Carola Strassner

Prof. Dr. Carola Strassner is a Professor for Sustainable Food Systems and Nutritional Ecology at the Faculty of Home Economics and Nutritional Sciences, Facility Management at Münster University of Applied Sciences. She has held this position since 2007 and also serves as managing partner at a'verdis sustainable foodservice solutions in Münster since 2008 and at ÖGS in Frankfurt since 2001. Her academic leadership extends to membership on the Board of Trustees of the Institute of Theological Zoology, the DGE's Out-of-Home Catering Working Group, and the Steering Committee of the Organic Food System Programme.

Dr. Strassner earned her PhD in Ecotrophology with an epidemiological study on raw food nutrition at Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen in 1997, following a Master of Science in Applied Chemistry with a focus on Food Science from the University of Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa (1990) and Bachelor of Science degrees in Biochemistry and Microbiology from the University of Cape Town (1987). She further enhanced her qualifications with an MBA from Henley Management College (now Henley Business School) in the UK.

Her research spans sustainable food systems transformation, organic agriculture, and nutritional ecology with particular emphasis on out-of-home catering systems including school meal programs. She investigates how grassroots initiatives, policy frameworks, and social innovations contribute to sustainability transitions in food systems. Her work examines the connections between organic food systems and sustainable diets, analyzing how these systems can bridge the intention-behavior gap in sustainable food consumption.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals a strong focus on multi-level perspectives in sustainability transitions, with particular attention to food policy groups, organic food processing quality, and regional food system transformations across Europe, North Africa, and other global contexts. Her research increasingly incorporates comparative analyses of sustainable diet indices, consumer behavior patterns, and the role of territorial embeddedness in food systems.

Dr. Strassner actively supervises bachelor's and master's theses in areas related to sustainable food systems, nutritional ecology, school meals, and sustainability in foodservice. She teaches courses including 'Scientific Work,' 'Nutritional Ecology,' 'School Meals,' and 'Sustainability in Foodservice' in the Bachelor's program, and 'Research fields of sustainable service and food industries,' 'Sustainable production and processing in the food chain,' and 'Transforming School Meals for Health and Nutrition' in the Master's program.

Her professional activities extend to multiple research projects including the Organic Food System Programme, ProOrg - Organic Processing, and TEFSI - Uni Teacher Education. She is an active member of several professional organizations including the International Research Network for Organic Food Quality and Health (FQH), the International Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR), the German Nutrition Society (DGE), and the German Society for Home Economics (DGH).