LAURA PIAZZA, PhD in Food Biotechnology, is associate professor in Food Technology at Department of Food, Nutrition and Environmental Sciences of Universit degli Studi di Milano, and appointed teacher of Food Processing for the MSc in Chemical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. She has been visiting professor at Agroparistech (FR) and at the University College of Dublin (IE). Laura is the Italian Delegate at the International Association Engineering and Food IAEF, member of the board of the Italian Association of Chemical Engineering (AIDIC) and chair of the Food Section, member of the Italian Society of Food Science and Technology, member of ISEKI Food Association and responsible for the Physical Properties group, member of Editorial Board of Food Engineering Reviews and of Journal of Agricultural Sciences. Laura has been main investigator and research manager in several project in the food area. Recently she has been chair of the COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action The application of innovative fundamental food-structure-property relationships to the design of foods for health, wellness and pleasure (2010 – 2014). She is actively involved in the Food and Feed for Wellbeing project (2015), a multidisciplinary scientific hub that promotes research in the agro-food sector and transfers its expertise to companies and stakeholders.
Expertise: Food Engineering, Applied Soft Matter Physics, Food Science and Technology
Keywords: food structure design, food product engineering, rheology
Research topics:
The centrality of the process-structure-performance relationship is emphasized as new engineering approach to food processing aimed to deliver innovation in the food production. Main topics of current research are:
- Understanding the basic physical principles behind the assembly of major food components into foods and designing of new structures;
- Stabilisation of complex multiphase real foods or new food ingredients, which are metastable when exposed to heat, shear and mass transfer in real food manufacturing processes.
Ongoing researches:
- gelled biopolymers/emulsions systems intended for micro- and nano-encapsulation of food bioactives and their controlled release;
- new ingredients from wasted green vegetables, obtained by mild fractionation technology;
- improvement of ingredient formulation /matrix functionality in foods and packaging by using Nano Crystalline Cellulose, produced from agro/food waste;
- insect-derived materials: rheological approach to the evaluation of technological performances under shear;
- research partnership with Politecnico of Milano, Chemistry, Material and Chemical Engineering Department “Giulio Natta” (CMIC) on the modeling and simulation of food matrices undergoing thermal treatment, with the aim of coupling heat and mass transfer to chemical reactions in food.
Current teaching activity at Universit degli Studi di Milano (Degrees in Food Science and Technology and Herbal Science and Technology):
- Food Formulation Technology;
- Properties and applications of food biopolymers;
- Food Science and Technology.
Current teaching activity at Politecnico di Milano for the MSc in Chemical Engineering:
- Processes of Food Industry.