Martina is an undergraduate student in the Food Science and Technology program at the University of Udine. As part of her internship, she is working with the new pilot plant for whey concentration, which arrived at the university thanks to the DAIRY+ project. We asked her to share her experience and what it means for her to be “behind the scenes” of food production.
Martina, can you tell us what your internship project involves?
I’m working on fine-tuning a plant for whey concentration. It’s a project that uses the new pilot plant that arrived at the University of Udine thanks to the DAIRY+ project. For me, it’s an invaluable experience because it allows me to see firsthand what actually happens in industrial settings.
What has working with a pilot plant given you?
Using a pilot plant allows you to see how, starting from a single ingredient, you can obtain many components that are later useful for developing other food products. It has been a pivotal experience for my training: it has, in a way, thrown me into the working world and helped me understand what it really means to work hands-on with food.
What aspect of this project has impressed you the most?
Being “behind the scenes” of food production. It’s easy when you’re standing in front of a supermarket shelf and just buying the product as it is. But being on the other side – studying it, producing it, and analyzing its characteristics – is something that has given me so much. It has made me even more certain that this is my passion.
And after graduation? What are your plans?
After graduation, I would like to work on developing new food products, starting from ingredients that have been studied for their properties. I want to use these characteristics to create foods that are both better in certain ways and entirely new.
Martina’s experience shows that the DAIRY+ project is not limited to theoretical research, but provides tangible training opportunities for the next generation of agri-food professionals. Thanks to the pilot plant, students can directly experiment with innovative technologies and understand the value of circular utilization of dairy by-products, preparing them to become key players in the transition toward a more sustainable food system.
Watch the full interview with Martina: [LINK TO VIDEO ON LINKEDIN]
