Marco Dalla Rosa (MDR) graduated in Agricultural Science at the University of Bologna with a Food Biotechnology curriculum; on 1985 was visiting scientist at CSIRO, Sydney, Australia, working of food dehydration & water in food. From 1985 to 2000, he was a lecturer, researcher and then Associate Professor of Food Processing, Food Industry of animal products and Food Formulation at the University of Udine (Italy). On 1987 he had his PhD in Food Biotechnology. From 2000 onwards, he is a Full Professor of Food Technology, Food Design and innovation, former President of the Steering Committees of Bachelor and Master Courses in Food science and Technology at the University of Bologna, Campus of Food Science in Cesena. As of January 2012, he is Head of the Interdepartmental Centre for Agri-Food Industrial Research. Author of around 300 papers on coffee processing, water relation in food, fruit preservation and minimally processing, MAP,  physical and rheological food properties, he was speaker at approximately 180 conferences and workshops in Italy and abroad (Google Scholar H-index 33, i10-index 80). Professor Rosa has been shown scientific responsibility of several research projects at both a regional and national level. Coordinator of FOODSPROCESS project (FP7 Marie Curie) and leader of Operative Research Units at European level in the frame of the EU FWP (FAIR: Concerted action on Osmotic dehydration; KBBE: Heatox, Chance, Track-Fast, Rescape, Core Organic Plus Ecoberries), and Erasmus Thematic Network (FoodNet, Iseki Food 1-2-3-4. ISEKI_Mundus 1-2). He was Chair of the EFFoST Conference held in Bologna in November, 2013 as a member of the Executive Committee of Effost and co-chair of the fourth issue of Foodinnova® Conference in Cesena on January 2017.

Siracusa Valentina received her degree in Industrial Chemistry at the University of Catania (Italy), at 23 years old. She completed her PhD and post-PhD study working on the synthesis and characterization of innovative polyesters, used in the engineering field. After a period as a lecturer for “Chemistry and Materials” for Engineering, she has been Associate Professor of Chemistry for Engineering at Catania University since 2006. She collaborates on several research projects, both for academic and industrial interests, covering topics such as recycle, ambient, food packaging, graphene. She collaborates with national and international research groups on biopolymers used in the field of food packaging, for modified atmosphere packaging of fresh foods, and also with Life Cycle Assessment study (with SimaPro8 software). She is author of more than 70 papers in high impact factor scientific journals, several book chapters for Wiley, Springer and Elsevier, articles for special Module of Elsevier Encyclopedia and she is a guest editor of international journals. Her research interest includes: synthesis and full characterization of biodegradable and bio-based polymers; gas barrier behavior; Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study of polymers for food packaging applications; thermal and photo degradation behavior of packaging materials analyzed during food shelf-life study.

Oleksii Parniakov (co-authoring chapter 6) is the Principal Scientist in the R&D Department at Elea GmbH, Germany. He received his PhD in Food Process Engineering at the Technological University of Compiegne, France. His research interests mainly focus on non-conventional methods for enhancement of different food related processes. He worked mostly on pulsed electric field assisted extraction of bioactive compounds and drying, freezing from solid food products. He has 18 published peer reviewed research or reviews articles in international journals of which first author (14) or co-author (4) in high impact factor journals, 3 book chapters, 20 presentations in conferences (most of them as proceedings and oral communications).

Dr. Jaswinder Singh holds a M.Sc. (Zoology) from Punjabi University. In 2001, he joined as Assistant Professor in the Department of Zoology, Khalsa College, Amritsar. In 2007, he joined research on the topic entitle ‘Biosafe Disposal of Industrial Waste (Beverage, Distillery and Paper mill) using exotic earthworm Eisenia fetida and was awarded his Ph.D in 2012 from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. In 2015, he became an Associate Professor of Zoology. He has 17 years of teaching and 10 years of research experience and supervised more than 30 master degree projects, guiding 3 Ph.D Students. He has published 38 research papers in international journals (published by Elsevier, Springer and Taylor Francis), 3 book chapters and 1 book. Solid waste management, Vermicomposting, and Earthworm ecology are the areas of his current interest. Dr. Singh has completed two minor research projects and one major research project entitled, “Ecological and taxonomic distribution of earthworms in Punjab and the effect of soil quality and heavy metals’ sanctioned by Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, New Delhi. Awarded the ProSPER.Net Scopus Young Scientist Award in Sustainable development in 2015 in the Biodiversity category by United Nation University, Japan and Elsevier. Dr. Singh has also been awarded the Alexander Humboldt Fellowship, Germany for research work. Currently, he is collaborating with Dr. Nico Eisenahuer and Dr Martin Schädler at German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig, Germany and Department Community Ecology, Helmholtz- Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Halle, Germany.

