Insects as Food and Food Ingredients

Assistant Prof. Dr. Marco Garcia-Vaquero (DVM, MVetSci, PhD) works at the School of Agriculture and Food Science at University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland. Dr. Garcia-Vaquero has a broad research experience in food science research with working experiences in Spain (University of Santiago de Compostela) and Ireland (Teagasc and UCD) where he continues his research in the development of functional foods or nutraceuticals. Dr. Garcia-Vaquero’s primary research interest focuses on the utilization of algae (macroalgae and microalgae) and other agri-food waste or by-products for the generation of novel food ingredients. His research explores the use and optimization of innovative technologies for the extraction of high-value compounds from agri-food by-products as nutraceuticals, as well as the chemical analyses of these compounds and their biological activities (anti-hypertensive, anti-oxidant, anti-cancer, anti-microbial and immunomodulatory), safety (chemical hazards, such as heavy metals) and bio-accessibility of these compounds in vitro. Throughout his career, Dr. Garcia-Vaquero has written over 50 publications, contributed in more than 30 conferences, advised policy makers and edited multiple special issues in peer-reviewed journals and books in the area of functional foods, food safety and innovative technologies providing also guidance and supervision within this research area to multiple masters, PhDs and postdoctoral researchers. His expertise in the field of functional foods, specially focused on the use of innovative technologies for the utilization of food by-products, has been recognized by being appointed as an editorial board member of several international journals, member of the Institute of Food and Health (UCD) and as management committee member and group leader in multiple European research networks, leading European and International researchers in the field of food technology. Dr. Álvarez’s research focuses on revalorizing and characterizing emerging protein sources to be used as functional and nutritional ingredients in novel food formulations and as raw material for new biodegradable plastics. Moreover, Dr. Álvarez is currently part of the European Interreg project ValuSect focused on investigating multiple aspects of edible insects including the use of food losses for insect rearing and the impact of the rearing conditions on the nutritional and safety aspects of final insect-based products when consumed as food. Dr. Alvarez has published more than 40 peer-reviewed papers, participated in more than 30 national and international congresses, published more than 10 book chapters and filed 3 patents on protein processing. He is currently member of the editorial board of Food Chemistry (Elsevier).

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