Food Science Staff

Daniel Hefft

Academic background/biography:

Daniel was awarded a BSc in food science and technology as well as an engineering title (Ingenieur) by Technische Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe, Germany. Daniel then completed MSc in Food Technology with Quality Assurance from the University of Reading, UK. Daniel is in his final year towards a PhD in Chemical Engineering (part time) at the University of Birmingham.

In addition, Daniel has worked for numerous years in the food industry in Germany and the UK, including companies such as Weetabix and Kuchenmeister GmbH. Further, Daniel was the Chief Technology Officer, Director and Co-Founder of Rheality Ltd, a technology and spinout company that has developed a novel rheometric device.

Research interests:

• Food physics
• Rheology
• Fluid mechanics
• Nondestructive evaluation methods
• Acoustic emissions
• Applied machine learning
• Formulation engineering
• Tribology of foods

Membership:

Association of German Food Technologists (GDL e.V.)

Institution of Agricultural Engineers (IAgrE)

Institute of Physics (IOP)Chairperson Engineering for Food and Drinks Special Interest Group, IAgrE

Co-Chair CAETS Agri-food, RAEng

Awards:

Distinguished Scientist in Chemical Engineering, RAIB 2020/ Precious Cornerstone University (2020)

Publications:

Abbas, R. N., Arshad, M. A., Iqbal, A., Iqbal, M. A., Imran, M., Raza, A., Chen, J.-T., Alyemeni, M. N., & Hefft, D. I. (2021). Weeds Spectrum, Productivity and Land-Use Efficiency in Maize-Gram Intercropping Systems under Semi-Arid Environment. Agronomy, 11(8), 1615. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11081615

Adetunji, C. O., Ayeni, A. E., Olaniyan, O. T., Akram, M., Ubi, B. E., Islam, S., Laila, U., Ajaz, M., Palnam, W. D., Thangadurai, D., Michael, O. S., Adetunji, J. B., Khan, F. S., & Hefft, D. I. (2021). Current Trends in the Detection of Foodborne Pathogens and Maintenance of Microbial Food Safety and Quality Based on Ribosomal RNA Approaches. In Sequencing Technologies in Microbial Food Safety and Quality (1st ed., pp. 361–374). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429329869-17

Adetunji, C. O., Palnam, W. D., Adetunji, J. B., Ubi, B. E., Ayeni, A. E., Thangadurai, D., Akram, M., Khan, F. S., Michael, O. S., Olaniyan, O. T., Temidayo, A. K., Islam, S., Adebisi, A. K., & Hefft, D. I. (2021). Single Cell Sequencing of Microbial Species. In Sequencing Technologies in Microbial Food Safety and Quality (1st ed., pp. 349–358). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429329869-15

Adeyemi, F. M., Ojo, O. O., Badejo, A. A., Oyedara, O. O., Olaitan, J. O., Adetunji, C. O., Hefft, D. I., Ogunjobi, A. A., & Akinde, S. B. (2022). Integrated poultry-fish farming system encourages multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria dissemination in pond environment and fishes. Aquaculture, 548, 737558. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2021.737558

Alberini, F., Hefft, D. I., & Forte, G. (2020). Identifying liquid rheological properties from acoustic signals (Patent No. WO2020260889A1). WIPO. https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2020260889A1/fr

Baronti, L., Castellani, M., Hefft, D. I., & Alberini, F. (2021). Neural network identification of water pipe blockage from smart embedded passive acoustic measurements. The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, cjce.24202. https://doi.org/10.1002/cjce.24202

Enuneku, A. A., Anani, O. A., Job, O., Kubeyinje, B. F., Ogbomida, E. T., Asemota, C. O., Okpara, B., Imoobe, T., Ezemonye, L. I., Oluwaseun, A. C., & Hefft, D. I. (2021). Mapping soil susceptibility to crude oil pollution in the region of Delta, South-South Nigeria: A proportional study of environmetrics, health, ecological risks, and geospatial evaluation. Scientific African, 14, e01012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sciaf.2021.e01012

Hefft, D. I. (2017). Developments and Properties of Plastic Mimicking Biopolymers for Food Packaging Application. Journal of Applied Packaging Research, 9(2), 47–60.

Hefft, D. I. (2018a). Effects of Chitosan-Coated Paperboard Trays on the Botrytis cinerea Formation and Sensory Quality of Bilberries ( Vaccinium myrtillus L.) and Redcurrants ( Ribes rubrum L.). International Journal of Fruit Science, 18(3), 300–306. https://doi.org/10.1080/15538362.2017.1411863

Hefft, D. I. (2018b). Functionality of a bio-compostable food contact material on rice straw base for the intended use of pizza storage. Journal of Food Processing and Preservation, 42(8), e13676. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfpp.13676

Hefft, D. I., & Alberini, F. (2019a). Creating a predictive model for acoustic emission data in pipe flow. BEAR Annual Conference.