Pedro Dinis Gaspar has a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is a Professor in the Department of Electromechanical Engineering of the University of Beira Interior (UBI), Portugal. He is an integrated researcher at the R&D Centre for Mechanics and Aerospace Science and Technologies (CMAST) and a collaborator researcher at the ALLab – Assisted Living Computing and Telecommunications Laboratory, Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT). He is the Coordinator of the courses of M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering at UBI. He has participated/coordinated several national and international research projects as well as in R&D&I contracts with industry, mostly, related to the agrifood industry. The most relevant projects coordinated so far were the project + Agro: Organizational, Energy and Occupational Health and Safety qualifications in the AgriFood Industry, funded by Compete 2020, and the UBI coordination of the projet +Peach: Innovation and development in peach culture in the Beira Interior region, financed by PRODER, as well as partner in project InovEnergy: Energy Efficiency in the AgroIndustrial Sector, financed by Compete. He has supervised several Ph.D. Thesis and M.Sc. Dissertations. He has authored or co-authored more than 180 papers in refereed book chapters, journals and conferences proceedings and he is author of 3 patents. He was the editor of the “Handbook of Research on Advances and Applications in Refrigeration Systems and Technologies”, IGI Global, August, 2015. 936 pages. (ISBN: 978-1-466-68398-3) (DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8398-3). He has been also involved in the organization of several national and international scientific events.

Prof. Dr. Oliver Hensel (co-authoring chapter 7) is full Professor at the University of Kassel (Germany) and head of the Department of Agricultural and Biossystems Engineering since 2004. He holds an MSc and a PhD in Agricultural Engineering from Hohenheim University (Germany) His areas of expertise are Postharvest Technology, Renewable Energy and Sensors / Electronics in Agriculture. Furthermore he is reviewer for major academic societies and for several scientific journals, and he has been awarded with a couple of innovation prizes and patents.

Oren Shelef (co-authoring Chapter 2) is a plant ecologist. He is currently a BARD-Vaadya postdoc fellow at Lee Dyer’s Ecology lab, the University of Nevada – Reno (UNR). He is interested in the whole plant as a keystone structure in deserts and other ecosystems. His research address issues as the adaptations of desert plants to the dryland conditions, and interactions of plants with other organisms. He is also concerned about the applications of this knowledge to conservation efforts and to enhance more sustainable management of biological resources. He was a scientific advisor for the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology as part of the Israeli MIMSHAK program to train early career scientists to promote environmental issues by improving the interface between science and policy making.

Jesus Fernandez-Bayo (co-authoring Chapter 2) is a Visiting Associate Project Scientist at the Departments of Food Science and Technology and Biological and Agricultural Engineering at the University of California, Davis (USA). Organic wastes are no longer an environmental problem but a potential resource for sustainable food production systems. Thus, his main research is focused on how to process organic waste to have added-value products. Some of these conversion processes include anaerobic digestion and composting generating added-value products such as soil amendments and biofuels. In addition, he also focuses on alternative uses of the added-value products. Particularly, their potential application as alternative to fumigant application for crop protection or as biofilters to prevent underground water pollution by pesticides (main topic of his PhD at the Spanish National Research Council). Finally, his research has always integrated the impact that the addition of these amendments has in soil quality indicators such as organic carbon availability, soil nutrients and soil microorganisms.

Yonatan Sher (co-authoring Chapter 2) is a soil microbial ecologist. He is currently an AFRI-ELI (USDA) postdoc fellow at the lab of Mary Firestone, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, & Management (ESPM), UC Berkeley. His research interests focus on the microbial role in terrestrial biogeochemical cycles, specifically nitrogen and carbon. Additional research interests include the role of soil microorganisms in plant-microbe interactions, their response to drought and their function in ecosystem sustainability. Such line of research addresses questions regarding the response of soil microbial communities to drought and whether these responses can also enhance plant tolerance to drought. For his studies a variety of research approaches are applied, which include genome resolved meta-genomics, meta-transcriptomics as well as chemical and physical analysis of soil.

