Biography
Dr Ingrid Appelqvist is a senior research scientist and is the Group Leader for Food Structure in CSIRO Agriculture and Food business Unit. She is a food material scientist with strong multidisciplinary interests in reformulating food to develop a healthier food supply for the food industry and consumers. The group research involves developing healthier foods that retain functionality and palatability and designing food breakdown in the body to control sensory perception and bioaccessibility (bioavailability) of nutrients.
She also leads a strategic research project in food structure design for healthy ageing and was heavily involved with the development of the Active Integrated Matter Future Science Platform (FSP), contributing to the ideas that have helped define the platform, and championing and developing a research testbed in smart soft materials design based on human genetic blueprint. She is also project leader for Novel Healthy Food which is part of Precision Health FSP. Ingrid also leads the secretariat for the development and implementation of the national food and nutrition R&D and TT strategy, which was has gained commitment from Australian food and nutrition stakeholders.
Ingrid led the international Knowledge Based Bio-Economy (KBBE) food and health theme collaboration on behalf of Australia. This involved collaborating with the EU commission, Canada and New Zealand scientists and government agencies to organise staff exchanges, training, and a series of international science workshops and conferences in food, nutrition and health.
Ingrid was also technical advisor to the Department of Health’s National Food and Heath dialogue initiative, which seeks to reduce salt, sugar and saturated fat from the food supply and she represents DoH when negotiating reduction targets with the food sector companies.
Ingrid holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours), completed at University of East Anglia and a Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham, England.