Alfa Laval hosts academic event in food engineering

Some of the brightest young minds in food engineering and technology gathered at Alfa Laval’s Flemingsberg facilities for an annual event designed to create a platform for knowledge sharing to help address future challenges in the global food industry.

The 19th European PhD Workshop on Food Engineering and Technology brought together 19 highly talented PhD students and recent postdoctoral researchers from across Europe, along with their supervisors.

The workshop, held in April, was organised by the Food Section of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE), and saw young researchers present their work, exchange ideas and build connections with both academic peers and industry leaders.

Supported by an industry board including Alfa Laval, Bühler, Elea, GNT, Nestlé and Yili, the event is designed to highlight the critical role of cross-sector collaboration in driving innovation and addressing future challenges in the global food industry.

“We are proud and delighted to have welcomed such a knowledgeable and dedicated group of researchers,” said Johan Agrell, Strategic Business Development Manager at Alfa Laval. “Engaging with young talent is essential to advancing innovation, and this workshop created a valuable space for collaboration, learning and the exchange of new perspectives between academia and industry.

“The industry faces significant challenges ahead in meeting global food demand, and we can only succeed by fostering the development of future talent and pioneering solutions in processing technology.”

One of the highlights of the event was the presentation of the EFCE Food Engineering Awards. The winner of the first prize was Kate Waldert, BOKU University, Austria, whose research on tailored design for ohmic baking of wheat bread received glowing praise from the judges. Felix Ellwanger, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, won the second-place award for his study in mechanistic understanding of twin-screw extrusion of plant proteins. Julia Baumgartner, ETH Zürich, Switzerland, and Koen Wetterauw, Wageningen University, The Netherlands, shared the third prize for their in-depth analysis of microalgal lipid droplets as functional ingredients for food and mechanistic foundation for dry fractionation respectively.

Image caption (L–R): Dr Johan Agrell, Strategic Business Development Manager, Alfa Laval, Dr Kemal Aganovic, Professor at DIL Deutsches Institut für Lebensmitteltechnik e. V., Dr Kate Waldert, BOKU University and Dr Henry Jäger, Professor at BOKU University. Image: Supplied