Sujosh Nandi

I am a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral fellow with a strong commitment to contributing to Goals 2 (Zero hunger), 3 (Good health and well-being), and 13 (Climate action) of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through my research. My academic background includes a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Engineering from BCKV, India and a master’s degree in Food Process Engineering and management from NIFTEM, India and PhD in Food Process Engineering on a thesis title ‘Development of a potato starch-guar gum based active bio-nanocomposite film incorporating components from petioles of betel leaf (Piper betle L.)’ from IIT Kharagpur, India.

Global warming and the resulting increase in abiotic stress pose a major challenge to crop yield and quality. In my current MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship project, I investigate how soil salinity influences the nutritional, cooking, and physicochemical properties of rice. My research focuses on deciphering the molecular architecture of rice starch, analysing cooking and textural behaviour, and evaluating the in vitro starch digestibility of cooked rice. Through this work, I aim to establish links between starch molecular structure and key quality attributes of rice cultivars grown under different levels of soil salinity.

Previously, I worked on a Food Corporation of India (FCI)-funded project titled “Shelf-life studies of fortified rice kernels (FRK)/fortified rice (FR)”. In this project, I assessed the shelf life of FRK and FR stored in Indian government storage facilities by examining the degradation kinetics of fortified vitamin B12, vitamin B9, and iron, along with changes in moisture content and microbiological safety.