Chief Scientist

Zhang Chunhui, Ph. D, Professor, Doctoral Supervisor

ZHANG Chunhui is currently the chief scientist of the "Chinese Food Processing and Equipment Innovation Program". He serves as the director of the “Traditional Food & Equipment Research Office” in IFST and as the Secretary of the “Biochemical and Comprehensive Utilization Professional Committee” at “China Animal Product Processing Research Institute”. Chunhui has won "Agricultural Science Talent" reward from the CAAS, has become leading scientist of the “Ten Thousand Talent Program” and he is the receiver of the “Special government allowances of the State Council”.

Research focus and objectives

1.Theory and technology of meat and meat products preservation

In response to industrial problems such as serious deterioration in the quality of fresh meat after slaughter and high loss, the research on the storage and transportation of fresh meat and loss reduction technology has been carried out to analyze the relationship between muscle protein and water during the storage and transportation of meat in order to clarify the muscle water state change mechanism, to develop endogenous enzyme regulation for muscle quality improvement, and to research on new freezing and thawing technologies and equipment, which will be beneficial for the reduction and quality improvement of fresh livestock and poultry meat.

2. Engineering processing technology and equipment for Chinese meat products and meat dishes

Aiming at the common key problems of traditional Chinese meat products or meat dishes such as sauce and bittern, high processing loss, difficult flavor fidelity, and backward industrialization technology and equipment, The team has researched on quality control and visualization, engineered thermal processing, efficient non-destructive testing and other engineering technologies. The team has created engineering core equipment such as quantitative marinating, and has developed “ready-to-eat, ready-to-heat, ready-to-cook, ready-to-prepare” (4R meat products) and “special diet, special medical, and special need” (3S meat products) meat products. The goal is to provide intelligent and integrated solutions for industrial production of Chinese meat products and meat dishes.

3. Key technology and equipment for bone-source food processing

Team’s research area also focuses on resolving three key technical bottlenecks of the bone processing industry: low resource utilization, poor applicability of special processing equipment, and low product creation; based on the issues listed above, we have conducted the research on nutritional composition and functional efficacy of special livestock and poultry by-products. The team is striving to keep conducting research and developing high-value processing technology and equipment for all components of edible bone co-products, and to produce high-value products such as collagen peptides, peptide calcium chelates, bone polysaccharides and sugar calcium chelates. The objective is to achieve a breakthrough in the integration of "technology-equipment-products-standards" and make outstanding contributions to promoting industrial upgrading, improving quality and efficiency, and improving the comprehensive utilization of resources.

Achievements

The team has long been engaged in research work on the preservation of meat and meat products, engineering processing technology of Chinese meat products and meat dishes, and the development of new bone-source foods. Through the reengineering of the livestock and poultry slaughter process, the yield rate of pig slaughter increased by 1.37%-1.85%, and the loss of frozen meat thawing was reduced to less than 2%; The quantitative marinating theory, technical system and engineering processing system of Chinese meat products were constructed, resulting in product yield rate increased 6-8%, the quality difference rate between batches less than 1%, the energy saving more than 50%, and the production efficiency increased more than 5 times; The team researched and created technologies and equipment such as bionic rodent bone breaking, "differential" bone and flesh separation, and "water-heat" selective simultaneous extraction of bone nutrients; Developed 5 sets of bone-source food processing equipment and more than 20 new products in 5 categories including osteopeptide, chondroitin sulfate, and bone oil.

The team has successively presided over the National Science and Technology Research Plan, the "15th, 11th, and 12th Five-Year" national science and technology support plan, the "13th Five-Year" key research and development plan, the public welfare industry (agricultural) research project, the National Natural Science Foundation, the international More than 20 national-level scientific research projects such as cooperation and exchanges. The team has won more than 30 national, provincial and ministerial awards for scientific and technological progress, published more than 170 papers (over 60 SCI/EI), edited 11 books, authorized more than 110 patents, and formulated 18 agricultural industry standards. More than 70 post-doctoral, master and doctoral students have been trained. Team’s technological achievements have been transformed in more than 70 companies, creating combined economic value of more than 14 billion yuan.