Ana Salvador Alcaraz

Biography

She holds a degree in Chemical Sciences from the University of Valencia (1992) and a Diploma in Higher Specialization in Food Technology at IATA (CSIC-MEC, 1993) and PhD in Chemical Sciences from the University of Valencia (1999). In 2007 she joined the IATA (CSIC) as a Senior Scientist and is currently a Scientific Researcher at the State Agency of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) at the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (IATA). She has been an associate professor at the University of Valencia in Food Science and Technology (2002-2012) of the subjects Food Additives and Sensory Analysis and since 2009 is Professor of the Master of Quality and Food Safety at the University of Valencia.

Research Interest

Its research activity is developed within the line that studies the Physical and Sensory Properties of food based mainly on the development of methodological studies for the determination of texture and rheology of foods and very oriented to the study of the behavior of various hydrocolloids as thickening agents, gelling agents and modifiers or creators of texture in formulated foods and their relationships with the microstructure, mechanical properties (rheology and texture) and sensorial perception by the consumer. Specific, in the study of the effect of the incorporation of new ingredients to reformulate different food matrices with the objective of improving the nutritional properties and applying new sensorial techniques to deepen the mechanism that gives rise to the acceptance of a product by the consumer. All this to determine the functionality of food ingredients and their interactions in complex matrices, the mechanisms of perception of texture and taste and the most important instrumental methods to predict the sensory properties of foods.