Rate My Professor Patrick Silcock

Silcock's research centres on food quality, exploring consumer-defined quality in relation to sensory characteristics, manufacturing processes, food composition, and structure. He studies microbially-induced flavour generation by bacteria, yeast, and mould in fermented foods like beer and wine, and during spoilage. His work employs volatile characterisation and sensory methodologies to track flavour perception changes and contributes to food waste reduction strategies within the University of Otago's Food Waste Innovation research theme. Notable publications include 'Audible sound decreased beer fermentation time with minimal effects on the abundance of volatile organic compound production' (Food Research International, 2025), 'The use of proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry (PTR-ToF-MS) to determine the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by different lactic acid bacterial strains growing in defined media' (Applied Microbiology, 2025), 'Emerging evidence on the potential of PTR-MS as rapid, direct and high-sensitivity sensors to promote innovation in the fermented beverages sector' (International Journal of Food Science & Technology, 2024), and highly cited papers such as 'Bacillus Spores in the Food Industry: A Review on Resistance and Response to Novel Inactivation Technologies' (Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 2016) and 'Effect of extraction method on functional properties of flaxseed protein concentrates' (Food Chemistry, 2017). His 148 publications have accumulated over 3,700 citations.