Valeria Ancona (co-authoring Chapter 2) is an agronomist, PhD in Agriculture Chemistry. She is currently a temporary position researcher at Istituto di Ricerca sulle Acque, of the Italian National Research Council (CNR). She is interested in the development of plant assisted bioremediation solutions and utilizing both microcosms and field experiments. Her research address issues as the use of specific microbial indicators to understand the bacteria role in enhancing bioremediation processes of toxic compounds (e.g. contaminants, antibiotics) in soil and water.  She is also involved in the applications of mechanochemical treatments to recover organic contaminated soil by catalytic surfaces (e.g. mineral oxides and/or clays).

Heather Slinn (co-authoring Chapter 2) is a PhD candidate in Biology at the University of Nevada – Reno. Heather’s research investigates the chemical ecology of plant-fungal-insect interactions in both tropical and temperate systems. Specifically, her work evaluates the consequences of phytochemical diversity on herbivore immunity and the role plant traits have in shaping fungal endophyte communities and their associated arthropods. A mechanistic understanding of the symbiosis between plants and fungus is a crucial part of her research. Prior to starting her PhD, Heather completed her BSc in Biology at the University of British Columbia where her undergraduate project investigated how a Populus fungal pathogen created novel habitat for spider colonization.

Yigal Achmon (co-authoring Chapter 2) is a food and agriculture scientist. Currently, he holds a visiting professor position at the Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technology where he teaches introduction courses in food and biotechnology engineering. His research focus is on food waste valorization by (1) alternative soil fumigation technique name soil biosolarization and (2) high solid anaerobic digestion. In both of these projects, he utilizes microbial communities as a work force platform. He uses next generation sequencing along with advanced fermentation processes to elucidate the role of these microbial communities in complex bioengineered systems (“xeno-ecological” niches). In the last three years at Christopher Simmons lab, as a postdoctoral researcher, he developed an interdisciplinary approach for industrial food waste valorization research including collaboration with plant scientist and microbiologist among others.

Semih Otles is Professor at the Department of Food Engoneering, Ege University (Turkey) and Vice Rector of Ege University responsible for international Cooperation, Research and Innovation of Ege University. He received his PhD and MSc in Food Chemistry. The research activities of Professor Otles have been focused on instrumental analysis of foods. Otles began a series of projects on the separation and analysis techniques of HPLC, first for analysis of vitamins in foods, then proteins, carbohydrates, and most recently carotenoids. Other activies span the fields of GC, GC/MS analysis, food wastes, soy chemistry, aromatics, medical & functional foods and nutraceutical chemistry. Included are multiresidue analysis of various foods, n-3 fatty acids in fish oils, and medical & functional foods. He has more than 200 papers in various national and international journals and is editor/author of the 30 books and book chapters.

Dr Louise Manning, Senior Lecturer in Food Policy and Management has worked for over 30 years in the agri-food supply chain in a range of roles. She lives on a mixed-enterprise family farm in Herefordshire. Her expertise is in the area of food integrity including food safety, food quality, food crime, governance, social and corporate responsibility. She advises both government and corporate businesses on supply chain risk assessment techniques and associated mitigation strategies. Louise has published in a range of peer-reviewed journals and regularly writes for trade press and electronic media. Louise is a Trustee of the UK Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust having undertaken an international scholarship in 2007.

Maricica Stoica (authoring Chapter 9, Sustainable sanitation in the food industry) is Lecturer Phd Engineer at Dunărea de Jos University of Galati – Romania. She teaches at specialized Master in Food Science and Engineering, and guided several PhD students. She received her PhD in Industrial Engineering (Food safety, Hygiene, General Microbiology, Materials Science, Electrochemical and imagistic techniques) and she has completed her postdoctorate at Dunărea de Jos University. She is coauthor of the Book Design elements for new food products (Romania, edited by Academica), and for 3 book chapters published by Elsevier, In-Tech, and Formatex Research Center. She presented/published around 50 research papers in international and national conferences, and published around 30 scientific articles. She has coordinated the POSDRU/161/2.1/g/138177 project, and collaborated on projects funded through EU. A big part of her research was focusing on electrochemical behaviour of stainless steel surfaces in solutions consisting of biocides and microbial suspension.

