Secondment of Ana Machado Silva from SONAE to CSISC btw 16-09-2019, 19-02-2023 and 27-09-2019, 12-03-2023

As part of the FODIAC project, I was privileged to visit and work at IATA-CSIC as a secondee. IATA, the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology, are a Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) unit in Paterna, Valencia.

Fig. 1 – first day at my new “office” at IATA

My secondment took place at the Novel Materials and Nanotechnology Group under the supervision of Dr José María Lagarón, Group Leader and Founder of the cited research group, and working closely with researchers Cristina Prieto López and María Pardo.

Fig. 2 – a sunny day in Valencia at the end of the first part of my secondment

The secondment was done in two stages, the first taking place in September 2019. The second part was due in early 2020 but the pandemic changed all our plans, so it had to be rescheduled to early 2023.

Fig. 3 – inside the lovely IATA campus in Paterna, Valencia

It was a great learning opportunity! Under the FODIAC secondment, I was able to share and discuss our market and food brand vision regarding healthy and functional nutrition with the views and experiences of the different researchers I met at IATA. I was also able to understand how the laboratory work is conducted and how some new processes could help drive innovation in the field of elderly nutrition.

I also met researchers from other groups at IATA related to food science and nutrition, so that was definitely a plus.

Overall, a great experience at IATA. A word of thanks to the team for welcoming me so well!