Smart Engineering Approaches to Food Safety and Shelf Life Extension: Safer and Fresher Foods

Dr. Yogesh K. Ahlawat is currently a professor at Chandigarh University, Punjab, India. He holds a Ph.D. in the enhancement of biofuel production through plant cell wall biosynthesis, earned from Michigan Tech University, USA. His research focuses on manipulating lignin biosynthesis in poplars to enhance biofuel yield. Dr. Ahlawat has developed hundreds of transgenic lines by overexpressing and silencing specific genes and transcription factors in Populus trichocarpa, the pioneering bioenergy tree, using tissue-specific promoters. With 13 years of extensive experience in functional genomics, postharvest genomics, and crop enhancement methodologies, Dr. Ahlawat has a commendable record of publishing impactful research. Dr. Ahlawat serves on the editorial boards of several prestigious journals such as BMC series, Frontiers in Plant Science, Frontiers in Microbiology and Nutrition, and MDPIs. His Contributions have been recognized internationally through awards such as the Doctoral Finishing Fellowship, Best Graduate Teaching Award, and Best PhD Research Award. He holds several patents and has secured numerous national and international travel grants from esteemed organizations.

Dr. Chhikara has worked with Central Institute of Post-harvest Institute of Post-harvest Engineering & Technology, Punjab, India and Lovely Professional University, Punjab, India on different aspects of traditional food products, grain processing, extrusion and functional foods. She has eleven years of teaching and research experience and taught various subjects in areas of food technology, health foods and food safety at graduate and postgraduate level. She received best research paper awards at national and international level. She has published more than seventy-five publications in national and international journals of high repute and five international books.

Dr. Singh holds a Ph.D. degree in Bioresource Engineering from McGill University, Quebec, Canada, where his research work focused on design, development, and application of electrohydrodynamic drying system for dehydration of heat-labile food products. His Ph.D. work also explored application of molecular dynamic modeling system to study the effect of external food processing stressors on the conformation of food proteins. At University of Guelph, Dr. Singh’s leads the Agri -Food Engineering Research Lab, where his research group works on development of novel food processing methods and the use of physical, chemical, engineering, bioinformatics, and biotechnological tools to improve the understanding of the nutritional component of food at the molecular level. In recent years, Dr. Singh’s research group has expanded its research domain to include fabrication and application of biosensors including electrochemical, Quartz-Crystal Microbalance (QCM) and colorimetric biosensors to identify food allergens and toxins. His research group also specializes in development of novel nanoparticles from agri-food by-products and their application to improve agricultural and environmental sustainability. He has authored over 60 peer-reviewed research articles and contributed to several research projects funded by National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and MITACS.