Reducing Food Loss and Waste

Pedro Aguilar-Zárate earned his PhD in Food Science and Technology from the Autonomous University of Coahuila. Currently, he serves as a Professor at Tecnológico Nacional de México/I. T. de Ciudad Valles. His research primarily focuses on developing bioprocesses for extracting and purifying secondary plant metabolites, as well as advancing microbial fermentations in both solid and liquid media to produce industrially relevant metabolites. Additionally, he conducts studies on protein-polyphenol interactions. Dr. Aguilar has contributed to over 60 articles in indexed journals, 35 book chapters, and authored three books. He has also published 9 articles in refereed journals. Beyond his written work, he has supervised and co-supervised 33 undergraduate theses and 4 MSc theses. Dr. Aguilar serves as a guest editor for prestigious journals including Frontiers in Food Science and Technology, Polymers, Foods, Plant Science Today, and International Journal of Research and Technological Innovation (RIIT).

A. K. Haghi is a retired professor and has written, co-written, edited, or co-edited more than 1000 publications, including books, book chapters, and papers in refereed journals with over 4200 citations and h-index of 34, according to the Google Scholar database. Professor Haghi holds a BSc in urban and environmental engineering from the University of North Carolina (USA) and holds two MSc degrees, one in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University (USA) and another one in applied mechanics, acoustics, and materials from the Université de Technologie de Compiègne (France). He was awarded a PhD in engineering sciences at Université de Franche-Comté (France).
Professor Haghi's extensive educational background and supervisory roles underscore his expertise and contributions to the field of engineering sciences. He is appointed as Honorary Research Associate (HRA) at University of Coimbra, Portugal.
Ricardo holds a PhD in Biotechnology from the Catholic University of Portugal (UCP 2022), he graduated as Chemical Engineer (2016) at the School of Chemistry, Autonomous University of Coahuila (UAdeC), Mexico. He started his Scientific career at the Food Research Department from the UAdeC and he has over 10 years of expertise in areas of Food Engineering and Technology, Food Chemistry and Biotechnology. Currently, his research is focused on the development of innovative and sustainable biorefinery processes within the context of zero-waste and circular economy approach for the identification and obtention of functional bioactive compounds (e.g., phenolics, carotenoids, carbohydrates and proteins/enzymes) with industrial interest from fruit by-products employing them as raw materials for their valorisation and reincorporation into the industrial value chain. Gómez-García R. is (co)author of more than 30 articles in index journals, 10 chapters in books and 2 books editions of international circulation in prestigious publishers (Apple Academic Press (AAP) and Springer). He also serves as a Guest Editor of several special issues in areas related to solid fermentation, green polymers, and food waste valorisation (MDPI) as well as a reviewer for several high impact journals (ELSEVIER, Springer & MDPI). Additionally, he was involved in the submission of two patent applications one European (P977-5WO-2022) and one Portuguese (PT116954-2020) related with bioactive compounds (polyphenols and proteins), bioactivity and extraction. He has participated in more than 30 international congress communications in areas related with Biotechnology, Food Science & Technology and Bioengineering and Functional Foods. Also, he has been participating in several national and international entrepreneurship programs in Portugal (ANI) and from the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT FAN, Food & Climate-kic) as co-founder of the start-up AgroGrIN Tech®.