Dr. S. Akalya is highly experienced in R & D sector of food processing industries prior to joining here as Associate Professor at IIFPT. She has worked in Unilever R & D, Bangalore as Development Associate, Foods; ABT Industries Limited (Dairy Division as Manager, New Product Development; and at Symrise Pvt Ltd., Chennai as Technical Trainee, Beverage application. During her tenure, she has pioneered in the area of functional foods - product and process development catering to cardio vascular health, antihypertensive, antidiabetic, antioxidant and antibacterial benefits using food bioactives such as phytosterol ester, potassium salts, fibres, gums, etc. She has expertise in innovation/product extension/renovation of various food platforms like RTD, dressings, RTE, bakery, frozen dessert, dairy products. She has handled regional and global innovation projects in IPM (Innovation Process Management) in alignment with global quality innovation management system. In ABTIL, she has established Industry-academia linkages with various universities and colleges. She has been Industrial guide for 16 students, worked as Co. Principal Investigator for Industry-Academia research project, given guest lectures and has organized Food Expos and Contests in colleges.

In her career tenure, she is recipient of award for outstanding contribution to go to market – Specifications quality improvement; and award for outstanding contribution to go to market – Frozen dessert innovations. She is an inventor of one international patent and she also has developed technique for instant quantification (online) of bioactive, phytosterol ester.

Dr. S. Akalya’s pursued her B.Tech (Food Process Engineering) from TNAU, Coimbatore; M.Sc (Food Technology) from Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore and PhD (Science) from University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. For her outstanding academic performances, she was awarded with two gold medals at TNAU; Nestle Fellowship and Bisleri Fellowship at CFTRI; Melbourne International Research Scholarship and Melbourne International Fee Remission Scholarship at University of Melbourne, Australia; and Early career researcher award in Symposium on Microstructure of Dairy Products, Australia.

Dr. S. Akalya is ICAR-NET qualified and her doctoral thesis was on “Ultrasonic formation of stable food emulsions for the delivery of nutrients”, by micro and nanoscale delivery of plant based omega-3 fatty acids in the form of emulsions in dairy system and fruit juice system using ultrasound. Her master’s thesis was on” Utilization of bovine whey for making bakery product (biscuit) to enhance their nutraceutical quality”, by study of antioxidant, antihypertensive and antibacterial properties of whey hydrolyzates (microbial enzyme and plant enzyme) to supplement in biscuits. Her research accomplishments are published in reputed international journals with very high impact factor and as book chapter by best publishers. She is a member in selected professional bodies and served as a peer reviewer in Food Engineering Reviews.

Teaching and Research Interest:
She is currently teaching courses related to Food Technology. Her research interest is on functional foods for women, sports personnel and aged population, including hormonal balance food for women, antiobesity formulations, antidiabetic formulations, muscle development formulations, antiviral formulations, food for cardiovascular health, antiaging formulations by using bioactives and by delivering these food bioactives through various novel food processing techniques, especially as emulsions.

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