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Miranda Mirosa image Head of Department

Professor

Honorary Professor, International Business School Suzhou, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China

Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Food Science and Technology ( FNZIFST )

Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors (MInstD)

Named in Aotearoa New Zealand's TOP 50 most influential & inspiring women in food & drink - Cuisine Magazine - From New Zealand to the World

PhD (Otago), BCom Hons (Otago), BA (Otago), Certificate in International Business (Otaru, Japan)


Contact

Tel +64 2 278 7953
Email miranda.mirosa@otago.ac.nz
Location Archway West G.08

LinkedIn

About

Miranda is deeply passionate about using her role as an educator to inspire students to pursue lifelong learning and drive real-world change. As Head of the Department of Food Science, she guides the department’s strategic direction, academic programmes, and industry partnerships while fostering a collaborative, value-driven workplace culture. In the classroom, she teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, focusing on the psychology of food choice, consumer and market insights, and food system sustainability.

As a Behavioural Food Scientist, Miranda is dedicated to turning scientific insights into practical solutions for human and planetary health. Drawing on food science, agri-food marketing, psychology, management, and environmental science, her interdisciplinary work provides a credible evidence base for decision-makers in industry and government. Her research focuses primarily on the human dimensions of food safety systems and food waste reduction, leveraging organisational culture assessments, waste audits, and behavioural science to identify key risk areas and scale targeted interventions.

As Founding Director of the Food Safety Culture Lab, she leads a strategic research programme dedicated to measuring and strengthening organisational culture across the food sector.

A prime example of her work bridging academic research and industry leadership is the Community of Practice she co-established for food safety culture champions.

Miranda was also the Founding Director (2020–2026, now Key Advisor) of Food Waste Innovation (FWI), where she led an interdisciplinary research theme involving over 60 investigators nationwide focused on technical and social solutions to food waste. Serving as New Zealand’s go-to hub for food waste research, FWI facilitates collaborations across the core themes of Metrics, Innovations, and Behaviours.

Beyond her departmental responsibilities, she holds key national leadership roles driving sector-wide progress. She serves as a Strategic Team Leader for the NZ Food Safety Research Centre (NZFSSRC), representing the University of Otago in this national partnership between government, industry, and research institutions. She also plays a central role in the NZ Food Waste Champions 12.3 / The Kai Commitment Programme, a leading industry coalition working to achieve UN SDG Target 12.3, having served as Inaugural Chair (2019–2025) and continuing as a Trustee.

Miranda is current with the latest governance thinking, practices, and knowledge through formal governance professional development and training as an active chartered member of the NZ Institute of Directors. Other key personal competencies include understanding and articulating the big picture, maintaining a strategic outlook and awareness of market dynamics, and demonstrating food industry-specific knowledge.

Teaching

Programme Co-ordinator

  • BSc(Hons) in Food Science
  • PGDipSci in Food Science
  • MSc in Food Science
  • MAppSc in Food and Agriculture

Course Co-ordinator

Contributor to

Research

Research interests

Miranda's behavioural research engages knowledge from fields such as marketing and psychology. She utilises a range of quantitative and qualitative methods such as: surveys and questionnaires, panels, systematic reviews, behaviour change experiments (in-field and lab-based), projective techniques, observations, interviews, focus groups, ethnographic research, and Q methodology. Miranda specialises in conducting behavioural research in the Asia-Pacific region. Her strong network of Asia-Pacific-based research affiliates enables her to conduct in-market behavioural research in the national language. She also has expansive networks in the food industry (both NZ and global, particularly in Asia).

Miranda's projects, which provide insights and interventions for improved food system safety and sustainability, embody many types of engagement outside of academia. In recognition of her proactive engagement with key external bodies, Miranda is a past winner of the 'Outstanding Community Engagement Award', Division of Sciences. Miranda welcomes commercial research proposals and partnerships. She can help your organisation collect and apply insights from behavioural sciences to tackle a wide range of food systems challenges.

