About Dr. Silvana Martini

Dr. Silvana Martini
College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences
Department of Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences
Silvana.Martini@usu.edu

Dr. Martini graduated from the University of La Plata in Buenos Aires, Argentina with a BS in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Chemistry with a focus in Food Science. She did a post-doc in the Department of Food Science at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada and joined USU in 2005 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences.

A New Approach for Structuring Healthy Edible Fats

The Food and Drug Administration eliminated the “Generally Recognized as Safe” status of partially hydrogenated oils (PHO) in 2015. Although PHO are detrimental to human health they are ideal for food formulations since they provide texture and mouthfeel to foods. The elimination of GRAS status of PHO has challenged food scientists to find new fats and/or processing technologies with necessary physical properties for use in food applications while improving nutritional properties. Over the past 10 years The Martini Lab has explored the use of high intensity ultrasound to induce the crystallization of healthy fats. Research in her lab has shown that this technology can be used to structure fat at a molecular level and improve texture of the product. This presentation will summarize past, present, and future research in this topic and will provide a vision for the next steps in this area of research.