Barbara Sturm (co-authoring chapter 7) is the Head of the Postharvest Technologies and Processing Group within the department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (University of Kassel, GER). She graduated in Environmental and Process Engineering (HTWG Konstanz, GER) and holds a PhD in Agricultural Engineering (University of Kassel, GER). Barbara specializes in the systemic optimization of production processes in the food industry regarding process efficiency, energy management, product quality and interactions of unit operations with a special focus on the development of measurement and control systems. She holds seminars, trainings and workshops for practitioners, consultants and equipment manufacturers from the F&B and energy sectors. She has extensive experience in managing collaborative projects on a national and international level. She has worked with numerous industrial and academic partners in Europe, Africa, Australia, Asia and the Caribbean in the context of R&D projects of which she has coordinated several. Since 2016 Barbara has been Associate Editor of the Elsevier journal Thermal Science and Engineering Progress.

Gardis J. E. von Gersdorff (co-authoring chapter 7) is a PhD candidate in the department for Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering of the University of Kassel (GER). Her research lies in preservation of organic agricultural products, in particular dehydration and the maintenance of quality during processing. The work aims to improve process efficiency regarding both, product quality and energy consumption. Gardis has worked on projects funded by GER funding bodies and has experience in collaboration with different project partners from across the EU. She holds a MSc. in Agricultural Science (University of Kassel, GER) and a BSc. in Agricultural Science (University of Goettingen, GER).

Michael Bantle received his Ph.D. in process technology from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology for his work on atmospheric freeze drying. His Post-Doc work was dedicated to energy efficiency in drying and food refrigeration. Michael Bantle continued working on the topic of energy efficiency in food processing as a senior research scientist at SINTEF Energy Research in Trondheim/Norway. Through his work at SINTEF he investigated the concept of superchilling for different food products. He is currently project leader for different projects in the area of food processing and heat pump technology. His research activities include heat pump assisted drying, energetic analyses, superchilling as well as novel high temperature heat pump applications in industrial processes.

Dr Roohinejad obtained his BSc in 2000 in the field of food science and technology from the Islamic Azad University, Iran. He completed his MSc in 2009 in food biotechnology at the University Putra Malaysia (UPM). In July 2011, he received a full doctoral scholarship award from the Department of Food Science at the University of Otago in New Zealand, and he graduated in December 2014. In June 2015, Dr Roohinejad received Georg Forster Research Fellowship award granted by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to pursue his postdoctoral research at Department of Food Technology and Bioprocess Engineering, Max Rubner-Institut (MRI), The German Federal Research Institut of Nutrition and Food. Currently, he is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Food Science and Nutrition Department, University of Minnesota, USA. In the last 10 years, he has been worked on different food areas such as emulsion-based systems, emerging food processing, nanotechnology, and functional foods. Dr Roohinejad research activities have resulted in more than 70 original papers in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, abstracts and short papers in congress proceedings.

Giovanni Gulisano (co-authoring Chapter 4, Evaluating the Environmental, Economic and Social Sustainability of Agro-Food Systems Through Life Cycle Approaches) is Full Professor in Economics and Rural Appraisal at the Department of Agriculture (AGRARIA) of the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, Italy. He teaches Rural Appraisal and Agricultural Economics and Policy. From 2009 to 2012, he was Director of Department of Agriculture (AGRARIA) of the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria (Italy) and fulfilled other institutional roles in the academic field as coordinator of PhD, Msc and Bsc courses. His research focus is on the assessment methodologies of agricultural systems sustainability, with particular interest about life cycle approaches as well as issues relating to agricultural, rural and fisheries policies. He has more than 20 published or accepted peer reviewed research or reviews articles in international journals with high impact factor journals (Scopus and ISI Web of Knowledge), more than 50 other scientific articles, book chapters and presentations in conferences. Follow Prof. Gulisano ResearchGate

Anna Irene De Luca (co-authoring Chapter 4, Evaluating the Environmental, Economic and Social Sustainability of Agro-Food Systems Through Life Cycle Approaches) is Researcher in Economics and Rural Appraisal at the Department of Agriculture (AGRARIA) of the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, Italy, since 2013. She teaches Economic and Environmental Appraisal and Management of Agri-food Firms. She holds a BSc in Agricultural Science and Technology from the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria (Italy, 2002), an MSc in Agricultural Economics and Policy from the University of Naples (Italy, 2004), a visiting student fellowship from the Wageningen University (Netherlands, 2005) and a PhD in Agricultural Economics and Policy from the University of Palermo (Italy, 2007). Her research focus is on assessment methodologies of agricultural systems sustainability, with particular interest about life cycle and multicriteria approaches for the integrated evaluation of environmental, economic and social impacts. Her research interests also address issues relating to agricultural policy and rural development. From 2013 to 2016 she was National Coordinator of FIRB project “Multidisciplinary and innovative methodologies for sustainable management in agricultural systems” (funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research – MIUR). She has more than 20 published or accepted peer reviewed research or reviews articles in international journals in high impact factor journals (Scopus and ISI Web of Knowledge), more than 30 other scientific articles, book chapters and presentations in conferences. Follow Dr. De Luca via LinkedIn or ResearchGate

