Experience
Dr. Zand is an internationally acclaimed expert in the field of infant nutrition she is the author of several peer reviewed publications and is frequently invited to deliver plenary and other invited lectures at major symposia and at international conferences on food and nutrition. She is regularly engaged with the media, including the BBC, Channel 4, and Channel 5 as an expert in food science and nutrition. Her recent commentary on Food Poverty in the Evening Standard as part of their Food Hunger December 2020 campaign was very well received.
As well as a member of the Institute of Leadership and Management (Inst.LM) Dr Zand is also a Fellow of the Institute of Food Science & Technology (FIFST) providing food and nutrition advice to both the public and private sector such as Kent, Lewisham and Greenwich councils. She is frequently invited to contribute to food related projects including Good Food in Greenwich (GFIG), promotion of healthy nutrition in relation to early life development such as “Eating Well: first year of life Practical guide” published by the Caroline Walker Trust and “Baby food in the UK” First Step Nutrition. Dr Zand's research has also been referenced in Public Health England (2019) rapid scoping review examining the role and impact of commercial baby foods and drinks on the diets of children aged 4 months.
Dr Zand has on-going engagements with large multi-national companies through to small regional SMEs developing new protocols for analytical based optimizations of the nutritional quality of new food products. She has also worked on health claims, labelling and legislation, the application of modified atmosphere packaging in prolonging post-harvest shelf-life and waste reduction of perishable food. Dr Zand also has expertise the analysis of food and the effective implementation of appropriate Total Management Quality Systems /HACCP. She is the badge holder of Global Standard for Food Safety Issue 8 Lead Auditor and is currently responsible for the accreditation of the ASL laboratory services at the university against ISO 17025:2017.
Dr Zand is member of Kent and Medway NHS Trust Joint Research Collaboration group, All Party Parliamentary Food and Health Forum, and has recently been invited to talk on infant feeding in the UK. She is currently a member of the Research award board of Coeliac UK and is also a Food Standard Agency registered specialist, joining the board of reviewers of the Journal of Foods (JFOOD) (2020). This is in addition to previously serving as a Guest Editor for a Special issue on Infant and Child Nutrition (2015) for JFOOD, Associate Editor (2016) for Food Processing and Technology (MOJFPD), and as an Editorial Board Member for Journal of Pharmacy and Nutrition (JPANS).
