PhD student profile, Alessio Sergiacomo

PhD Student: Alessio Sergiacomo (ORCID n. 0000-0002-2944-9149)

Supervisor: Prof. Alessandra Marti – DeFENS

Co-tutor: Dr. Francesca Gallio – Soremartec Italia srl

Dean: Prof. Diego Mora

Research area: Food Science and Nutrition

Research topic

Product and process optimization for the production of foods from cereals, pseudocereals and legumes

Project Synopsis

In a scenario of demographic and climatic changes, decreasing arable lands and water resources, minor cereals, pseudocereals and legumes play an important role in: (1) fostering biodiversity, (2) reducing climate change impacts, (3) promoting sustainable development. These types of crops are interesting for food production due to their nutritional profile, including the contribution of fiber and phenolic compounds. Despite the positive environmental, agronomic and nutritional aspects, the use of alternative crops in food formulations is still limited due to sensory and/or technological issues.

In this context, my PhD project aims to study how to enhance the features of baked products enriched in sustainable crops (e.g. minor cereals, pseudocereals and/or legumes). Particular attention will be paid to sprouting (or germination), a process used at domestic level in the countries of origin of these crops but whose transfer to industrial scale still presents many challenges.

Project keywords

Cereals, Legumes, Sprouting, Baked products

Contacts

DeFENS – Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences

Università degli Studi di Milano

Via G. Celoria, 2, Milan (MI), 20133

Phone: +39 02 503 16640

e-mail: alessio.sergiacomo@unimi.it

Sponsor

Fellowship sponsor:

Programma Operativo Nazionale (PON) “Ricerca e Innovazione” 2014-2020 – Action IV.5 “Doctorates on green topics”

Soremartec Italia srl

Project sponsor:

Soremartec Italia srl