Giacomo Falcone (co-authoring Chapter 4, Evaluating the Environmental, Economic and Social Sustainability of Agro-Food Systems Through Life Cycle Approaches). He is research fellow at the Department of Agriculture (AGRARIA) of the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, Italy.

He graduated in Agricultural Science and Technologies in 2006 and he holds a PhD degree in Agricultural Economics and Politics, obtained in 2013 with a thesis entitled “The environmental and economic sustainability of vinegrowing scenarios in Cirò area, Calabria”. The scientific activity mainly concerns the sustainability evaluation of agricultural productive processes through the application of Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing methodology. Follow Dr. Falcone:

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Nathalie Iofrida (co-authoring Chapter 4, Evaluating the Environmental, Economic and Social Sustainability of Agro-Food Systems Through Life Cycle Approaches) is a research fellow in Economics and Rural Appraisal at the Department of Agriculture (AGRARIA) of the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, Italy. She holds a PhD degree (Doctor Europaeus) in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, curriculum Agricultural Economics and Politics, obtained with a thesis entitled “Paradigmatic stances and methodological issues in Social Life Cycle Assessment. Comparison of two different methodological proposals applied to agricultural products”, that has been awarded, in 2016, by the Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA, third place) and the Italian Network of LCA (second place). Her current research is part of a scientific research project entitled “Sustainable models and new technologies for the valorization of olive growing produces in Calabria” funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research. Her specific work is currently about the “Sustainability assessment of olive growing systems through Life Cycle Methodologies (LCA, LCC, SLCA)”, coordinated by Professor Giovanni Gulisano. She is an expert of social Life Cycle Assessment, Multicriteria Decision Analysis, integrated planning for sustainable and rural development, transnational cooperation. She is also board-certified in Project Management, registered in the European Register of euro-Project Designers & Managers since March 2013. Follow Dr. Iofrida https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nathalie_Iofrida

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Teodora Stillitano (co-authoring Chapter 4, Evaluating the Environmental, Economic and Social Sustainability of Agro-Food Systems Through Life Cycle Approaches) graduated, in 2005, in “Forestry and Environmental Sciences” at the Faculty of Agriculture of the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria. In April 2010, she obtained a Ph.D. in “Economics and Agricultural Policy” at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Palermo. In the same year, she enrolled in the Master’s course in Environmental Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria; she obtained the title of Expert in Environmental Monitoring and Control on September 2011. Since July 2010, she is a research fellow at the Department of Agriculture of the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria. Her research interest is on the methodologies for the assessment of agricultural systems sustainability (life cycle approaches), investment analysis in the agricultural sector, and techno-economic evaluation of forest resources.

Alfio Strano (co-authoring Chapter 4, Evaluating the Environmental, Economic and Social Sustainability of Agro-Food Systems Through Life Cycle Approaches) is Researcher in Economics and Rural Appraisal at the Department of Agriculture (AGRARIA) of the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, Italy where he teaches “Economics and management of agri-food businesses”. During his academic career, he taught courses of higher learning and national and international master courses. His scientific research mainly concerns the agricultural business administration and management of agri-food enterprises, and in particular decision making and management issues of agricultural and agri-food supply chains. He researched the integrated planning in rural areas, the evaluation of innovation and qualification of local productive systems and the institution of rural districts, as well as the sustainable and integrated development of tourism in marginal areas. He has investigated the evaluation of sustainability through the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Social Life Cycle Assessment (sLCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC), applying them the agricultural processes and produces. He participated in several research projects and has published more than 90 scientific works – essays, book chapters, papers in national and international scientific journals (with Impact Factor). Additionally, he has coordinated several PhD, master and bachelor thesis. Follow Dr. Strano https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alfio_Strano

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