Swathi Nallan – Newsletter management

Swathi is a Product Development Scientist at Alginor ASA, Norway, focusing on sustainable kelp products for the agro-food industry since January 2023. She has been a Post-Doc at University of Tuscia, Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-food and Forest systems (DIBAF), and worked with cross-functional teams for developing smart solutions using Artificial Intelligence for food fraud and quality analysis in fruits, vegetables and high-value products like coffee and chestnuts. She has actively contributed also to development of innovative dried and formulated organic products based on value-added products obtained from under-utilized and local crops within various regional, national and EU projects. Swathi earned her PhD in Agricultural, Environmental, and Food Science and Technology from the University of Bologna in 2019, specializing in edible packaging and coatings to reduce losses and maintain bakery product quality during storage.

Cinzia Mannozzi – Social media management

Cinzia Mannozzi is a Researcher at the University of Camerino, School of Pharmacy. She received a PhD degree in Agricultural, Environmental and Food Science and Technology from the University of Bologna in 2019. Her PhD research project dealt with the identification and development of innovative technologies for transformation/processing (e.g. pulsed electric field, ohmic heating, vacuum impregnation, high pressure of homogenization) and packaging (edible coatings) of different types of plant-based products in order to maintain and/or increase their quality and stability. In 2023, she started her position as a researcher working on the VITALITY project, researching and studying waste and by-products as valuable sources of active molecules to develop and produce functional foods. Besides that, she is continuing to investigate the application of various non-thermal technologies with the objective of ensuring the quality and safety of foods and beverages.

Sophie Kendler – Membership Management & Communication

Sophie Kendler is a researcher at SINTEF Ocean in Trondheim within Food Technology. She completed her PhD in Food Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Department of Biotechnology and Food Science in December 2023, and holds a master’s degree in Food Technology and Nutrition from the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria. Her research focuses on sustainable and innovative solutions to accelerate the green shift in the food system. This includes up-cycling side-streams and utilizing new resources in the food industry. Her background lies within food chemistry and technology, bioprocessing, with a special interest in bioactive peptides and protein valorization. Sophie is motivated to find sustainable solutions for better resource utilization to ensure a balance between the environment, society, and economy and to simultaneously tackle human health-related challenges.

Lukas Luggin - Event & Seminar Manager 

Lukas Luggin is a food technologist, currently working in the innovation and energy department of the Südtiroler Bauernbund, the farmers association in South Tyrol (Italy). There, Lukas is mainly contributing his expertise to the EIP-Agri Operational Group “INNOProdukte”. The project aims to support farmers by promoting product and processing innovation of regional raw materials such as vegetables, fruit, herbs, and dairy, in order to sustain and increase the economic viability of mountain farming. Lukas has completed his Masters in Food Innovation and Product Design (FIPDes) in 2020. The FIPDes program is an Erasmus Mundus joint Master’s degree, which involves a consortium of 4 different universities: AgroParisTech (France), Technological University of Dublin (Ireland), University of Naples Federico II (Italy), and Lund University (Sweden). The program aims to address the challenges in the sector of food innovation along with product design and packaging.

Joseph Dumpler – Young EFFoST Day contact person

Joseph Dumpler is a senior researcher in the Sustainable Food Processing Group at ETH Zurich. He studied Food and Bioprocess Engineering at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Weihenstephan, where he received his PhD in Dairy Science and Technology, focusing on ultra-high temperature treatment of concentrated skim milk as a sustainable alternative to traditional milk powder production. After two years in the dairy industry, Joseph joined the Department of Food Science at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, where he worked on advanced membrane filtration technologies and microwave vacuum drying of dairy products. At ETH Zurich, his research centers on plant protein extraction from food processing byproducts using Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents (NADES), aiming to reduce hidden food losses and promote plant-based protein as a sustainable alternative to animal protein. Moreover, he teaches sustainable food processing technologies and food process engineering.

Magdalena Trusińska – EYE Mentorship contact person

Magdalena Trusinska is a PhD student at Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW, Department of Food Engineering and Process Management, Institute of Food Sciences. She received her master’s degree in the field of food technology and nutrition from SGGW in 2023. Her PhD thesis is related to investigating the potential of protein-pectin complexes to improve the functional properties of 3D printing inks. Next to that, Magdalena has a research background in non-thermal processing of fruits and development of plant-based analogues to products of animal origin using 3D printing. She has also professional experience in applications of plant protein for various foods gained in a start-up. In 2023, has been awarded EFFoST Student of the Year Award - Popular vote and has taken part as a mentee in the 1st round of the EYE Mentorship Programme.

Organisation Young EFFoST Day 2024

Tessa Tuytschaever is a PhD student at Ghent university, research group VEG-i-TEC. Her research focusses on Listeria monocytogenes persistence in the food business industry. During her work she focuses on the biofilm formation of Listeria monocytogenes, one of the persistence mechanisms she described in an extensive review. With a case study in a vegetable/potato processing company, she demonstrated the importance of combining environmental sampling with whole genome sequencing to determine the persistence of Listeria monocytogenes, the efficiency of the C&D procedure, high-risk areas and to confirm transmission routes. Besides her PhD, she also assists in teaching activities with one of her teaching topics being quality management systems in the agri-food chain, particularly HACCP, this both in Belgium and at the Global Campus of Ghent University in Incheon, South-Korea. 

Ankita Mukherjee is a doctoral researcher at KU Leuven, Belgium. Her research is focused on the improvement of structure-forming properties of alternative proteins using enzymatic crosslinking. Moreover, she is also investigating the in vitro digestibility of these structured proteins. Ankita works at three research groups at KU Leuven: Laboratory of Food Technology, research group of Meat Technology and Science of Protein-rich foods and laboratory of Enzyme Fermentation and Brewing technology. Ankita’s work is supervised by Prof. Tara Grauwet and Prof. Ilse Fraeye, and co-supervised by Prof. Florian Weiland and Prof. Ilse Van De Voorde. 

Quinten Masijn is a PhD candidate at KU Leuven, at MTSP in the department of Microbial and Molecular Systems. After obtaining his master's degree in Industrial Engineering at KU Leuven, he gained experience as a process engineer at a consulting firm and as a R&D member and team leader in a Belgian food company. However, he remained triggered by more fundamental research and thus started his PhD in 2020. His research, funded by Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO), investigates structure build-up of emulsified meat analogues and focuses on the impact of hydrothermal treatment on gel and emulsification properties of native plant proteins in these systems. Better understanding the link between process technology and techno-functionality of structure-forming ingredients, and being able to share new insights in this matter, is what drives him most. 

Sofie Schryvers is a PhD researcher at Ghent University. She graduated in 2021 from the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering with a Master of Science in Bioscience Engineering: Food Science and Nutrition. Her research focuses on risk assessment of chemical hazards in plant-based foods. For the past two years she has been working on a research project funded by the Belgian public health service, which entailed a risk assessment of quinolizidine alkaloids and phomopsins in lupins and lupin-containing foods for the Belgian population. The upcoming years she will continue her work on the protein transition and investigate the potential chemical food safety and nutritional risks related to the transition to alternative proteins. Besides this, she is involved in a project in which a modelling approach will be designed to detect the fraudulent use of nicotinic acid and nicotinic amide in meat preparations and meat products. She is the organizer of an annual debate named ‘Food4Thought’, which brings together all food-related students at her campus, to discuss various topics related to the food system.