Dr Maria Saarela – Affiliate Professor, University of Adelaide – “Healthy Food Trends and New Scientific Findings”

Dr. Saarela is a Research Director in food sciences at South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) and an Affiliate Professor in the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, Faculty of Sciences, University of Adelaide.

Dr. Saarela graduated from the University of Helsinki and she is a Doctor of Food Sciences.  She began working at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, where she was involved in food microbiology and functional food research for 20 years.  In 2015 Dr. Saarela coordinated a large governmentally funded project in South Australia on Functional and Luxury Food Value Chains in Asia and Australia, including Foresights.  During the past 10 years Dr. Saarela has been working with EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) in various expert tasks related to food and feed safety.