PhD Studentship in Food Science

Project title: Exploring the Transient Changes in Frozen Dough Structure on Micro and Meso Scales

Supervisors: Dr Julia Rodriguez Garcia and Dr Colette Fagan from Food and Nutritional Science Department and Dr Paola Tosi from the School of Agriculture Policy and Development of the University of Reading (UoR), and Henk Hennink from Mauri Technology B.V.

Project Overview: This is an exciting opportunity to conduct a PhD project that will be conducted in collaboration between AB Mauri and University of Reading. Frozen dough has been widely used in the food industry as it can reduce costs, waste and facilitate centralisation and efficiency of the production. Although the freezing process and frozen storage could extend the shelf-life of the products, they cause disruption of gluten strength and yeast viability due to the formation of ice crystals. The principle aim of this project is to explore and develop fundamental understanding the relationships between freezing conditions, structural changes and properties development of dough and bread during frozen storage, defrosting and baking.

The student will be based in the Department of Food and Nutritional Science (UoR), but it will also collaborate with colleagues in crop (cereal) science. The student will be also supervised by researchers at AB Mauri and will be doing placements during their studentship at AB Mauri (MRT) Research Centre (The Netherlands).

Eligibility: 

• Applicants should hold or expect to gain a minimum of a 2:1 Bachelor Degree (or equivalent) or a Master in a relevant subject such as Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physical chemistry, Food science or Cereal science.
• This studentship is open to UK and international students

Funding Details:   

• Starts September/October 2022
• It is a 3 year award (3 year experimental work, with potential to extend to a 4^th year to write up the project)
• Funding covers full tuition fees, stipend, research and training support.

How to apply:  

To apply click at https://www.risisweb.reading.ac.uk/si/sits.urd/run/siw_ipp_lgn.login?process=siw_ipp_app&code1=P_ADM&code2=0001 create your account and use the link sent by email to start the application process. During the application process please select the PhD in Food and Nutritional Sciences

*Important notes*

• 1) Please quote the reference ‘GS21-054’ in the ‘Scholarships applied for’ box which appears within the Funding Section of your on-line application.
• 2) When you are prompted by the online application system to upload a research proposal, please omit this step as the project is already defined.

Application Deadline: 14th June 2022

Further Enquiries:  

Please note that, where a candidate is successful in being awarded funding, this will be confirmed via a formal studentship award letter; this will be provided separately from any Offer of Admission and will be subject to standard checks for eligibility and other criteria. 

For further details please contact Dr Julia Rodriguez Garcia (j.rodriguezgarcia@reading.ac.uk)

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