governmental organisations and the private sector.

 

Key research areas

• processing, storage and handling technology;
• quality evaluation and impairment diagnosis (from elite cultivar selection through to identification of causes of taint in final product);
• value chain management in the tea and cocoa sector; biochemistry of flavour development;
• managing pollutants from coffee processing.

Staff

Dr John Orchard
Keith Tomlins

 

Projects

T0658 Tea processing in Malawi

V0130 Value chain management in tea and cocoa

C1303 Cyanogens in tea

Publications

Tomlins, K. I., Mashingaidze, A., Khumbanyiwa, R. E. K (1998) Effect of green leaf moisture content on storage in sacks (preliminary study), Tea Research Foundation (Central Africa) Quarterly Newsletter, No 129, 28-31 (ISSN 0040-0378).

 

Mashingaidze, A and Tomlins, K. I (1996) Quality control during the manufacture of black tea: the role of sensory evaluation, Tea Research Foundation (Central Africa) Quarterly Newsletter, No 121, 39-47.

 

Tomlins, K. I Chafikana, N. B and Khumbanyiwa, R. T. (1997) Withering: Influence of turning the leaf on the rate of moisture loss and on black tea quality, Tea Research Foundation (Central Africa) Quarterly Newsletter, No 126, 13-18

 

Owuor, P.O., Orchard, J.E. and McDowell, I. (1994). Changes in the quality parameters of clonal tea due to fermentation time. J. Sci. Food Agric. 64; 319-326.

 

Orchard, J.E., Collin H.A., Hardwick K. and Isaac S. (1994). Changes in morphology and measurement of cytokinin levels during the development of witches' brooms on cocoa. Plant Pathology 43; 65-72

 

Owuor, P.O., Orchard, J.E. and Migumo, A.M. (1992). The influence of duration and air temperature during withering on quality of clonal tea. Tea 13(1) 44-49.

 

Taylor, S.J., Baker, D.M. , Owuor, P.O., Orchard, J.E. Othieno, C. and Gay, C. (1992). A model for predicting black tea quality from the carotenoid and chlorophyll composition of fresh green tea leaf. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 58; 185-191