Ingrid Appelqvist

Ingrid is a senior research scientist and is the Group Leader for Food Structure in CSIRO Food and Nutrition Flagship. 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 is also the food R&D policy leader for the food and nutrition flagship. In this role she has responsibility for negotiating collaborative agreements with federal and state governments in strategic food research and for leading the secretariat and the development of the national food and nutrition R&D and TT strategy, which was recently signed-off by Department of Agriculture and has gained commitment from Australian food and nutrition stakeholders.

Since joining CSIRO in 2006, Ingrid has been instrumental in the building of collaborative links with international companies and the international science community in material science, engineering, nutrition, consumer science and health. Her research in oral processing of foods is internationally recognised and has lead to multi-partner research collaborations.

From 2007 Ingrid led the theme for food design and biomaterials in which the theme research used a multidisciplinary, structural engineering approach that integrated research on raw material structure-function, biomaterial and food structuring and disassembly of food under physiological conditions to deliver mission focused outcomes.

Ingrid currently leads the international Knowledge Based Bio-Economy (KBBE) food and health theme collaboration on behalf of Australia. This has 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 is 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.