Thai Girl Studies Food Technology

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30438, 12 May 1964, Page 2

Thai Girl Studies Food Technology

How to make use of food that is now wasted in Thailand is one of the country’s economic problems, according to a Thai Colombo Plan student, now studying food technology at Massey College. She is Miss Lavanaya Sawalaksana, who is particularly interested in processing surplus foods for export.

“Pineapples, bananas and: other tropical fruits, for instance, are cheap and very! plentiful at home, but they: are very expensive here,” she, said. “At home they don’t' know how to make use of I what is not consumed. Very; little, if any is canned. “Fruit canning, if developed; could be a profitable export: trade. 1 understand representatives of the New Zealand and Thai governments have already talked about it,” she said. Miss Sawalaksana. who is known as “Kai” to her friends lin New Zealand, expects to spend her next university vacation studying methods in a North Island canning factory. When she returns to Thailand, she will probably teach food technology at the UniIversity of Agriculture in I Bangkok, from which she ! holds a diploma. Maori Dances I “Kai” Sawalaksana did a special university course in Thai clasical music in Bangkok and has become particularly interested in Maori singing and dancing. “Some of my Maori girl friends have taught me their dances. They are much less difficult than Thai classical dancing, which takes many years to learn,” she said.

Yesterday she sang at a meeting of the Gold Star Mothers’ Club.

Champion of a badminton club in Bangkok, Miss Sawalaksana plays for the Massey College team and has been invited to take part in badminton championships to be held in Christchurch later this month.

Some years ago “Kai” Sawalaksana belonged to a Bangkok youth club where Miss Chirabha Onruang was a committee member and later club leader. Miss Onruang, now on a Neimen Fellowship at Harvard University, was a member of the women's department of “The Press” for a short time in 1958.

“I knew Miss Onruang well and admired her very much,” said Miss Sawalaksana.