Only eight PhD candidates from across Europe. Among them WUEB and solutions already shaping how food is designed today

What will food look like in the coming years? Who is actually shaping food composition and production methods? At the EFFoST webinar “Research Kitchen: PhD Pitches in Food Science”, young researchers from across Europe presented their work. Among them were PhD candidates from the Wroclaw University of Economics and Business.

European debate, real challenges

The webinar was organised by the European Federation of Food Science and Technology (EFFoST) – an organisation that brings together academia and industry around the development of innovative food technologies. Its activities focus on challenges that already have clear economic implications: food waste, rising production costs, health pressures, and the need for more efficient use of resources.

During the meeting, key challenges were clearly highlighted – from food losses reaching around one third of global production to the need to identify new protein sources and innovative processing technologies. This is the context in which the projects of young researchers are being developed.

Research by WUEB PhD candidates – from lab to application

Among the eight selected participants were Oliwia Paroń (Department of Biotechnology and Food Analysis) and Patryk Słota (Department of Chemical Technology), PhD candidates at the WUEB Doctoral School.

Oliwia Paroń’s research focuses on the use of agarose to structure plant oils. This makes it possible to create hydrogels and oleogels – structures that can replace saturated fats in food products.

This solution has direct market relevance: it enables the development of products with improved nutritional profiles without compromising their technological properties. In practice, this means the potential to reformulate products such as bread, confectionery and ready meals.

The supervisor of Oliwia Paroń’s research is prof. dr hab. inż. Joanna Harasym, Full Professor and Head of the Department of Biotechnology and Food Analysis.

Patryk Słota, in turn, develops the concept of using waste from the wine industry. His research focuses on extracting tannins using pressurised liquid extraction (a method that allows efficient recovery of compounds from plant material).

This approach changes how waste is understood – from a cost to a resource. The recovered compounds can be used, among others, in the production of edible packaging materials, where they help stabilise the structure of the material.

The supervisor of Patryk Słota’s research is dr hab. inż. Irena Jacukowicz-Sobala, Associate Professor at WUEB, Department of Chemical Technology.

Both projects show how research translates directly into product composition and production technologies – from food formulations to material solutions used in packaging.

Why this matters already today

Changes in food systems are no longer a distant prospect. Regulatory pressure, growing consumer expectations and rising raw material costs mean that the food industry must seek new solutions.

Solutions such as healthier fat structures or the use of waste as raw materials respond to these needs and may, in the coming years, influence what products reach the market and how they are produced. This means tangible changes not only for producers, but also for consumers – including product quality and its impact on health.

This is a direction of change that is already shaping the food industry, not just an area of laboratory research.

The participation of WUEB PhD candidates in this event shows that research conducted at the university contributes to shaping developments in the European food sector.

Recording of the event: https://www.effost.org/news/overview-of-effost-webinar-research-kitchen-phd-pitches-in-food-science-397

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Author: Barbara Grzelczak