Dr. Nuria Prieto

Research Scientist - Meat Quality and Sensory Chemometrics

Dr. Nuria Prieto conducts research to assist the Canadian meat industry with their current vision of determining points of product differentiation, without additional costs for packers and retailers, as a strategy towards increasing national and international competitiveness. The major objectives of Dr. Prieto’s Meat Quality and Sensory Chemometrics program are focused on differentiation of meat and meat products based on quality and sensory attributes, implementation of strategies to produce value-added meat from agriculturally important livestock species, address of meat palatability issues including understanding and control of flavour through technological advances in meat chemistry and chemometrics, and evaluation of non-invasive technologies for rapid assessment of meat quality attributes.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
6000 C & E Trail, Lacombe, Alberta, T4L 1W1

Current research and/or projects

  • Benchmarking Canadian retail beef flavour.
  • Canada's National Beef Quality Audit at Retail and Processing.
  • Alberta Beef Flavour: Utilizing flavour chemistry and sensory methods towards determining the uniqueness of Alberta beef flavour.
  • Novel analytical methods for meat flavour fingerprinting.
  • Classifying Canadian pork based on quality attributes.

Research and/or project statements

  • Generate new knowledge of attributes that differentiate Canadian meat and meat products, while meeting quality and cost requirements, to improve the profitability and competitiveness of the agri-food sector.
  • Improve key meat quality attributes from agriculturally important livestock species.
  • Enhancement of meat palatability, including flavour fingerprinting to identify volatile compounds that allow the rapid and anticipated identification of products with potentially desirable flavours, as well as their monitoring and marketing to target populations.
  • Market-driven quality assessment technologies: development and implementation of new high-throughput technologies for meat quality evaluation.

Professional activities / interests

  • Meat Quality
  • Meat Sensory Evaluation
  • Meat Optoelectronics (e.g. Near Infrared Spectroscopy-NIRS)
  • Bioinformatics

Education and awards

Education

  • 2006   Ph.D. (A with honours) in Animal Production. University of León (Spain).
  • 2004   M.Sc. in Veterinary. University of León (Spain).     
  • 2000   B.Sc. in Biology. University of Salamanca (Spain) and University of Swansea (UK).

Awards

  • 2008     Award of the Royal Academy of Veterinary Sciences “Award of the Distinguished Official College of Veterinarians from Madrid, NEW CAREER FIELDS" by the study “Application of new technologies (NIRS) to characterize beef from a quality brand”.
  • 2007     Award of the Carolina Rodríguez Foundation “Mariano Rodriguez Award for Young Scientists, AREA OF NATURAL AND TECHNICAL SCIENCES" by the study “Characterization of beef produced at the mountains of León: application of new technologies”.

International experience and/or work

  • 2015-Present: Research Scientist - Meat Quality and Sensory Chemometrics. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Lacombe Research and Development Centre. Lacombe, Canada.
  • 2013-2015: Research Associate. University of Alberta. Edmonton, Canada.
  • 2012-2013: Research Assistant. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Lacombe Research and Development Centre. Lacombe, Canada.
  • 2009-2012: Research Scientist. Spanish National Research Council-University of León. León, Spain.
  • 2007-2009: Post-doctoral Fellow. Spanish Ministry of Education and Science. Scottish Agricultural College, Edinburgh, UK.
  • 2006-2007: Research Assistant. Spanish National Research Council-University of León. León Spain.
  • 2002-2006: Ph.D. Fellowship. Spanish National Research Council-University of León, Spain.
  • 2000-2002: Ph.D. Fellowship. Institute of Biotechnology, INBIOTEC. León, Spain.
  • 2000: Graduate Student Research Assistant. Water-treatment plant, AQUAGEST. Zamora, Spain.
  • 1999-2000: Undergraduate Student Research Assistant. University of Salamanca. Salamanca, Spain.

Key publications

  1. Prieto, N., M.E.R. Dugan, I.L. Larsen, P. Vahmani, J.L. Aalhus. 2017 Palatability of beef from cattle fed extruded flaxseed before hay or mixed with hay. Meat and Muscle Biology. DOI: 10.22175/mmb2017.04.0026.

    2017 - View publication details

  2. Vahmani, P., Aalhus, J.L., Rolland, D.C., McAllister, T.A., Prieto, N., Block, H.C., Proctor, S.D., Guan, L.L., Dugan, M.E.R. (2017). Sequential Feeding of Lipid Supplement Enriches Beef Adipose Tissues with 18:3n-3 Biohydrogenation Intermediates. Lipids, [online] 52(7), 641-649. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11745-017-4259-9

    2017 - View publication details

  3. Dugan, M., López-Campos, O., Aalhus, J.L., Vahmani, P., Prieto, N., Juárez, M., McAllister, T., Stanford, K. Lamb fat composition: the good, the not so good and possibilities for the future. N’ewesletters Winter 2017.

    2017 - View publication details

  4. Vahmani, P., D. C. Rolland, T. A. McAllister, H. C. Block, S. D. Proctor, L. L. Guan, N. Prieto, J. L. Aalhus, and M. E. R. Dugan. 2016. 1306 Feeding steers extruded flaxseed and hay in a total mixed ration or sequentially can have substantial effects on beef fat polyunsaturated fatty acids and biohydrogenation intermediates.. J. Anim. Sci. 94(Suppl5):629-630. doi:10.2527/jam2016-1306

    2016 - View publication details

  5. López-Campos, Ó., Larsen, I.L., Prieto, N., Juarez, M., Dugan, M.E.R., and Aalhus, J. 2016. Evaluation of total lean and saleable meat yield prediction equations and dual energy x-ray absorptiometry for a rapid, non-invasive yield prediction in beef. In Proceedings of the 96th Annual Conference of the Canadian Meat Council. Ottawa, Canada.

