Instructors

Carla Alegria received a Ph.D. in Food Engineering from the University of Lisbon, in collaboration with the National Institute for Agrarian and Veterinarian Research (INIAV) and Texas A&M University, on the use of controlled abiotic stress treatments to improve the microbial, bioactive and sensorial quality and shelf-life of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables. She also holds a M.Sc. in Food Science and Engineering and a degree in Biotechnological Engineering. Presently, she is a Postdoc researcher at cE3c – Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon. Focus is on linking state-of-the-art food science technologies with applied and strategic research, developing innovative eco-friendly approaches to address tangible needs of stakeholders. Current specific interest is in establishing relationships between the Montado High Nature Value farming system and differentiated valorisation strategies for local acorn species. More specific interests can be described by the following: Fresh-cut fruits and vegetables technology; Innovative non-thermal processes (e.g. UV radiation, sonication, ozone); New product development; Recovery of bioactive/functional compounds from agro-industrial residues and unexplored raw-materials.; Authenticity and valorisation of Mediterranean food products.

THEME: Physiology and biochemistry of fresh-cut products

With a PhD in Biotechnology - Engineering and Food Sciences and a degree in Agricultural Sciences Engineering, Ana Amaro is a Post Doc researcher at the Center for Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry (CBQF) at Universidade Católica Portuguesa. Her research area is posharvest technology of fresh and / or minimally processed fruits and vegetables. She conducts R & D on process implications and preservation technologies on the nutritional, functional and sensory quality of whole and minimally processed fresh fruits and vegetables; low impact technologies to extend the shelf life of fresh fruits and vegetables; optimization of existing processes / technologies / packaging for minimally processed products and optimization of their storage conditions, namely temperature and controlled / modified atmosphere.

THEME: Impact of temperature on product quality and storage life

Francisco ARTES-HERNANDÉZ
Polytechnic University of Cartagena
SPAIN

THEME: Impact of modified atmospheres on product quality and storage

Master’s Degree in Food Science and Technology and Degree in agro-food engineering, both from the Technical University of Lisbon; she is the Head of Directorate for Nutrition, Food and Feed in the Directorate-General for Food and Veterinary, Portugal. The main key qualifications are ensure the regulation and implementation of Community policies applicable to foodstuffs and food contact materials; Participate in decision-making concerning the Community and coordinate its implementation, in areas relating to raw materials, food ingredients, food additives, flavorings and enzymes, food contaminants, general food labeling, nutrition labeling, labeling specific mandatory, nutrition and health claims, addition of vitamins and minerals and of certain other substances to foods, foodstuffs intended for particular nutritional uses, food supplements, genetically modified organisms intended for food and feed, novel foods, and food contact material; promote the development of national legislation in the food area, particularly on features / marketing standards, manufacturing processes and labeling of foodstuffs; ensure national representation in matters within their competence, in the various EU bodies and other international organizations
 

THEME:Fresh-cut regulatory issues in main EU countries

Luis CISNEROS-ZEVALLOS
Texas A&M University
USA

Giancarlo COLELLI
University of Foggia
ITALY

Master's degree in Postharvest Science and Technology, from the University of Porto - Faculty of Science; Agricultural Engineer from the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro. Assistant since 2001, Member of the Department of Ecology and Sustainable Agriculture of the Higher Agricultural School of the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu. Orient final stages of the course in the following areas: Fruticulture, Plants Propagation, Floriculture and Green Spaces and Plant physiology. Autor and co-author of several articles on the postharvest physiology of fruits and vegetables published in the books of national and international congress proceedings. Participated in several national and international projects in the field of Organic Agriculture and Fruit Growing. Areas of interest in research postharvest physiology of vegetables, fruits and flowers.

THEME: Impact of postharvest conditions on blueberry quality and nutritional value

Luís Miguel Cunha is a Food Engineer with a PhD on Biotechnology with specialization on Food Science and Technology, from ESB-UCP. He is an Associate Professor w/tenure at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto. He is an integrated researcher at GreenUPorto and collaborator at the Food Quality and Safety research group from the Associated Laboratory LAQV, REQUIMTE.
He leads a research group where they investigate what people like in food, what influences their satisfaction. As well as understanding the sensory properties of different fresh and processed foods and beverages, like taste and smell, they also evaluate consumers’ perception and how packaging and labelling influences their decisions, strongly supporting new product development and valorisation of traditional products. He has authored more than 70 articles in international refereed indexed journals (over 1 000 citations) and 15 book chapters and supervised over 70 MSc and PhD theses in Food Science and Technology and Sensory and Consumer Sciences. Also, he has wide experience as leader and researcher in academic and industrial research projects. He has a particular interest on the application of sensory evaluation for new product development and on the interfaces between sensory science, consumer science, and marketing, which led to the proposal of joint MSc and PhD degrees on Consumer Sciences and Nutrition, between the Faculty of Sciences and the Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences, the first starting in 2007 and the second in 2009.
 

