Stinking Fish and Rotten Strawberries – Food Waste Valorization “More Than Meets the Eye”

Title

Stinking Fish and Rotten Strawberries – Food Waste Valorization “More Than Meets the Eye”

Speaker

Prof. Yigal Achmon (GTIIT BFE)

Host

Prof. Klaus Dieter Liss (GTIIT MSE)

Language

English

Location

E403 (Education Building, 4th floor)

Zoom Link: https://gtiit.zoom.us/j/92676238955

Abstract

As the world population is rapidly growing and the natural resources are depleting, any sustainable approach to the problem must be taken. In my lab we are interested in opportunities to study and develop new ways to reduce or even almost eliminate the worldwide problem of loss and waste of food. Our research team is focused on the degradation process of food with an emphasis on biodegradation of food products for human consumption. We are looking to gain new insights about the mechanisms behind food spoilage in order to advance novel ways to extend food shelf-life, to enhance its safety and to valorize food residues (e.g. food waste). Our research is arranged according to the general idea of the waste management hierarchy. The lab projects are roughly divided into the following sections according to the general hierarchy of waste treatment options, also known as “the three Rs”: 1) Reduction, 2) Reuse, 3) Recycle. In this talk I will show what we can do with residues of tea, fish, eggshells and additional type of wastes. I will explain what soil biosolarization is and how it can be used as an end point solution for many different organic waste types, while serving agricultural purposes at the same time. I will also talk about the connection between microbes and the volatile compounds they produce, what can we learn from it and how it is connected to new ways to prevent waste.

Bio

Dr. Yigal Achmon is a food and agriculture scientist. He currently holds an Assistant Professor position at the Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technion (GTIIT) (https://yigalachmon.wixsite.com/achmonslab). He holds a BSc in Biochemistry and food science from the Faculty of Agriculture at the Hebrew university of Jerusalem and direct PhD in Biotechnology and Food Engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Dr. Achmon spent three years at Professor Christopher Simmon’s lab at the University of California at Davis as a postdoctoral researcher. There he had developed an interdisciplinary approach to industrial food waste valorization research which included collaborating with a plant scientist and a microbiologist among others. After his time at the University of California at Davis he had done a short postdoctoral at Volacni Israeli agricultural center, working on the microbiome of fresh cow milk. He then continued to a lecturer position at the GTIIT along with a research position at Ka Yin Leung’s group working on the microbial resistome.