The Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (UNIBZ) is the only trilingual (Italian, English and German) Italian University. Food Science is one of the most important specialisations of the Faculty of Science and Technology, with fully-equipped laboratories and pilot plants. Since 2017, UNIBZ is the number one in the national ranking of the Italian Research Centre for Social Studies Censis among smaller private universities. Micro4Food Lab: led by Prof. Marco Gobbetti (leader) and Prof. Raffaella Di Cagno (co-leader). The team includes one fixed term researcher, five post-doctoral researchers, nine PhD and two technicians. The research interests are food fermentations, aiming to exploit the potential of autochthonous microorganisms to ferment traditional and unconventional substrates with the final goal to develop new fermented products with improved functional and nutritional properties and shelf life, and the diet-human axis aiming to investigate how food products and diet habits modulate the intestinal microbiome.

Role in Healthferm

Pro-technological and nutritional characterisation of lactic acid bacterial strains and phenomics/genomics investigations to reveal their metabolic potential; Sourdough biotechnology and related chemical and nutritional characterisation. Exploiting fermentation technology for the development of bread with faba bean and pea flour, liquid pant-based drink model with faba beans concentrates and plant based creamy filling with faba bean, yellow pea, oats and wheat flours.

Team members