Technological strengthening of the dairy pilot plant of the Faculty of Chemical Sciences and Development of New Dairy Products

The Faculty of Chemical Sciences of the University of Cuenca has a pilot dairy plant that was installed in 1994. The equipment of this pilot plant is extremely basic and its objectives are to complement the theoretical teachings of the dairy subject of the School of Chemical Engineering and the elaboration of mature and fresh cheeses, in order to market them at the level of the university. Thus, the scope of this plant is very limited and particularly at the moment has no investigative purposes. The purpose of this proposal is to expand this field of action by strengthening academic training and promoting the beginning of research activities that may contribute to the productive development of the area. For this purpose, teachers in the dairy area of the Faculty of Chemical Sciences have led to a strategic alliance with the research project "Food, Nutrition and Health" which is a part of Vlir-iuc inter-institutional cooperation program with the University of Cuenca. This project began in 2007 and lasts for 10 years. In addition, this project has an implemented and operational laboratory for the analysis of food quality and safety. Within the framework of this project, a significant number of undergraduate and post-graduate thesis have been developed. In addition, internal and external financing for the development of attached projects, such as "prevalence and sensitization of food allergy" (diuc), "mycological flora and its toxigenic power of the pile rice consumed in the azuay" (diuc), "to School-Based Health Promotion Intervention in Adolescents in Ecuador: Pair Matched Cluster Randomized: Controlled Intervention "(Nutrition Third World)," Assessment of the Traditional Wood Ash Nixtamalization as detoxification Strategy to reduces fumonision and aflatoxin pollution of boiled maize ("peeled nickname") "(International Foundation for Science). The alliance of the dairy area with the VLIR-IUC project "Food, Nutrition and Health" is framed in the need to develop stable and harmless foods that allow us to placate nutritional deficiencies and have a high degree of acceptability in the population, at the economic and sensory level. Therefore, the purpose of this proposal for the strengthening of the Pilot of Dairy Plant of the Faculty of Chemical Sciences is the academic and investigative improvement of this group, working together with the established research teams, thus allowing the development of new lines of research in the dairy area with a view to excellence and with a social approach towards small and medium producers of dairy products and the population in general.