Priera’s role at GFI focuses on accelerating the plant-based meat industry by analyzing its plant-based protein landscape, identifying emerging technological solutions and bottlenecks, and communicating with other scientists about advancing alternative protein research. Priera has bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and math from the University of California, Santa Cruz as well as a master’s and a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to joining GFI, Priera spent almost a decade focusing on polymer, formulation, and materials chemistry research. Particularly, she honed these skills for food security applications by creating novel sustainable agriculture materials and compounds.

Presentation Description

The current food manufacturing sector is responsible for approximately 40% of food losses. As a result, the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) includes SDG Target 12.3, “By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.” One strategy to improve food losses during plant-based food manufacturing is valorizing whole crops and processes for human consumption. This presentation outlines major sidestreams from the top crops produced in North America as projected into 2030 and their potential use as inputs for alternative protein manufacturing across plant-based, fermentation-derived, and cultivated food products.