Six-year research periods: 5

Date of last award: 2021

Number of doctoral theses supervised in the last 10 years: 8

Total citations: 3401 

Total publications in first quartile (Q1): 38

H-index: 34

In my beginnings as a teacher I participated in the teaching of the subjects Hygiene and Food Inspection, corresponding to the old curriculum of the Bachelor's Degree in Veterinary Medicine (Order of May 18, 1987), mainly in the organization and teaching of practical classes, and to a lesser degree of theoretical classes. From the 1994-1995 academic year, the entry into force of the new curriculum approved by Resolution of November 16, 1992, implied the division of the annual subject into two semesters (I and II). At that time I also began to teach in the subject Zoonosis and Public Health, which is optional. In the 1994-95 academic year, the new Bachelor's Degree in Food Science and Technology (CyTA) began to be taught at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the UAB, as a second cycle. In this degree I taught in the subjects of Food Hygiene, Food Products and Fundamentals of Nutrition, both theoretical and practical. Later, already occupying the position of University Professor, I assumed responsibility for the subjects Food Hygiene and Food Products. During the 2001-02 academic year I taught the subject Food Safety, of a transversal nature, which could be taken by any student of the UAB Campus as free-configuration credits. In the 2004-05 academic year, on the occasion of the so-called Pilot Plan for the Adaptation of the Bachelor's Degrees in Veterinary Medicine and Food Science and Technology to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), I participated in the introduction of new teaching methods and continuous assessment in the subjects of both degrees. This same year, I also took on the responsibility of the subject of Food Hygiene and Inspection I. In the 2007-2008 academic year, the process of drawing up the new Curricula of the Bachelor's Degree in Veterinary Medicine and the Bachelor's Degree in Food Science and Technology began, in compliance with the provisions of Royal Decree 1393/2007, of 29 October, which established the organisation of official university education, and Order ECI/33/2008 of 13 February 2008. At that time, I was part of the governing team of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, with the position of Coordinator of the Veterinary Degree, and I was an active member of the commissions that developed both study plans. With its entry into force, in September 2010, I assumed responsibility for the subject Food Products, in addition to participating in the teaching of the subject Hygiene and Self-Control Systems, both belonging to the new Degree in CyTA, and in the subject Food Hygiene, an optional subject of the Degree in Microbiology of the Faculty of Biosciences of the UAB. I am currently participating in the teaching of the Food Safety Management and Public Health subject of the Degree in CyTA. I am a professor responsible for the subjects Food Safety and Zoonosis, and Food Hygiene and Inspection. Both subjects constitute the subject of Hygiene and Food Safety, and include all the contents aimed at achieving the competences in the field of Food Safety and Inspection required in Order ECI/33/2008. As for my teaching activity in post-graduate training, since the 1990-91 academic year I collaborated in the Master's Degree in Nutrition and Food Sciences of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Barcelona and in some monographic training courses aimed at professionals. From the 1997-98 academic year I taught monographic courses of the former Doctoral Programme in Food Production, Technology and Hygiene, which was later renamed the Doctoral Programme in Food Sciences, of which I was also the coordinator from 1997 to 2001. A special edition of this program was made for the University of Nuevo León, Mexico, in which I also participated. These doctoral programmes were awarded with the Accreditation of Excellence granted by the different competent Ministries. Subsequently, this master's degree was transformed into the Official Master's Degree in Research in Animal and Food Science (academic year 2008-09) in which I continued to be the coordinator of the same module until the academic year 2012-13. Subsequently, with the entry into force of Royal Decree 99/2011, which regulated postgraduate studies and separated Master's studies from doctoral training programmes, the Official University Master's Degree in Food Quality of Animal Origin was created in the 2013-14 academic year, which has been accredited by the Agency for Quality of the University System of Catalonia (AQU). Part of the courses of this master's degree were integrated into the Erasmus Mundus Food Products of Animal Origin "Food for Life" Master's Degree, in which, in addition to the UAB, other European universities (University of Copenhagen, University of Helsinki, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) participated, which was taught from 2012 to 2016. In this program I have taught the subjects Validation of technological processes to ensure food quality and Laboratory methods in food microbiology, in English in the case of the Erasmus Mundus master's degree. Since the 2016-17 academic year I have coordinated the module "Multidisciplinary One Health Approach to Food Safety" of the Official Master's Degree in Zoonoses and One Health, also integrated into the Erasmus Mundus Master's Degree "Science in Infectious Diseases and One Health", and where I also teach theoretical and practical teaching in English. I have also participated as a lecturer in the Official Interuniversity Master's Degree in Food Safety (joint between the University of Barcelona, Pompeu Fabra University and the UAB) since 2011, teaching in the module Risk Management in Food Safety in the 2009-2010 academic year, and in which I currently coordinate the module on Self-Control in the Food Industry. I have also participated, since its inception, in the Postgraduate Diploma in Food Safety, organized by the School of Prevention and Integral Safety, attached to the UAB. As for other types of postgraduate training, I have participated in the organization and/or teaching of about twenty courses and workshops for different professional groups: veterinarians in the administration, professionals in the food industry or secondary school teachers, always related to the field of food safety.

