Dr. Priya Kathirvel

Part-Time Professor, Applied Human Nutrition

With her background in food science and research on food chemistry and analysis, Dr. Priya Kathirvel, a professor in the department of Applied Human Nutrition, wants to ensure Canadian consumers can make healthier choices at the grocery store.

Pursuing her interest in creating new gluten-free and vegan products, Dr. Kathirvel has investigated using pulses to make foods gluten free by testing ways to ensure appealing flavour, taste, and texture remain while creating snack foods without traditional flour.

“Not all flours are created equal, and we wanted to take that research to the next level with grant-funded studies,” said Dr. Kathirvel. Studies conducted in the Appetite Lab demonstrated that lentil and navy bean flours with larger particle sizes released less glucose during in vitro digestion compared to flours with smaller particle sizes—a trend that remained consistent following both moist-heat and dry-heat processing. In a separate study involving healthy young adults, pizza formulated with lentil flour produced a significantly lower glycemic response compared to pizza made with wheat flour of similar particle size, highlighting the key role of flour composition in modulating glycemic outcomes.

Dr. Kathirvel and her students also worked on a gluten-free beverage for a local company that makes only gluten-free products, and for another partner, they created gluten-free pastry mixes and pie shells. Dr. Kathirvel and her team were instrumental in developing innovative beverage prototypes using plant-based ingredients, which ultimately led to the creation of a nutritionally balanced ‘complete meal’ product tailored to meet the dietary needs of vegetarians, vegans, and individuals with specific medical dietary requirements.

“Producers need to find ways to adapt recipes for their vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free customers, and that’s where we come in,” said Dr. Kathirvel.

Other research focuses on lowering the sugar content in dairy products such as chocolate milk and yogurt, and the introduction of unfamiliar foods such as seaweed to the Nova Scotia consumer market. “It’s widely consumed in Japan, yet remains underutilized here despite our significant production,” said Dr. Priya Kathirvel.

Recently, Dr. Priya Kathirvel served as the Food Product Development Team Manager for the ‘Breakfast and Beyond’ program, leading the formulation of tasty and nutritious snacks and meals for school children. “Efforts focused on enhancing the nutritional quality of newly formulated foods by incorporating a diverse range of food ingredients, replacing conventional fats and sugar with healthier alternatives, and increasing dietary fibre content,” said Dr. Kathirvel.

After completing her PhD in 2009, Dr. Kathirvel has worked as a scientist at DSM Nutritional Products, formerly Ocean Nutrition Canada, conducting research and development in their analytical division. She has been teaching nutrition and food product development courses at Mount Saint Vincent University, first as a guest lecturer, then a part-time faculty member and now an Adjunct Professor. She has received funding from National Research Council – Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC – IRAP) and contributed to research projects supported by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Invest Nova Scotia and Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC).

 

Visit Dr. Kathirvel’s Faculty Profile