The Science and Safety of Beverages

Dr. Roji Waghmare is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Matunga, Mumbai, India. She has worked on various green non-thermal techniques such as cold plasma, irradiation, ultrasonication and pulsed light. She has also worked in the field of functional beverages, preservation of fresh produce, 3D food printing and drying. As Assistant Professor at D Y Patil University in Navi Mumbai, India, Dr. Roji guided various research projects based on functional beverages, waste utilization, shelf-life extension of fruits and vegetables. Her work on development of non-dairy fermented probiotic drink based on germinated and ungerminated cereals and legume was highly acclaimed and published in LWT-Food Science and Technology. At Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology, Tamil Nadu, India, she has worked on preservation of fresh product by different drying techniques including freeze drying, refractance window drying and spray drying.

Dr. Kumar has expertise in extraction and functional characterization of proteins and other bioactive compounds from plant-based matrices. His Ph.D topic was focused on “Anthocyanins as ingredient for food industry: Strategy for extraction, Functional characterization and Enhanced stability”. This research is both commercially useful and socially beneficial as anthocyanins from black soybean and black carrot act as natural colorants and have a lot of demand in the domestic and industrial market.

Currently, Dr. Kumar is working on a project funded by Science for Equity, Empowerment and Development (SEED) Division of DST (Govt. of India). Dr. Kumar has been revered with several awards throughout his academic career, including Prime Minister fellowship 2014, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute Ph.D. Gold medal, InSc Young Scientist Award 2019”. ICAR’s national talent scholarship and junior research fellowship during under graduation and postgraduation. He has presented his research in various national and international conferences and publishes more than 75 research papers/book chapters in national and international journals/books.