My research activities began with the study of biogenic amine-forming microorganisms in fish and fish products. Shortly after I started working on my Doctoral Thesis based on the study of histamine and tyramine-forming microorganisms in mature meat products. I did a postdoctoral stay at the National Institute for Veterinary and Food Research (EELA) in Helsinki, Finland, in two periods: a first one in the 1st semester of 1995 lasting 3 months, and a second period of 11 months in 1996 (from February to December), supported by grants from the Commission of Universities and Research (CIRIT) of the Generalitat de Catalunya (first period).   and a postdoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (three months), and later a postdoctoral fellowship from the European Commission's "Agriculture and Fisheries" programme. The research activities carried out during this period were related to the formation of biogenic amines in meat products. After returning to the UAB, I expanded research on biogenic amines to other types of foods, such as cheese, and led my first research projects. In 2001 I joined the Special Research Centre of the UAB-Food Technology Plant (CERPTA) as a researcher. My first activity at CERPTA was to collaborate in the project ALI98-0432-C02-01 "Influence of technological and hygienic-sanitary variables on the accumulation of biogenic amines in goat cheese". I participated in the preparation of the COST 922 action "Health implications of dietary amines", of which I was a member of the executive committee and coordinator of the Working Group on Amines in Food. Later at CERPTA, I began my research activities in emerging technologies; first evaluating the High Hydrostatic Pressure (HHP) to guarantee the safety of fresh cheeses or those subjected to short maturation periods. The activities were carried out in the national projects CAL2000-005-C2-1, AGL2000-1426-C02-02, RTA01-047-C2-02, PTR95-0827-OP and RTA01-044-C2-2. Since we need to work with pathogenic microorganisms in a suitable biosafety environment, the UAB supported the infrastructure to create the Food Biosafety Laboratory of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (NSB3), which is currently a Research Support Service of the UAB, of which I have been coordinator since March 2004. During this period, I supervised my first 2 doctoral theses on the study of the effect of HHP on pathogenic microorganisms present in milk and cheese, and later I supervised another on the effect of HHP on the formation of biogenic amines in traditional Spanish cheeses. I also supervised 3 research projects within the PhD program and a master's thesis. In 2004 I started working on another emerging technology, Ultra High Pressure Homogenization (UHPH) thanks to the financial support of two European projects (COOP-CT-2004-512626 and FUNENTECH 232603). My task in these projects was to investigate the application of this technology to ensure the microbiological safety of food. Soon after, I was the principal investigator (PI) in a pre-competitive project (PRP2005-02) and a national project (AGL2006-09607), to evaluate the impact of UHPH on the safety and stability of fruit juices. At this stage I participated in the direction of 2 doctoral theses, 3 research works and a patent application was filed. In 2015 I was PI of the AGL2014-60005-R project, to explore the combination of UHPH technologies and short-wave ultraviolet (UVC) radiation to obtain sterile food. We also explored the application of UVC in foods where the use of UHPH was not suitable, such as honey. This research has been funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya EVALXARTA-309150, aimed at evaluating UVC to obtain honey suitable for young children. In this line of research, 8 master's degree final projects and two doctoral theses were presented. In recent years we have also explored the possibility of applying UHPH and UVC technologies for the sanitization of human milk, to provide breast milk banks with an alternative to thermal pasteurization that guarantees safe milk, that preserves its nutritional properties to the maximum and that has a long shelf life. This project has been carried out in collaboration with the Human Blood and Tissue Milk Bank of Barcelona, as well as with the Child Metabolism Research Group of the Maimonides Biomedical Research Institute (IMIBIC) of the University of Cordoba. For these studies, two funded projects have been granted, one from the Junta de Andalucía and a project from the Knowledge Generation Program (PID2023-149923OB-I00), of which I am one of the PIs. From September 2020 to January 2022, I was a member of the Working Group on High Pressure Processing of Food of EFSA's Scientific Panel on Biological Hazards. As a summary of my activity as a researcher, I have published 65 articles in indexed journals (SCI), and 3 articles published in non-SCI journals, as well as 4 book chapters. I have participated in 2 European projects, 8 national projects (3 as PI), 3 at regional level (2 as PI). As for my participation in transfer activities, I have collaborated in 16 contracts with companies, being the principal investigator in 5 of them.