THEME: Sensorial quality of fresh-cut products

António FERRANTE
University of Milan
ITALY

Antonio Ferrante is Associate Professor at University of Milan, Italy, since 2016. He graduated from the University of Pisa, Italy, in agricultural science, with 110/110 cum laude (first-class honors) in 1997. Ferrante was awarded an undergraduate scholarship from the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (SSSA), Pisa, Italy, from 1992 to 1997. He earned the Ph.D. degree at the SSSA in 2001. He got the position as Researcher at the University of Milan, from 2004 to February 2016. In 1997, Ferrante was awarded a fellowship (5 months) from the SSSA to the ATO-DLO, Wageningen, Netherlands. In 2000, Ferrante spent one year as a Visitor Researcher at the University of California, Davis, CA, USA. In 2003, he spent 2 months at the University of California San Diego, USA, at the Division of Biology. He is author of more than 200 international publications in peer-reviewed journals, 109 indexed in Scopus and 64 in WOS.

Mabel I. GIL
CEBAS-CSIC, Murcia
SPAIN

David Mota é diretor-geral da NuviFruits, empresa do Grupo Luis Vicente. Mestre pela Universidade Católica em Gestão de Empresas e viciado em “fazer projetos acontecer”. Já foi Assessor do Conselho de Administração do Grupo Amorim Turismo, consultor na The Boston Consulting Group e Professor Assistente na Universidade Católica de Lisboa.

THEME: Valorization of fresh-cut byproducts

Marcos Pincu has a BSc in Agricultural Engineering at Universidad de Buenos Aires - Argentina.
Agricultural Resercher at IIR INTA (Ingeniería Rural - Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria) Castelar  Argentina.
Marcos teachs Agricultural Machinery at Faculty of Agricultural of the Universidad de Buenos Aires - Argentina.
In 2001 he joined CRA-ISMA, Roma - Italia, where he has ben responsible of reserch in chemiometric analysis of fruit in Laimburg Institute (Italy) and University of La Tuscia (Italy).
In 2005 he star his career in Unitec as team leader in Non-Destructive Technolgies for fruit and vegeteable by NIR systems.
After 8 years in the fresh fruit and vegeteables industry, he spent 5 years as expert in X-Ray technology applied in food industry in Eagle Product Inspection, a Mettler Toledo Group Company.
Since 2016 is the Sales Area Manager for Spain, Portugal and LATAM of Raytec Vision S.p. A.

Raytec Vision SpA was established in 2001 in Parma, by merging three industrial sectors in a single passion: quality control in the food sector. From the beginning of our business, we marketed a vast range of innovative machines, such as the optical sorting machines for raw materials (e.g. tomatoes, potatoes and peppers) and for processed products (such as lettuce, diced fruit or jam); x-ray inspection machines for packaged and unpackaged products.

THEME: Foreign body detection in fresh-cut products

Professor and Associate Director at College of Biotechnology of Universidade Católica Portuguesa (ESB-UCP) and Director of CBQF (Chemistry and Biotechnology Center – State Associate Laboratory). Her research can be summarized into: (i) development and compositional characterization and validation of bioactivity of functional ingredients (proteins and biopeptides, antioxidants, probiotics, prebiotics and antimicrobials) and study applications on the development of novel functional foods (ii) by-product upgrading through bioprocesses and extraction processes aiming to obtain high-added value products (iii) microbiology and biochemistry in food field, including key technologies for the production, characterization, and safety issues of products and (iv) application of the above research developments to other Biotechnological fields. During her scientific trajectory, she published several papers (currently ca. 300 papers) in refereed international journals and authored 35 chapters in handbooks on these topics, has an h-index of 31 and is a creator of 20 patents. She has participated in several professional meetings and international symposia and congresses presenting ca. 130 invited oral communications and over 120 selected oral communications and about 370 posters in National and International conferences. Additionally, she has been responsible for the coordination and co-coordination of 87 externally funded (through national and international funds) research and development projects and has been involved in collaborations with multiple Universities and Research Centers, companies and Associations/technology clusters.

THEME: Integral valorization of fruit byproducts: case study pineapple and melon

BSc Chemical engineering (FEUP), MSc in Packaging (Michigan State University), PhD in Biotechnology – Food Engineering and Science (UCP). Coordination of the packaging laboratory since 1990. Development, coordination and teaching food packaging courses at undergraduate and master level since 1992. Researcher at ESB since 2009 (CBQF) with works in the field of mass transfer processes applied to safety and quality of packaged food. Integrated the team of several (15) research projects national and European and led 2 national research projects. Supervision of 16 master thesis and co-supervision of PhD thesis in subjects related to food packaging. Ca. 25 published papers in referred journals. Represents Portugal in the European Network of Food Contact Materials Laboratories since 2004 and integrates several EFSA Working Groups since 2012. She coordinates the Centre for Food Quality and Safety of ESB since 2013.

