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., 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

  2. Blanco, C., Giráldez, F.J., Prieto, N., Benavides, J., Wattegedera, S., Morán, L., Andrés, S., Bodas, R. (2014). Total mixed ration pellets for light fattening lambs: Effects on animal health, 9(2), 258-266. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1751731114002249

    2014 - View publication details

  3. Callejas-Cárdenas, A.R., Caro, I., Blanco, C., Villalobos-Delgado, L.H., Prieto, N., Bodas, R., Giráldez, F.J., Mateo, J. (2014). Effect of vacuum ageing on quality changes of lamb steaks from early fattening lambs during aerobic display, 98(4), 646-651. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.meatsci.2014.06.036

    2014 - View publication details

  4. Prieto, N., López-Campos, O., Aalhus, J.L., Dugan, M.E.R., Juárez, M., Uttaro, B. (2014). Use of near infrared spectroscopy for estimating meat chemical composition, quality traits and fatty acid content from cattle fed sunflower or flaxseed, 98(2), 279-288. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.meatsci.2014.06.005

    2014 - View publication details

  5. López-Campos, O., Aalhus, J.L., Prieto, N., Larsen, I.L., Juárez, M., Basarab, J.A. (2014). Effects of production system and growth promotants on the physiological maturity scores in steers, 94(4), 607-617. http://dx.doi.org/10.4141/CJAS-2014-022

    2014 - View publication details

  6. Prieto, N., Uttaro, B., Mapiye, C., Turner, T.D., Dugan, M.E.R., Zamora, V., Young, M., Beltranena, E. (2014). Predicting fat quality from pigs fed reduced-oil corn dried distillers grains with solubles by near infrared reflectance spectroscopy: Fatty acid composition and iodine value, 98(4), 585-590. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.meatsci.2014.06.009

    2014 - View publication details

  7. Prieto, N., López-Campos, O., Zijlstra, R.T., Uttaro, B., Aalhus, J.L. (2014). Discrimination of beef dark cutters using visible and near infrared reflectance spectroscopy, 94(3), 445-454. http://dx.doi.org/10.4141/CJAS-2014-024

    2014 - View publication details

  8. Prieto, N., Dugan, M.E.R., López-Campos, O., Aalhus, J.L., Uttaro, B. (2013). At line prediction of PUFA and biohydrogenation intermediates in perirenal and subcutaneous fat from cattle fed sunflower or flaxseed by near infrared spectroscopy, 94(1), 27-33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.meatsci.2012.12.014

    2013 - View publication details

  9. Prieto, N., Bodas, R., López-Campos, O., Andrés, S., López, S., Giráldez, F.J. (2013). Effect of sunflower oil supplementation and milking frequency reduction on sheep milk production and composition, 91(1), 446-454. http://dx.doi.org/10.2527/jas.2012-5187

    2013 - View publication details

  10. Prieto, N., Dugan, M.E.R., López-Campos, O., McAllister, T.A., Aalhus, J.L., Uttaro, B. (2012). Near infrared reflectance spectroscopy predicts the content of polyunsaturated fatty acids and biohydrogenation products in the subcutaneous fat of beef cows fed flaxseed. Meat Science, [online] 90(1), 43-51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.meatsci.2011.05.025

    2012 - 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