Food Process Engineering
The Laboratory of Food Process Engineering aims at finding processes that are significantly more sustainable, producing products that combine excellent taste with better nutrition.
Our research
We explore new principles for preparing foods and food ingredients. The key characteristic of foods is that they (usually) are very complex, multiphase systems, incorporating many if not hundreds of ingredients and components.
By understanding the interactions between various phases or components, we can induce the formation of a specific structure, or isolate valuable components. This allows us to develop processes that are more efficient in their use of raw materials, energy and water, and that generate less waste. It also helps us create foods with improved combinations of taste, texture and nutritional quality. We focus on the following research themes:
- Food structuring
- Digestion and Separation Technology
- Food Microtechnology
- Additive Food Assembly
- Dry Food Processing
- Sustainable Process Development
- Protein Functionalization
- Food Structure and Digestion
Education
Education by Food Process Engineering
Food Process Engineering is the science how to prepare food products. On small scale in the kitchen, or on larger scale in industry: it is the quality of the product that is central. As a group, we concentrate on exploring how to prepare foods in such a way that they taste better, are healthier, and can be produced with minimal impact on our environment.
Publications & Projects
Researchers of the Food Process Engineering Group publish on a regular basis in scientific journals, professional journals, scientific and popular books, and proceedings. For publication lists, we refer to Research@WUR. The provided lists can be searched by author, year, etc.
Highlighted publications
- Emulsion stability during simulated gastrointestinal digestion: strategies to control lipolysis
- From mist to matter: Steering particle structure development during pilot-scale spray drying
- Effect of drying conditions on quality of primed cabbage seeds and ethanol degradation as promising quality parameter
Chair Holder
Karin Schroën has been Chair of Food Process Engineering since 2025. She has a special interest in food microtechnology, membranes, and modelling. As chair holder, Schroën aims to strengthening the groups focus on sustainability, mechanistic understanding, and food process expertise.
prof.dr.ir. CGPH (Karin) Schroen
Chairholder
Meet the people of Food Process Engineering
Each chair group of Wageningen University & Research, under leadership of a professor, has its own area of expertise. Meet the people of this Chair Group.
Calendar
Follow us on social media
Stay up-to-date and learn more through our social channels.