Miranda can help you with:

  • Trend-spotting
  • Deep-dives and report writing
  • Collecting insights to understand people's behaviours
  • Creating evidence-based solutions to change people's behaviours (i.e. identify the barriers to achieving a desired activity, design a behaviour change intervention or strategy to overcome the barriers, pilot the interventions/strategies before broad implementation)
  • Strategic advising on food safety culture or food system sustainability issues
  • Keynote talks, workshops and facilitation

Research projects and activities

Miranda's research falls into the following four key food areas:

Ensuring food safety and security

Reducing food waste

Ensuring food safety and security

Improving food packaging and labelling

  • Understanding the importance of smart packaging for consumer confidence, food safety and an improved supply chain
  • Challenges and opportunities for the New Zealand food industry associated with the use of recycled non-permanent materials (thermoplastics, paper and board)
  • Nutrition and upcycled labelling research

Increasing consumption of plant-based foods

Postgraduate supervision (current)

PhD students

  • Ke Wang – Using AI to improve food safety culture.
  • Elena Pierre – Food waste in the aged care sector.
  • Harsh Khatwani – Using immersive VR experiences to encourage households to adopt more sustainable food waste habits.
  • Swathi Sadanandan – Investigating the effect of interventions on food safety culture maturity.
  • Xiaochen Liu – Food safety culture in Sino-NZ companies.

Masters' students

  • Quynh Vu – Food safety culture in Vietnam
  • Chathu Thennakoon – Food safety complacency

Postgraduate supervision (past)

PhD students

  • Danielle du Plooy – Alternative Futures for NZ’s Agri-food System. 2026.
  • Jessica O'Connor – Towards a Circular Bioeconomy. 2025.
  • Stella Zhou – Chinese experiences of living a flexitarian lifestyle. 2024.
  • Grace Clare – Upcycling Rescued Food. 2024.
  • Ruijun Li (Charlene) – Food delivery apps and resulting food and plastic waste. 2023.
  • Han Yin – Country-of-Origin and Cross-border Firm Ownership in the Food Industry: A Study on Consumer Valuation in China and New Zealand. 2023.
  • Vibhuti Patel – Changing social norms around eating meat. 2023.
  • Luan Siqiao (Amy) – New Zealand Multinationals in the Food Processing Industry in China: Cross-cultural adjustment of international assignees. 2022.
  • Erin Young – Understanding the importance of smart packaging for consumer confidence, food safety and an improved supply chain. 2022.
  • Xiaohai Geng – The role of implicit methods in understanding food choices. 2020.
  • Annesha Makhal – Consumers’ perceptions of suboptimal foods. 2019.
  • Garrett Lentz – Sustainability diets. 2019.
  • Lei Cong – Chinese consumers’ perceptions of functional foods designed to help the immune system recover from the impact of air pollution. 2019.
  • Karyn Stein – Māori women’s’ involvement with the food sovereignty movement. 2018.
  • PuiYee Lee – Understanding Chinese consumers’ personal values towards New Zealand food products and the influence that these have on their food-related purchase decisions. 2015.
  • Rana Peniamina – The impact of food hypersensitivity on quality of life. 2015.

