I’m a food scientist. After 20 years of career at the University of Naples as professor in Biochemistry, Food Chemistry and Functional Foods, from 2013 I became chair of the Food Quality & Design group at Wageningen University.

I published more than 320 publications on indexed journals covering many aspects of Food science. These papers received more than 11.000 citations and I have an h index of 63. I’m one of the few food scientists constantly listed in the Thomson Reuter list of the “Highly Cited” from 2013 www.highlycited.com

I worked for many years on the modification induced by food processing and in particular for the compounds formed through Maillard Reaction in coffee, cocoa, bakery and dairy products. Now the focus of my research is on the design of innovative healthy foods adopting a chain perspective from the selection of raw materials, through processing and formulation up to the physiological functionality and consumer behavior. My challenge is to use a food design approach to tackle the two main issues of the food sector: feeding the planed in 2050 and counteracting obesity.