Mission |
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Mission
The scientific and engineering disciplines of extrusion processing, protein chemistry, and polymer rheology have played an important role in developing technologies for novel foods, and agricultural by-/co-products for non-food or industrial use. Our research emphasizes developing novel extrusion and micro-texturization processes for vitamins and minerals enriched foods using microstructured and health-functionalized proteins, and creating unique non-foods bio-polymers using new bio-conversion processes to add value to by-/co-products. High shear techniques and concepts of protein polymer rheology are used to enhance the functional behavior of the materials and products, and complex process-induced protein-matrix interactions with other materials are studied at the sub-structural level. A versatile team with expertise in the fields of extrusion processing, protein chemistry, physical-chemistry, polymer science, and mechanical engineering easily adapt extrusion and other texturization processes and selected emerging technologies to effectively convert agricultural and food and non-food commodities, processing byproducts, and ingredients into high value products.