The Research Institute of Food Science (CIAL), officially inaugurated on March 24, 2011, is a center of the Superior Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and the Autonoma University of Madrid (UAM), integrated in Campus of International Excellence (CEI) UAM + CSIC.
Between 2007 and 2014, the CIAL has defined its scope, setting the governing departments, the administrative structure and management procedures. It has created infrastructures and distinctive facilities that strengthen the technological value and scientific excellence of the center. It has been intensified the effort to make visible the center and the fact that society recognize us.
The center is divided into three research departments: Bioactivity and Food Analysis, Biotechnology and Food Microbiology and Production and Characterization of Novel Foods, which act as an organizational framework to facilitate research activities and encourage interaction and scientific collaboration between members of the institute. The center and its researchers maintain active collaborations and exchange programs with universities, research centers and laboratories around the world.
From the beginning, the purpose of the center has been, to become a center of international research leader in the field of food science, promoting technological development, wealth creation and welfare for society.
Specifically, the research activity carried out in the CIAL is aimed for establishing scientific evidence on the physiological effects of foods and their compounds in human health and disease prevention, improving their safety and sensory properties, identifying at molecular level the mechanisms of biological activity of food ingredients and their metabolites in the human body, as well as their interactions with dietary elements. New approaches and tools based on metabolomics, proteomics or genomics, aims for solving scientific challenges in the relationship between food and health, with implications for the development of nutritional interventions, which are considered the base of future food.
The last goal is the application of food science for health, according to the needs of the population and economic development, with the contribution of products with high added value for industry, attracting and training young scientists and new professionals, staying in the service of social welfare and quality of life.