Food Quality and Technology

The group focused on the analysis of food composition, development of novel foods and processing technologies, control of allergens, additives, chemical contaminants, and adulterants, promoting sustainable foods with enhanced health and sensorial properties.

The group works with chromatographic and spectroscopic methods for evaluation of nutrients, bioactive compounds, and contaminants, and DNA-based methods for species identification and adulterants detection in plant and animal matrices. Other relevant areas of expertise are the improvement of dairy products, meat, and fish quality through alternative animal feeding strategies; the optimization of food processing methods based on high pressure and hyperbaric storage technology to enhance shelf-life; the study of the activity of beneficial and harmful food compounds by using human cells in vitro and tissues; tailor-make the functionality of food macromolecules; and extraction of bioactive compounds from industrial and agricultural wastes for novel applications.