Smart Engineering Approaches to Food Safety and Shelf Life Extension Safer and Fresher Foods

Dr. Yogesh K. Ahlawat is a plant biotechnologist and molecular biologist who earned his PhD from Michigan Technological University, United States, where his doctoral research focused on enhancing biofuel production through the manipulation of plant cell wall biosynthesis. In addition to bioenergy research, Dr. Ahlawat investigates postharvest trait improvement in fruits and vegetables using multi‑omics approaches, examines soil microbial biodiversity, and explores bioremediation strategies for environmental management. With over 13 years of experience in functional genomics, postharvest genomics, and crop improvement methodologies, he has an established record of impactful publications and has worked extensively across a wide range of crops to dissect key quantitative and qualitative traits supporting smart agriculture practices. He serves on the editorial boards of several leading journals, including BMC, Frontiers, and MDPI. He is the recipient of multiple national and international honors, including a National Overseas Fellowship, a Doctoral Finishing Fellowship, a Best Graduate Teaching Award, and several competitive international and national travel grants awarded by prestigious funding agencies.

Dr. Chhikara has worked with Central Institute of Post-harvest Institute of Post-harvest Engineering & Technology, Punjab, India and Lovely Professional University, Punjab, India on different aspects of traditional food products, grain processing, extrusion and functional foods. She has eleven years of teaching and research experience and taught various subjects in areas of food technology, health foods and food safety at graduate and postgraduate level. She received best research paper awards at national and international level. She has published more than seventy-five publications in national and international journals of high repute and five international books.

Dr. Ashutosh Singh is Professor and Area Head of the Biological and Biomedical Engineering program in the School of Engineering at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. He has authored over 60 peer-reviewed research articles and contributed to several research projects funded by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and MITACS.
Dr. Singh's research work involves the development of novel food processing methods and the use of physical, chemical, engineering, bioinformatics and biotechnological tools to improve our limited understanding of the nutritional component of food at the molecular level. In recent years his research group has expanded the research areas to include the development of non-destructive food quality and safety testing techniques using ATR-FTIR and NIR. His research group also works in the area of design, fabrication and application of microfluidic electrochemical biosensors, Quartz-Crystal Microbalance (QCM) biosensors and colorimetric biosensors to identify food allergens and toxins.