April 6, 2026
JAKARTA – On a quiet afternoon in 2011 in Osaka, West Japan, far from the bustle of Indonesia’s traditional markets, biotechnologist Sastia Prama Putri found herself staring at a display of imported tropical fruits.
The colors were familiar, their smells almost nostalgic. Yet something was missing. The bananas, mangoes and pineapples came not from Indonesia but from the Philippines and Thailand.
For Sastia, an alumna of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in West Java who at that time had spent seven years in Japan, the moment was both ordinary and unsettling. How could a country famed for its mega biodiversity be invisible in one of Asia’s most sophisticated food markets?
“We often boast about Indonesia’s extraordinary natural wealth but abroad, or at least in Japan, people simply aren’t aware of it. Our products seem to be local heroes that can’t quite break out of the domestic market,” she said.
That quiet realization would reshape her path as a scientific researcher.
Sastia did not begin her career in food. She arrived in Japan in 2004 as a UNESCO trainee and later completed her master’s and doctoral degrees on a Japanese government scholarship. Her early work focused on metabolic engineering for renewable energy, an area driven by the urgency of a potential fuel crisis.
Since 2011, she has spent years engineering microbes to produce biofuels as part of a joint research project between Japan and the United States. Along the way, she developed deep expertise in metabolomics, an emerging field that involves comprehensive profiling of metabolites in biological specimens, as defined by the US National Institutes of Health.
It was this very area of study that would lead her back to food.
Standing before that fruit display, Sastia saw a new possibility. The same metabolomic approach used to map biochemical pathways in energy research could be applied to something more familiar yet no less complex: the taste, aroma and health benefits of food.
She thus shifted her focus to building scientific data on Indonesian food products.
“We have extraordinary food biodiversity, but it needs the backing of the latest science. The key is data-driven: We need solid scientific data so people overseas can recognize their value,” she said.
Natural processor: A civet perches on an Arabica coffee plant on Feb. 7, 2011, at a plantation that specializes in producing kopi luwak (civet coffee) in Bangli district, Bali. (AFP/Sonny Tumbelaka)
Driven by curiosity
Her pivot began with one of Indonesia’s most talked-about products, kopi luwak, or civet coffee.
Produced from beans digested and excreted by the Asian palm civet, the specialty coffee product enjoyed a global surge in popularity in 2011. At the same time, the market was rife with counterfeit products and lacked reliable authentication standards.
Sastia was a postdoctoral researcher at the time and when she proposed a study on kopi luwak, the idea drew an amused reaction from her mentor Eiichiro Fukusaki, a biotechnology professor specializing in metabolomics at the University of Osaka (UOsaka).
“I asked my mentor for permission to research kopi luwak, and he laughed. ‘Ha, ha, poop coffee? That’s funny. You want to study animal droppings?’” Sastia recalled him saying.
“But I told him, ‘Sensei [teacher], this is the most expensive coffee in the world. If we can authenticate it, it will be interesting.'”
Her persistence paid off. With Fukusaki’s support, Sastia collaborated with fellow UOsaka researcher Udi Jumhawan and the Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Institute in Jember, East Java.
Their study successfully identified a specific authentication marker, offering a scientific benchmark to distinguish genuine civet coffee from imitation products. The breakthrough not only addressed a market problem but also introduced metabolomics to a broader audience.
“People finally understood what metabolomics was after the kopi luwak research gained public attention,” Sastia said.
Soy galore: Two types of raw tempeh made by Tokiwa Foods Inc., priced at around 300 yen (US$2) each, appear in this undated handout photo. (Courtesy of Tokiwa/Courtesy of Tokiwa)
Research-industry link
The kopi luwak study opened new doors for Sastia, who went on to lead her own research project, a notable step for a scientist early in their career, and expanded her work to other Indonesian foods.
Her research portfolio now includes sago, mangosteen, chocolate, pineapple, a wild plantain variety known as pisang klutuk wulung (Musa balbisiana Colla), terasi (shrimp paste) and tempeh. Each product is examined not just as food but also as a complex chemical signature waiting to be decoded.
One of her studies has found its way into industry. Working with South Jakarta-based chocolate producer Pipiltin Cocoa, Sastia’s team applied metabolomic analysis to Indonesian cacao varieties. Their research discovered that cacao beans from certain regions contained a distinct compound linked to cardiovascular health.
At a time when global consumers are increasingly moving away from fortified and highly processed foods, this finding presents a compelling alternative: health benefits that are naturally embedded in raw ingredients.
“Our research shows that Indonesian cocoa naturally contains this certain compound. The next step is optimizing production from the farmers’ level to factory processing to ensure [that] those characteristics are preserved,” Sastia said.
It is a vision that connects farmers, scientists and manufacturers in a single value chain guided by solid data, each dataset strengthening the credibility of Indonesian products toward entering supermarkets abroad.
Today, Sastia holds a dual role as a visiting professor at her alma mater ITB and a assistant professor at UOsaka. Beyond her own research, she plays a quiet but crucial role as a bridge between two academic ecosystems.
Through collaborative programs, she enables Indonesian scholars to access advanced analytical equipment in Osaka, facilities that are often limited at home. She also helps navigate structural contrasts in the two countries’ research environments.
For example, she observed that Japan’s multiyear funding schemes and established grant cycles allowed researchers to plan with clarity. In contrast, shifting timelines and administrative adjustments in the Indonesian system could complicate even the preparatory stages of research.
Through these collaborations, Sastia shares infrastructure while also introducing a more structured approach to research design and execution.