Face-to-Face: Meet Eva Almenar

"Ever wonder if anyone else is facing the same professional challenges as you? Or just looking to connect with some new people in your field?"

Head-shot of Dr. Almenar.

This month meet...

Eva Almenar, Associate Professor, School of Packaging, Michigan State University

1. How did you get your start in the food industry?

I was first exposed to the food industry for nine months during an internship with Dannon while working towards my BS in food science. While my main task there was related to the packaging processing technology thermoforming, I definitively learned quite a bit about dairy product development and quality control as well.


2. What do you love about your job?

Pretty much everything. I enjoy teaching, partnering with academia and industry members to develop research projects (love the creative process!), working closely with my research team members, interchanging experiences with colleagues at annual meetings, conferences, and expos, etc. 


3. What is the biggest challenge that you face in your job?

To ensure knowledge transfer in the classroom and laboratory setting! As with other professors/researchers in my field, I have the responsibility and honor to build the new leaders of the food packaging industry.


4. What have you learned or been exposed to in the past 12 months that has helped you in your job?

My job allows me to learn at least one new thing every day that helps to advance my teaching or research program. It can come from a colleague here at MSU or in industry, from a journal paper, a magazine, a student, etc.


5. How do you see the food industry evolving over the coming year?

I will focus on food packaging since that is my area of expertise. The major trends in food packaging are environmentally-friendly packaging, tamper-evident packaging, active packaging, and intelligent packaging.


6. Fun Fact: What’s your favorite food?

Dates with peanut butter. I very much like that fusion of flavors and the combination of salty and sweet.

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