Month: July 2018

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Summer of emulsions

Food Science student Venla Juntti describes her summer experience: “As a master student I was happy to find out that I was chosen to spend my summer as research assistant for the Food Materials Science Research group. I have learned a lot in a short time about emulsions and different polysaccharides. It feels that my mind is already turning closer to being a researcher (-ish at least) than a student. I was also pleasantly surprised by the great team spirit of this group: you can always find help when needed and enjoy together so much pizza – as cleaning days.

I am interested in the idea of turning waste into valuable raw materials. That is the reason why I feel motivated to work on wood hemicellulose –based emulsion stabilizers. Exploiting the side streams of wood industry in novel products is a huge opportunity in Finland, where we have plenty of forests and a lot of know how in valorizing them. It is one step closer to reusing all our materials and reducing waste as low as possible.”

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Italy moves to Helsinki

“Having the possibility to study new techniques and to work with a great group in the charming Helsinki is the best experience I could do”. These are words of Giulia Alt, an Erasmus student from the University of Udine (Italy), performing the experimental work for her master thesis in our laboratory. The thesis is focused on the evaluation of the functionality of surface active molecules from grains and on their characterization in terms of chemical composition and properties. Then the study moves forward with the formation and characterization of emulsions stabilized by these plant-based compounds. We also had a chance to taste and enjoy grains in the form of most delicious Italian pizza prepared by Giulia Alt and Fabio Valoppi!