Pedro Martínez Noguera
Email: pedronoguera@food.ku.dk
Affiliation: University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
PRESENTATION
Hola! Since I was a little kid I have always wanted to learn what makes food good and why. I am fascinated by its complexity, from the physicochemical characteristics of, for instance, a fruit to global societal problems such as hunger and food waste. Driven by curiosity, my journey at university started in Seville (Spain) graduating with a BSc in Biotechnology in 2018. Afraid of moving too far from foodie topics, I decided to enrol in a MSc in Food Technology in the Netherlands, from which I graduated in October 2020. An experience that I will never forget. Later, amid severe covid-19 lockdowns by the end of 2020, I was fortunate enough to find my first job! For a year-long contract, I joined the FOODENGINE MSCA-ITN and started to work on an interesting project aiming to explore aroma and flavor compounds in pea ingredients and cakes as model systems in Paris (France). Pulses, in my opinion, are great protein sources that need further valorisation and inclusion in our current diets. During this time, I learned a lot about flavor and aroma chemistry and the analytical techniques that are currently used in labs worldwide to study how foods change upon different treatments and the sensory implications of these changes. In love with science and the academic setting, I then decided to try luck and look for a PhD in food science in Europe.
That was when I stumbled upon the RASOPTA project and got accepted as a PhD candidate in the Department of Food Science at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark). I could not be happier when I heard the news. This fellowship is funded by the EU H2020 research and innovation programme under the frame of Marie-Sklodowska Curie Actions. Its main objective is to identify and bridge knowledge gaps – especially around topics like fish health, off-flavors and water quality – in the production of fish in recirculated aquaculture systems. For so, twelve Early-Stage Researchers (ESRs) will work collaboratively on diverse topics for the next three years in different universities, research institutions and with interested industrial partners. Within this team, I am ESR5 and my research will be supervised by Prof. Mikael Agerlin Petersen.
ESR 5: Organic and inorganic off-flavors in water and fish in RAS
Aquaculture has skyrocketed in the last 30 years. In 2018, 52% of the fish consumed worldwide per capita was accounted to be farmed, while in the 90s the share was only about 19% (FAO, 2020). The increasing demand for fish in the context of a growing population and the depletion of common fish stocks in the sea reflects this rapid market growth for cultured fish. However, fish farms have traditionally been highly water-intensive and the discharge of production water with high concentrations of inorganic and organic matter is a primary environmental and public health concern. Recirculated aquaculture systems (RAS) were designed as a promising alternative, but fish health, water quality and off-flavors are still issues to overcome.
Off-flavors in RAS taint fish providing them a musty and muddy flavor that significantly reduces its marketability. Even though some compounds have already been reported to be key in the make-up of this undesired flavor, there might be others currently overlooked. Moreover, rapid and reliable analytical techniques able to detect and quantify off-flavors are missing. This PhD project aims to further decrypt off-flavors in RAS water and fish, investigate the impact of novel techniques in off-flavor removal and explore the potential of time-resolved measurements for the detection of off-flavors.