(Born 1916). Food scientist. Dr Keith Farrer, OBE, a former chief scientist with Kraft Foods, Ltd. Dr Farrer has been credited with discovering that Vegemite is actually good for you. His connection with RMIT goes back to the original course - he taught as an industry expert and served on the course advisory committee for many years. Farrer was a long time member of the Commonwealth Committee on Food Additives. He was manager of Research and Development, Kraft Foods Ltd Melbourne, 1950-74 and Chief Scientist 1976-81.
From RMIT University. “Forty Years of Food Science,” May 1997, http://www.rmit.ed … of%20food%20science/
Kraft Foods Ltd., Melbourne, Australia, research chemist, 1938-43, senior research chemist, 1944-49, manager of research and development, 1949-76, chief scientist, 1976-81; Farrer Consultants, Blackburn, Australia, principal, beginning 1981. Education: University of Melbourne, B.Sc., 1936, M.Sc., 1938, D.Sc., 1954; Latrobe University, M.A., 1977.
Member: Royal Australian Chemical Institute (Fellow; president of Victoria branch and national vice-president, both 1956-57), Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology (Fellow; president, 1969-71), Australian Academy of Technological Sciences (Fellow; foundation vice-president, 1975-82), Australian Academy of Science (member of science and industry forum, 1973-82; member of executive committee, 1979-82), Australian Defence Science and Technology Organization (member of external review committee, 1979-80), Australian Society of Dairy Technology, Royal Society of Chemistry (Fellow), Institute of Food Science and Technology (Fellow), Institute of Food Technologists (United States; emeritus member), Royal Society of Arts (Fellow), Royal Society of Victoria, Tasmanian Historical Research Association, Sciences Club, Melbourne Cricket Club.
Honors: Award of merit from Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology, 1958, for contributions to food science and technology; Officer of Order of the British Empire, 1979.
Author: A Settlement Amply Supplied: Food Technology in Nineteenth-Century Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1980; Food Additives and Contaminants: Fact Not Fancy, Melbourne University Press, 1983; (Editor) Cells in Ferment: Papers Presented to a Meeting of the Science and Industry Forum of the Australian Academy of Science, 5-7 February 1982, The Academy (Canberra, Australia), 1983; A Guide to Food Additives and Contaminants, Parthenon (Park Ridge, NJ), 1987; Australian Meat Exports to Britain in the Nineteenth Century: Technology Push and Market Pull, Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London (London, England), 1988.
Contributor of about eighty articles to scientific journals in Australia, England, and the United States.
Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2004.
“Technology in Australia 1788-1988 Chapter 2 - Food Technology,” http://www.austehc.u … .edu.au/tia/069.html