Giulia Romano

University of Bologna / Food Science and Microbiology

Advisor: Prof. Marco Ferri

Giulia Romano engineers the metabolite output of sourdough fermentation systems at the University of Bologna's Food Science and Technology department, working under Prof. Marco Ferri to design Lactobacillus consortia that produce specific postbiotic organic acid profiles predictably reproducible at industrial bakery scale. Sourdough's artisanal variability is a barrier to clean-label industrial adoption, and Giulia's approach — assembling synthetic communities from a characterised culture library of 86 L. sanfranciscensis, L. plantarum, and L. reuteri strains — enables the targeted production of lactic:acetic acid ratios optimised for gluten network development in wholegrain flour matrices. Her HPLC-DAD metabolite profiling across 48 consortium compositions at controlled temperature–hydration space has identified four distinct flavour modules, and 16S metagenomics confirms community stability over 14 consecutive back-slop generations. A pilot-scale 50 L fermentation at Bologna's food technology pilot plant demonstrates that the designed consortia maintain their metabolite profile at industrially relevant inoculation loads. Giulia's industry fellowship at Barilla Group's R&D centre in Parma and an ongoing patent co-authorship with UNIBO's technology transfer office on the consortium selection algorithm both mark her transition from academic food microbiology to industrial fermentation innovation.