About Us

The Laboratory for Food Biotechnology (LFB), a recent addition to ETH Zurich

The LFB was established in the year 2002 at the Institute of Food Science and Nutrition. This Institute consists of five other research groups: Food Process Engineering (Prof. Erich Windhab), Food Technology and Sensory Science (Prof. Felix Escher), Food Chemistry (Prof. Renato Amadò), Human Nutrition (Prof. Richard Hurrell) and Food Microbiology (Prof. Martin Loessner), and is in the department of Agriculture and Food Science. Food Biotechnology is led by Professor Christophe Lacroix, who was hired as a full professor in 2002 and given the mandate to develop a laboratory, teaching and research program in the rapidly developing field of food biotechnology.

Before his arrival at ETH, from 1984 to 2002, Dr. Lacroix was a professor in Dairy Biotechnology in the Department of Food and Nutrition Sciences at the Université Laval, and leads the Dairy Research Centre STELA (1995 to 2002) which is the largest food research center in Canada and holds international recognition. He also founded and was responsible for the Canadian Research Network on Lactic Acid Bacteria, a Network of Excellence funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

At LFB ETH Zurich, Professor Lacroix has continued to build upon his expertise, with a research focus on the development of fundamental and applied knowledge on important food bacteria as well as specific metabolic activities (antimicrobial, autolysis, carbohydrate metabolism) that have high potential for food applications. The major area of interest is to find ways to use these bacteria and their metabolites to improve the quality and safety of foods and to obtain health benefits.

The Food Biotechnology Group consists of microbiologists, molecular biologists, engineers, chemists and administrative/technical staff, a total of about 25 people. The group is organized into four research/teaching teams with the following leading scientists: fermentation and downstream processing led by Professor Lacroix; molecular characterization, by Titular Prof. Leo Meile; research in developing countries, by Dr. Zakaria Farah; and intestinal fermentations, by Dr. Gwénaelle Le Blay. After only four years of existence, the LFB has already established a large network of research collaborations in Switzerland, Europe, Africa and Canada, with ca. 16 projects in operation (11 Ph.D. students), supported by Swiss and EC grants, and several industries in Switzerland and abroad (such as Nestlé, Danisco, Orafti, Bioforce, Numico, Laves).