Food&HealthLL is an innovation environment centred on service users and facilities of the Universitat de València. It aims at involving all actors (the university community and its productive and territorial environment), promoting innovative development and solutions for health, nutrition, food and physical activity problems from a diverse scientific focus. All in order to discover emerging scenarios and to support and explore new ideas, gathering market and technology and fostering the emergence of platforms for public-private action.

The specific units of the Food&HealthLL are encompassed in six categories (nutrition, gastronomy, physical therapy, psychology, physical activity and clinical-biochemical-genetic analysis lab activities). They are totally cross-disciplinary and interlinked within this new LivingLab. The units are the following:

  • Unit of Education and Assistance applied to users and patients and focused on nutrition, physical therapy and psychology.
  • Unit of Clinic-Biochemistry-Genetics: equipped with rapid testing, serodiagnosis and medical laboratory equipment, in addtion to sample extraction and subsequent genetic analysis.
  • Neurofeedback EEG Unit, equipped with WorkStation Mind used to work the relation between analysis and snesorial neurofeedback.
  • Anthropometry and Kinanthropometry Unit, equipped with Plicometer and Anthropometer Siber-Hegner.
  • Gastronomy Unit (GastroLab), equipped with kitchen for students, users and patients to prepare healthy food and recipes as well as  workshop focused on cook therapy. On the other hand, this unit works in the analysis of food components and pollutants, as well as on the development of new cooking tools.
  • Physical activity unit that includes a gym dedicated to design and development which offers adapted, inclusive and healthy physical activity for those people with a high degree of disability. It must be a teaching, care and research area. This new area allows:
    • Persons of limited mobility:
      • Upper body. Example: amputees.
      • Lower body. Example: wheelchair user.
      • Entire body. Example: cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, stroke.
    • People of sensory limitations:
      • Visual disability.
      • Hearing impairment.
    • Cognitive impairments:
      • Learning difficulties. Example: dyslexia.
      • Mental health conditions.
    • Other health conditions: Diabetes, epilepsy, etc.
    • Other situations:
      • Obesity.
      • Elderly people.
      • Rehabilitation after an injury.

The aims of the institute are:

  • The promotion of healthy and sustainable food as a tool of nutritional improvement of the users and patients.
  • To complement nutritional treatment realised by Dieticians and Nutritionists through the interdisciplinary incorporation of other specialists from the field of psychology,  physiotherapy and preventive medicine.
  • To evaluate through clinical, biochemical and genetic trials in order to improve the diagnosis and develop new diagnostic tests that allow the treatment of different diseases.
  • To propose models of food educational intervention for the Universitat users. These models have the ability of being extrapolated to the territorial and fruitful environment of the Universitat.
  • The creation of a public-private collaboration scheme for the execution of training initiatives, basic and traslational research and the development of new business models in city areas, at a local, national and international level.

Food&HealthLL is a 2003 initiative aimed at promoting the quality of life at a health and sustainable food level in the metropolitan area of Valencia through the university community using the University as a test bed platform (with about 70,000 people spread over 3 campuses in the metropolitan area of the city), and being able to review, evaluate and develop new technologies that could be use as new solutions for the improvement of the quality of life. In 2012 Food&HealthLL progress and increases its field of action at a local, national and international level.

For the work developed by doctor Jose M. Soriano del Castillo in Food&HalthLL has won several awards:

  • Eggs Studies Institute Research Award (2004)
  • Award of the Asociación Benéfico-Docente “Profesor Vicente Callao” (Teaching and charitable association “Professor Vicente Callao”) of the Ibero-American Academy of Pharmacy (2004).
  • “Valencia se Solidariza” XI Award. Modality: Valencian Local Government Social Research Grant (2008).
  • Excellent in Education Prize awarded by Conselleria de Educación-Consell Social of the University of Valencia (2009).
  • Cascajares Award for young researchers of food microbiology group of the Spanish Society for Microbiology.

Moreover, the Confederación de Sociedades Científicas de España (COSCE. Confederation of Spanish Scientific Societies) chose Doctor Jose M. Soriano for the Lindau Nobel Meeting in 2011; annual event that has been taken place since 1951 and gather together young scientists and Nobel Prize winners in an informal and open environment.