Masters' students

  • MSc. Tuamelie K F Laimani – Food waste in Tonga. 2026
  • MSc. Zahrah Hatraby– Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme. 2025.
  • MSc. Briar Mills – Food waste in university settings.  2024.
  • MSusBus. Elena Piere – A systematic literature review of food waste within aged care. 2024.
  • MA. Trixie Croad – Commercial food waste at the production end of the food supply chain. 2023.
  • Master of Sustainable Business, Kayle Baker – Feeding the Community: Diversity of Social Capital within Everybody Eats. 2022.
  • MSc, Madeleine Rowan – Sustainability as an influence on food choices made for infants. 2022.
  • MSc, Margaret Thorsen – Food waste for New Zealand fruit and vegetable growers. 2021.
  • MIntBus, Kara Ma – Fresh Food Online Shopping Repurchase Intention: The Role of Post-Purchase Customer Experience and Corporate Image. 2021.
  • MSc, Ke Wang – Understanding Consumer’s Perceptions of Novel Food Processing. 2020.
    Techniques to control Listeria.
  • MSc, Ying Yi – Digital traceability technologies in the food industry. 2019.
  • MSc, Kehinde Lawal – A study on two edible insects (Tenebrio molitor and Hermetia illucens) larvae fat. 2019.
  • MSc, Jimmy Cahayadi – The effect of different types of menu - descriptive, image-based and food toy model of portion size - on people’s food choice and food intake. 2018.
  • MSc, Sunny Liu – Determination of the best way to provide Chinese consumers information about the safety of NZ food products. 2018.
  • MSc, Kayna Lloyd – Smart food packaging for increased safety and decreased waste. 2018.
    MDiet, Niki Hartshorn – Evaluating the social impact of rescued food. 2018.
  • MSc. Francesca Goodman-Smith – Retail food waste. 2018.
  • MAppSci. Fiona Zhang – Chinese consumers’ freshness perceptions: A case study of orange juices. 2015.
  • MAppSci. Sharon Tang – Wine choice and consumer value: A means-end comparison of East Asian and Western consumers. 2014.
  • MDiet, Emily Jones – Quantifying restaurant food waste. 2016/17.
  • MDiet, Sarah Chisnall – Quantifying Cafe food waste. 2016/17
  • MDiet. Chelsea Slobbe – Foodservice operations’ potential to foster “Environmental Literacy”. 2015.
  • MA. David Reynolds – Hunger in New Zealand. 2016.
  • MDiet. Jennie Verstappen – Making Meals for an AllerGeneration: Using the systems-practice framework to understand food allergen management practices at college catering operations in NZ. 2016.
  • Apps597. Rosa Yip – A social media analysis of the ‘Clean Your Plate’ social movement in China. 2016.
  • MDiet. Hayley Horne – Evaluating the impact of a rescued food distribution programme in Dunedin, New Zealand. 2015.
  • MDiet. Josephine Greer – Exploring foodservice localisation in a university foodservice setting. 2014.
  • MDiet. Joanne Loh – The feasibility of reducing choice in residential colleges to improve the environmental impact of the food service. 2014.
  • MDiet. Jessie Ross  – Food waste in the production kitchen of an in-flight services provider in NZ. 2014.
  • MDiet. Sarah Goonan – Improving the sustainability of food waste practices in New Zealand hospitals. 2013.

Publications

Piere, E., Thorsen, M., Mirosa, M., O'Kane, P., Styles, S., & Skeaff, S. (2026). Achieving food waste reduction in aged residential care with an intervention toolkit. Waste Management Bulletin, 4(3), 100361. doi: 10.1016/j.wmb.2026.100361 Journal - Research Article

Liu, X., Bremer, P., & Mirosa, M. (2026). Cultivating safety: How Food Safety Champions translate regulatory compliance into frontline practice. Foods, 15, 2466. doi: 10.3390/foods15142466 Journal - Research Article

Piere, E., Thorsen, M., Skeaff, S., O'Kane, P., Styles, S. & Mirosa, M. (2026) Waste Less Care More: A Food Waste Reduction Toolkit for Aged Care Providers. Dunedin, New Zealand: University of Otago. 40p. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10523/50014 Other Research Output

O'Connor, J., Mirosa, M., Lucci, G., Skeaff, S., & Bremer, P. (2026). Is dairy food loss early in food supply chains an issue? Insights from a New Zealand farm and processor study. Journal of Dairy Research, 1-16. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1017/s0022029926102362 Journal - Research Article

Wang, K., Mirosa, M., Hou, Y., & Bremer, P. (2026). Measuring food safety culture: A systematic review of questionnaire dimensions and validation practices. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science & Food Safety, 25, e70472. doi: 10.1111/1541-4337.70472 Journal - Research Other

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