Carmen Moraru

Carmen Moraru is a Professor in the Department of Food Science. Her research and teaching interests are in the areas of physical and engineering properties of foods, food/dairy processing and food safety engineering.

Research Focus

1. Studying and optimizing food processing methods capable of enhancing product safety, quality and shelf life. Current research areas: use of membrane separation and pulsed light treatment, as physical methods capable of reducing the microbial load of food products in general and dairy products in particular.
2. Understand the effect of surface nanoscale topography on microbial attachment and use this understanding to develop microbial repellant surfaces
3. Understanding the intermolecular interactions and structural transformations that occur during processing and their effect on the quality and functionality of dairy foods.

Teaching Focus

My teaching focus is Food Processing and Engineering. My main teaching responsibility is the senior undergraduate class Unit Operations and Dairy Foods Processing (FDSC 4250). I am also a co-instructor and course coordinator for FD SC 6650 (Advanced Food and Bioprocessing Systems),and I serve as a guest lecturer for other courses per request.

Areas Of Expertise

• Dairy / Food Processing And Engineering
• Dairy And Food Processing
• Food Engineering
• Food Safety Engineering
• Nanotechnology
• Physical And Rheological Properties Of Foods
• Unit Operations

Graduate Fields

• Food Science and Technology

Presentations and Activities

• Pulsed Light & UV Treatments: Fundamentals. International Nonthermal Processing short course. October 2014. The Ohio State University. Columbus, OH.
• Use of PL and UV as part of hurdle treatments for microbial inactivation in food systems. Does the treatment order matter? International Nonthermal Workshop. October 2014. The Ohio State University. Columbus, OH.
• Structural Changes of Milk Protein Concentrates Induced by High Hydrostatic Pressure. Nonthermal Processing Workshop. October 2014. The Ohio State University. Columbus, OH.
• Development of food contact surfaces with nanoscale topography: impact on bacterial attachment and biofilm formation. IUFoST (International Union of Food Science and Technology) Meeting . August 2014. IUFoST (International Union of Food Science and Technology). Montreal, Canada.
• Effectiveness of Pulsed Light for microbial control on cheese surface. IUFoST (International Union of Food Science and Technology) Meeting . August 2014. IUFoST (International Union of Food Science and Technology). Montreal, Canada.
• Effectiveness of Pulsed Light treatment on the inactivation of pathogenic and spoilage bacteria on cheese surface. Annual Meeting of ADSA (American Dairy Science Association). July 2014. ADSA (American Dairy Science Association). Kansas City, MO.
• Developing an Effective Food Safety Curriculum. Atlantis Project Leaders Meeting. June 2011. The European Union and US Department of Education. Ithaca, NY.