Hefft, D. I., & Alberini, F. (2019b). Für ein erfolgreiches Scale-up: Live-Messungen zur kontinuierlichen Überwachung von Rheologie und Durchfluss. Lebensmitteltechnik, 10(19), 36–37.

Hefft, D. I., & Alberini, F. (2019c). Höre auf Deinen Prozess. CITplus, 22(9), 21–22. https://doi.org/10.1002/citp.201900911

Hefft, D. I., & Alberini, F. (2019d). Rheological characterisation of foods. Food Science and Technology, 33(3), 34–36. https://doi.org/10.1002/fsat.3303_9.x

Hefft, D. I., & Alberini, F. (2020). A step towards the live identification of pipe obstructions with the use of passive acoustic emission and supervised machine learning. Biosystems Engineering, 191, 48–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2019.12.015

Hefft, D. I., & Alberini, F. (2019e). The Possible Application of a Single Passive Acoustic Emission Sensor to Identify Different Complex Fluids in a Fully Flooded Pipe. 2019 AIChE Annual Meeting, 2.

Hefft, D. I., Antonelli, M., & Alberini, F. (2019). Linking Acoustic Emission signals to 2D-PIV results to monitor fluid flow in pipes. In Flucome (Ed.), 15th International Conference on Fluid Control, Measurements and Visualization (p. 4).

Hefft, D. I., & Higgins, Ṡeamus. (2021). Food industry and engineering—Quo vadis? Journal of Food Process Engineering, 44(8). https://doi.org/10.1111/jfpe.13766

Iqbal Qureshi, A. M., Sofi, M. U., Dar, N. A., Khan, M. H., Mahdi, S. S., Dar, Z. A., Bangroo, S., El-Serehy, H. A., Hefft, D. I., & Popescu, S. M. (2021). Insilco identification and characterization of superoxide dismutase gene family in Brassica rapa. Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences, 28(10), 5526–5537. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sjbs.2021.08.009

Mushtaq, R., Sharma, M. K., Mir, J. I., Mansoor, S., Mushtaq, K., Popescu, S. M., Malik, A. R., El-Serehy, H. A., Hefft, D. I., Bhat, S. A., & Narayan, S. (2021). Physiological Activity, Nutritional Composition, and Gene Expression in Apple (Malus domestica Borkh) Influenced by Different ETc Levels of Irrigation at Distinct Development Stages. Water, 13(22), 3208. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13223208

Nwankwo, W., Adetunji, C. O., Ukhurebor, K. E., Panpatte, D. G., Makinde, A. S., & Hefft, D. I. (2021). Recent Advances in Application of Microbial Enzymes for Biodegradation of Waste and Hazardous Waste Material. In C. O. Adetunji, D. G. Panpatte, & Y. K. Jhala (Eds.), Microbial Rejuvenation of Polluted Environment. Microorganisms for Sustainability (pp. 35–56). Springer Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7459-7_3

Padder, S. A., Mansoor, S., Bhat, S. A., Baba, T. R., Rather, R. A., Wani, S. M., Popescu, S. M., Sofi, S., Aziz, M. A., Hefft, D. I., Alzahrani, O. M., Noureldeen, A., & Darwish, H. (2021). Bacterial Endophyte Community Dynamics in Apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) Germplasm and Their Evaluation for Scab Management Strategies. Journal of Fungi, 7(11), 923. https://doi.org/10.3390/jof7110923

Saleem, M. H., Wang, X., Ali, S., Zafar, S., Nawaz, M., Adnan, M., Fahad, S., Shah, A., Alyemeni, M. N., Hefft, D. I., & Ali, S. (2021). Interactive effects of gibberellic acid and NPK on morpho-physio-biochemical traits and organic acid exudation pattern in coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) grown in soil artificially spiked with boron. Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, 167, 884–900. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plaphy.2021.09.015

Sharma, P., Abrol, V., Sharma, V., Chaddha, S., Srinivasa Rao, C., Ganie, A. Q., Ingo Hefft, D., El-Sheikh, M. A., & Mansoor, S. (2021). Effectiveness of biochar and compost on improving soil hydro-physical properties, crop yield and monetary returns in inceptisol subtropics. Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sjbs.2021.09.043

Thapar Kapoor, R., Hefft, D. I., & Ahmad, A. (2021). Nitric oxide and spermidine alleviate arsenic-incited oxidative damage in Cicer arietinum by modulating glyoxalase and antioxidant defense system. Functional Plant Biology. https://doi.org/10.1071/FP21196

Ul Haq, A., Lateef Lone, M., Farooq, S., Parveen, S., Altaf, F., Tahir, I., Hefft, D. I., Ahmad, A., & Ahmad, P. (2021). Nitric oxide effectively orchestrates postharvest flower senescence: a case study of Consolida ajacis. Functional Plant Biology. https://doi.org/10.1071/FP21241