Sustainable Food Materials

Grossmann lab @ Department of Food Science UMass Amherst

What we do @UMass Amherst

We focus on maintaining and improving the quality characteristics of food ingredients with increased sustainability. We envision that everyone enjoys eating healthy and sustainable foods – eating is happiness in viscoelastic structures! At the moment, we are mainly working with proteins from plant and microbial sources. We aim to:

Unleash the potential of novel protein-rich raw materials for foods, such as from microbial and fungi sources. We are working with novel single cells that have the potential to grow on non-arable land and are not competing with traditional energy resources.
Establish downstream processing approaches for these novel raw materials. We focus on obtaining technofunctional proteins by physical processing and understanding how downstream processing affects the protein functionality.
Understanding the technofunctional behavior of proteins based on molecular and physicochemical properties to obtain material-science blueprints that help to design food processes that yield desired functionality and structures.
Structuring proteins by processes such as extrusion processing, to produce more functional fibrous structures at lower temperatures that resemble that of meat more closely.

- People -

Dr. Lutz Grossmann

Lutz Grossmann is an Assistant Professor at the Food Science Department at UMass Amherst since 2021. He holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in food science and graduated with a Ph.D. on single cell proteins from the University of Hohenheim in Germany.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lutzgrossmann/

Kunjal Bhagat

Kunjal is an MS student in the Food Science department of University of Massachusetts Amherst. She has completed her undergrad in Food Technology from India. She currently works on the gelation properties of physic nuts (Jatropha curcas) and their application in plant-based cheese.

Marissa Rizzi

Marissa is a MS student in the Department of Food Science at UMass Amherst. She pursued her Bachelors in Food Science & Chemistry from UMass Amherst. Her research is funded by the Good Food Institute and is respectively focused on high-moisture plant based meat development, specifically on extrusion technology.

Carlos Woern

Carlos is currently a PhD student in the Food Science program at UMass Amherst. He graduated in Food Science and Biotechnology and holds a M.Sc. in Food Science and Engineering from the University of Hohenheim in Germany. His research in the Grossmann Lab focuses on microbial trace gas fermentation to harvest and characterize proteins extracts.

Galo Chuchuca

Galo is a PhD student in the Food Science program at UMass. He had a food engineer degree from ESPOL (Ecuador) and MS in Food Science from Univerisity of Florida. Galo has interest in food processing and engeering with a sustainable perspective. His research focuses on protein fractionation and extraction and the valorization of the sidestream -plant whey-.

Ramona Simon

Ramona is a PhD student in the Department of Food Science at UMass Amherst. She pursued her Bachelors in Food Science & Quality Control and Masters in Nutrition & Food Processing from India. Her research focuses on the fermentation of filamentous fungi for the production of mycoproteins that will be utilized to develop alternative meat and dairy products.

Hexiang Xie

Hexiang is currently a PhD student in the Department of Food Science at UMass Amherst. She graduated in Nutrition and Food Hygiene and holds a M.Sc. in Nutrition and Food Hygiene from the Nanchang University in China. Her research in the Grossmann Lab focuses on tenderization of plant-based meat alternatives.

Prerana Balasubramanian

Prerana is a MS student in the Department of Food Science at UMass Amherst. She pursued her Bachelors in Biotechnology from Vellore Institute of Technology, India. Her research focuses on optimising the downstream processing of gas-fermented biomass to sustainably produce alt-proteins.

Sakina Saylawala

Sakina is a MS student in the Department of Food Science at University of Massachusetts Amherst. She pursued her Bachelor's in Biotechnology Engineering from Thadomal Shahani Engineering, India. Her research focuses on the fermentation of filamentous fungi for the production of mycoproteins that will be utilized to develop alternative meat and dairy products.

Yoon Lim

Yoon is a MS student in the Department of Food Science at UMass Amherst. She pursued her Bachelors in Applied Nutrition & Food Sciences from San Jose State University, USA. Her research focuses on protein fractionation and extraction and the interfacial properties of pea protein.

Harris Erdman

Harris is an MS student in the Department of Food Science at UMass Amherst. He pursued and received his Bachelor's of Science in Food Science and Technology from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. His research is funded by the Good Food Institute and is respectively focused on high moisture meat alternatives, specifically on extrusion technology.

- Our Lab -

We work with different processing equipment and analytical techniques in our lab. UMass Amherst also has a vast number of shared equipment on campus that we can access.

Grossmann Lab Team

Opportunities @Grossmann lab

If you are interested in pursuing your graduate studies (MS / PhD) or undergraduate research in our lab, please write an email with your CV and a short description of your previous work (email address on faculty homepage). Typical start dates are spring and fall semester. More information and deadlines can be found on the official websites of our department or the graduate school:

https://www.umass.edu/graduate/academics/food-science

https://www.umass.edu/food-science/

We can also host interns and visiting scholars (3-12 months) in our laboratory. This usually involves that you'll be working on one of our current projects. We also offer independent studies for UMass students.

- Our Work -

Please visit our Google Scholar Profile to see the most up-to-date list of our work:

Google Scholar Profile

Insights about plant-based foods can be found in the book Next-Generation Plant-based Foods written by Dr. McClements and Dr. Grossmann (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96764-2).

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