Research

Cereal and Food Sciences deals with the transformation of raw agricultural goods into food products acceptable for human consumption.

This field of applied science involves studying diverse scientific disciplines such as chemistry, engineering, microbiology, biochemistry, toxicology, and management as they relate to food, and effectively applying the industrial and practical aspects to product development, food processing, preservation, and marketing.

Food scientists study food to improve existing products or create new ones. They also analyze the structure and composition of food and the changes that occur during processing and storage.

They determine how processing affects flavor, texture, appearance, and nutritional value, exploring new ways to protect and stabilize food through packaging.

The food industry is the largest industry in the world. The challenges of food scientists are to provide wholesome, tasty, and nutritious foods for the consumer.

Research areas

• Chemistry, processing, product development, and nutritional quality of legumes (soybeans, dry edible beans, peas, and lentils) and other selected northern vegetable crops such as sunflower (pectin and proteins), sugarbeets, and carrots.

• Chemical and physical modification of whey protein using enzymes and microorganisms to enhance whey protein functionality in baked cereal products.

• Natural and Synthetic antioxidants: structure modification and mechanistic investigation.

• Improving the flavor and color chemistry of cereal based items processed in a microwave. Investigation of physiochemical structure of breads processed by microwaves.

• Structure-function relationships of wheat proteins, carbohydrates, enzymes, and lipids.