Dr Nazanin Zand

Dr Nazanin Zand studied for her first degree in food science and technology in 1998, in Tehran, working in the airline catering industry, developing food for vegetarians and people requiring special diets. In 2001, Nazy undertook a master’s degree in Food Safety and Quality Management at the Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, looking in particular at prolonging the post harvest shelf life of perishable fruits by Modified Atmosphere Packaging. The research led to an industrial position developing new food products for young children. The role also involved the implementation of ISO standards and the introduction of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point system.

After 10 years working in the Food industry within a manufacturing environment, she returned to University in 2008, to undertake a PhD to investigate the nutritional quality of commercial infant food products, in particular the impact of processing on their nutrient content and to explore methods for the optimization of improved production methods for new food products.

Dr Zand maintains an active interest in food science and nutrition and is actively developing new protocols for analytical based optimizations of the nutritional quality of new food products, health claims, labeling and legislation.

Dr Zand welcomes enquiries from potential collaborators regarding the development of functional foods, post harvest preservation of food commodities and innovative packaging.

Dr Zand is a trained auditor and would particularly welcome requests from the food industry and catering services in relation to ISO accreditation, new product development, quality improvement, waste reduction, packaging and nutritional labeling.

Services for Industry

• Analytical Method Development
• Macronutrient analysis
• Vitamin analysis by HPLC & LC-MS
• Mineral and trace element analysis by ICP-OES & ICP –MS. All of this work will be carried out by an ISO 17025 accredited laboratory.

Publications

• Nazanin Zand, Francis B. Zotor, Babur Chowdhry, John Tetteh, Dave Wray, Paul Amuna (2010). Determination of mineral content of commercial infant foods in the United Kingdom. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 69 , E485 doi:10.1017/S0029665110003484
• Nazanin Zand, Babur Z. Chowdhry, Lucie V. Pollard, Frank S. Pullen, M. J. Snowden, Francis B. Zotor (2011). Commercial infant foods in the UK: macro-nutrient content and composition. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 70, E159,doi:10.1017/S0029665111002102
• Nazanin Zand*, Babur Z. Chowdhry, Francis B. Zotor, David S Wray, Paul Amuna, Frank S. Pullen (2011). Essential and trace elements content of commercial infant foods in the UK. Food Chemistry, 28 ,123-128.

Conference proceedings

• Nutrition Society Summer Meeting, 4-6 July 2011, 70th Anniversary Meeting: From plough through practice to policy, Determination of mineral content of commercial infant foods in the United Kingdom (University of Reading).
• Nutrition Society Summer Meeting, 28 June-1 July 2010, Nutrition and health: cell to community. Commercial infant foods in the UK: macro-nutrient content and composition (Harriot Watt University).