    2016 - View publication details

  6. SIM detection and quantification of MIB & Geosmin in trout using SBSE-GC-MS

    2016 - View publication details

  7. Juarez, M., Lopez Campos, O., Prieto, N., Hosford, S., Galbraith, J., Uttaro, B., and Aalhus, J. 2016. Evaluating alternative lamb carcass classification systems in Canada. Canadian Meat Science Association Newsletter.

    2016 - View publication details

  8. López-Campos, Ó., Larsen, I.L., Prieto, N., Juarez, M., Dugan, M.E.R., and Aalhus, J. 2016. Evaluation of total lean and saleable meat yield prediction equations and dual energy x-ray absorptiometry for a rapid, non-invasive yield prediction in beef. In Proceedings of the 69th Reciprocal Meat Conference. San Angelo, Texas.

    2016 - View publication details

  9. Zhang, H., Aalhus, J.L., Gariépy, C., Uttaro, B., López-Campos, O., Prieto, N., Dugan, M.E.R., Jin, Y., Juárez, M. (2016). Effects of pork differentiation strategies in Canada on pig performance and carcass characteristics. Canadian Journal of Animal Science, [online] 96(4), 512-523. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjas-2015-0197

    2016 - View publication details

  10. Vahmani, P., Rolland, D. C., McAllister, T. A., Block, H. C., Proctor, S. D., Guan, L. L., Prieto, N. P., Aalhus, J.L. & Dugan, M. E. R. (2016). Feeding steers hay with extruded flaxseed together or sequentially has a profound effect on erythrocyte trans 11-18: 1 (vaccenic acid). Canadian Journal of Animal Science, 96(3), 299-301.

    2016 - View publication details

  11. López-Campos, Ó., Prieto, N., Aalhus, J. L., & Dugan, M. E. 2016. Feeding for carcass value: grading system implications. In Proceedings of the London Swine Conference: A platform for success, April 5th and 6th, 2016, London, Ontario, Canada (pp. 157-166). London Swine Conference.

    2016 - View publication details

  12. Vahmani, P., Rolland, D.C., McAllister, T.A., Block, H.C., Proctor, S.D., Guan, L.L., Prieto, N., Aalhus, J.L., Dugan, M.E.R. (2016). Feeding steers hay with extruded flaxseed together or sequentially has a profound effect on erythrocyte trans 11-18:1 (vaccenic acid). Canadian Journal of Animal Science, [online] 96(3), 299-301. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjas-2016-0017

    2016 - View publication details

  13. Prieto, N.; López-Campos, Ó.; Uttaro, B. and Aalhus, J.L. Meat Quality of Dark Cutters is Complex. Bull Breeders. Ed. Prairie Post. February (2016), pp A17.

    2016 - View publication details

  14. O.P. Soladoye, Ó. López Campos, J.L. Aalhus, N. Prieto, C. Gariépy, P.J. Shand, M. Juárez, Evaluating the accuracy of dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) in predicting carcass composition from varying pig populations, Meat Science, Volume 112, 2016, Page 185, ISSN 0309-1740, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.meatsci.2015.08.195.
    (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0309174015003344)

    2016 - View publication details

  15. Ó. López-Campos, I. Larsen, N. Prieto, M. Juárez, M.E.R. Dugan, J.L. Aalhus, Evaluation of total and saleable meat yield prediction equations in beef, Meat Science, Volume 112, 2016, Page 180, ISSN 0309-1740, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.meatsci.2015.08.190.
    (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0309174015003290)

    2016 - View publication details

  16. Lopez Campos, O., Prieto, N., Juarez, M., Dugan, M.E.R., and Aalhus, J. 2016. Advancing technology development for beef total quality management. Prairie Post - Bull Breeders (February).

    2016 - View publication details

  17. Prieto, N., Swift, M.L., Summerfelt, S.T., Juárez, M., Zijlstra, R.T., Aalhus, J.L. (2015). A Feasibility Study on the Use of Near Infrared Spectroscopy for the Authentication of Depurated Salmon Fillets, 8(10), 2660-2664. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12161-015-0168-9

    2015 - View publication details

  18. Prieto, N., López-Campos, T., Zijlstra, R.T., Aalhus, J.L. (2015). Beef dark cutter segregation by visible and near infrared spectroscopy, 99 147. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.meatsci.2014.07.012

    2015 - View publication details

  19. López-Campos, T., Aalhus, J.L., Prieto, N., Larsen, I., Juárez, M., Basarab, J.A. (2015). Chronological vs. physiological age indicators in beef cattle: Effects of the production system and growth promotants, 99 146. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.meatsci.2014.07.013

    2015 - View publication details

  20. Prieto, N., Juárez, M., Zijlstra, R.T., López-Campos, O., Aalhus, J.L. (2015). Rapid authentication of enhanced quality pork by visible and near infrared spectroscopy, 99 149. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.meatsci.2014.07.010

    2015 - View publication details

Contact

Research facility

Lacombe Research and Development Centre
6000 C and E Trail
Lacombe, AB T4L 1W1
Canada

Expertise

Agriculture›Agri-Food
Agriculture›Beef
Agriculture›Biochemistry›Food
Agriculture›Bioinformatics
Agriculture›Food Science›Food biochemistry
Agriculture›Meat science
Agriculture›Pork
Agriculture›Sensory evaluation
Food›Agriculture
Food›Cooking

Affiliations

Canadian Meat Science Association (CMSA) - Director Western Canada & Chair of the Website and Electronic Communications Committee.

 

 

Language

English

Other languages

Spanish