Novel Processing Methods for Plant-Based Health Foods

Megh R. Goyal, PhD, PE, is a retired professor in Agricultural and Biomedical Engineering from the General Engineering Department in the College of Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez Campus. He has worked as a Soil Conservation Inspector and as a Research Assistant at Haryana Agricultural University and Ohio State University. He was the first agricultural engineer to receive the professional license in Agricultural Engineering from the College of Engineers and Surveyors of Puerto Rico and was proclaimed as the "Father of Irrigation Engineering in Puerto Rico for the twentieth century" by the ASABE, Puerto Rico Section, for his pioneering work on micro irrigation, evapotranspiration, agroclimatology, and soil and water engineering. During his professional career of over 52 years, he has received many prestigious awards. A prolific author and editor, he has written more than 200 journal articles and several textbooks and has edited over 100 books.

Ritesh Balaso Watharkar, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Food Processing Technology at Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Karunya, Coimbatore, India. He has worked as Senior Visiting Scholar under a UNESCO Great Wall China Fellowship Programme and as Assistant Professor at K. K. Wagh Food Tech College and at Shramshakti College of Food Technology, affiliated by Mahatma Phule Agricultural University. He has published several articles in reputed journals and has attended more than 10 national and international conferences. He also published several popular articles. He is a life member of Association of Food Scientist and Technologist, India.

N. Veena, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Dairy Chemistry at the College of Dairy Science and Technology, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India. Her area of expertise includes fortification of milk, development and characterization of functional dairy foods, and nanoencapsulation of nutraceuticals and their delivery. She is the recipient of junior research and institutional fellowships during her master and doctoral programs from the ICAR "National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, India. She has been involved in different institutional and externally funded research projects such as Milkfed (Punjab), ICAR, DST and RKVY as PI and Co-PI. Dr. Veena has published 17 research papers in peer-reviewed journals, one edited book, 11 book chapters, 15 popular articles, and seven practical manuals. She has developed e-learning content for postgraduate dairy chemistry courses under the NAHEP project. She has presented her research work at various national and international seminars and conferences and has received several awards for best oral and poster presentations. She has membership in various professional bodies, such the Indian Dairy Association, Association of Food Scientists and Technologists (India) and Dairy Technology Society of India, etc. She received her BTech degree in Dairy Technology from Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University, Bidar, Karnataka, India, and her MTech and PhD degrees in Dairy Chemistry from ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, India.