THEME: New packaging materials for fresh-cut fruits & vegetables: bioplastics, active, smart

Victor Rodov holds a Ph.D. degree in Plant Physiology from the Timiryazev Institute of Plant Physiology, the USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow, since 1985. In 1990, he joined the Agricultural Research Organization (ARO) – The Volcani Center, Israel. Currently he is a Senior Research Scientist and a research team leader at the Department of Postharvest Science of Fresh Produce of the ARO.
His major research interests include postharvest science and technology with special emphasis on modified-atmosphere and modified-humidity packaging; physiology, technology and safety of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables; health-beneficial phytonutrients and functional foods of plant origin; and food nanotechnology.
Victor Rodov teaches “Postharvest Biology and Technology” and “Fruit and Vegetable Storage” at the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He performed as an instructor at a number of European short courses on Fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, starting from the first one in 2007. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of "Postharvest Biology and Technology" and published about 130 research papers, including 13 book chapters and invited reviews.

THEME: Treatments to maintain quality of fresh-cut products

BSc in Biochemistry - University College London (1983) and PhD - Imperial College London on bio-control of Dutch Elm disease (1987)
Post-doctoral work on understanding the genes controlling pollen development at the Plant Breeding Institute, Cambridge, UK and Royal Holloway, University of London: funded by two biotechnology companies –-AGC and ICI (Syngenta) (1986-1992) and then Higher Scientific Officer at the Laboratory of the Government Chemist (1992-1995) where I developed molecular tools for the analysis of food authenticity and monitoring GM crops
Lecturer and then Reader at Cardiff University (1995 to present): I lead a research group focussed on stress in plants pre- and post harvest. I have published > 35 papers and reviews on plant stress and senescence relating to changes in gene expression pre- and post-harvest as well as effects of stresses on post-harvest quality and volatile organic compound (VOC) profiles. I have also published extensively (>15 papers) on plant-microbial interactions I have extensive experience of analysing gene expression through microarrays, real time PCR and transcriptomics, most recently in rocket salad leaves, strawberry fruit and in Lilium petals post-harvest. I am a handling editor for Annals of Botany and on the Board of Reviewers for Journal of Experimental Botany. I also teach plant biology plant genetics and biotechnology at all levels from first to final year BSc and Masters.
 

THEME: Sniffing quality – advances in tha analyses of volatiles for assessing quality throughout the supply chain

PhD in Agricultural Engineering and PhD in Food Science and Technology. Full Professor in Food Engineering (Unit Operations) and in Food Engineering Plant Design. Expert in Refrigeration Installation Design and Management and in the use of the Near Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy for the authentication of vegetables and the quantification of physical and chemical parameters in fruits and vegetables. She has 30 years of experience in Food Engineering. Author of 5 books and 4 chapters of book published by international editorials, and of more than 150 publications, with 45 of these being peer reviewed papers in high quality journals. She has experience in the participation, management and scientific co-ordination of several national and European and American R + D projects, and in technology transfer contracts with Spanish food industries. She has brought 15 PhD’s on Food Engineering to completion and is currently supervising 4 more. In addition, she has supervised 150 MsC thesis.
 

THEME: Refrigeration installations and cold chain management for fresh-cut produce

THEMES: Microbiological Testing and Implications for Fresh-cut Products | Plant and worker sanitation | Water Sanitation: use of chlorine and alternatives | Food safety and situation management

Graduate of Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, Universidade Católica Portuguesa (ESB-UCP) with a B.Sc. in Food Engineering (1990) and a PhD in Biotechnology (1995).  She is Associate Professor in Food Microbiology at ESB-UCP and lead of the CBQF research group Food & Nutrition. She has held a number of coordination positions at the ESB-UCP, including Coordinator of Pos-graduation Course in Food safety and Coordinator of Masters Course in Food Innovation. Paula Teixeira has participated in and led a large number of research projects in the area of Food Microbiology/Food Safety. She supervised several externally funded research fellowships, as well as successfully concluded PhD and Master thesis. Her research interests are mainly focused on the transmission and ecology of foodborne pathogens (strong focus on Listeria monocytogenes) from farm-to-table She has been Associate Editor of Frontiers in Food Microbiology, Member of the Editorial Board of International Journal of Food Microbiology and Food Microbiology.

THEME: Spoilage and pathogenic organisms: biology and control 

Alessandro Turatti is the President and CEO of Turatti North America, located in Salinas, CA. He is the fifth generation of the family-owned group (founded in 1869 in Venice, Italy), a worldwide leader in food processing technology and a solutions provider for automation with facilities in US, Italy and VietNam.

Turatti has held several board position including IFPA (“International Fresh-Cut Produce Association”), United Fresh and Confindustria Venezia ("Industrial Association of Italy”). He has authored several articles and book chapters on Food Safety, Fresh-Cut and Hygienic Design. He serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Produce Processing Magazine and he supported the preparation of a recent World Congress on Hygienic Engineering & Design organized by EHEDG.

He also cooperates as external instructor with UC Davis. Holds a B.S. degree cum laude in Political Science from the University of Padua and earned a specialization from University Bocconi in Milan.

THEME: Equipments for fresh-cut salads processing lines