Maria Kapsokefalou is Professor in Human Nutrition at the Agricultural University of Athens (AUA). She is the Director of the Institute of Agriculture and Food of the AUA Research Center, the Director of the Graduate Program “Food, Nutrition, and Health” and the Director of the Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Analysis at AUA.  She is a member of the Board of the European Food Information Council (Eufic) and a member of the Board of Directors, European Food Information Resource (EuroFIR) AISBL.  She has served as the Deputy Rector on Student Affairs, Academic Collaborations and Outreach at AUA and as a member of various state bodies on food and nutrition policy and research strategy at national level. 

Following a BSc in Chemistry at the University of Athens, Maria Kapsokefalou pursued her graduate studies in Food Science and in Nutrition at Cornell University as a Fulbright Scholar.  She received her MSc in 1989 and PhD in 1992 and continued her scientific development in Nutrition at Cornell University, as a Postdoctoral Research Associate as a recipient of the Nutricia Research Foundation International Training Fellowship, at ETH Zurich as a visitor and at the University of Crete as a Researcher and Lecturer in Food Science and Nutrition until 2000.  In 2001 she joined the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at the Agricultural University of Athens.

She has over 20 years of experience in developing, participating and/or coordinating projects that link the composition of foods to their nutritional impact and aim to promote Public Health though better nutrition.  In particular, she has conducted studies on food, beverage and water intake in various population groups and on the socioeconomic factors that may affect food intake, also in relation to food aid models (school lunches, food packages, food banks etc).  HelTH, a new food information tool, namely a dataset that provides information on the composition, health and quality claims and allergen presence of foods has been developed by her research team and is now available for various uses.

Her work is currently focusing in studies on the development and application of food composition databases and in consumption surveys.  Ongoing project involves the evaluation of alternative protein sources, the presence ultra-processed foods in the market, the testing of the NOVA system and consumer perceptions on plant based food and Ultra Processed Foods.