Dr. Renuka Aggarwal is a Scientist in the Department of Food and Nutrition, College of Community Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. She holds a Ph.D. in Food and Nutrition and brings over 15 years of experience in teaching, research, and extension. Her key areas of expertise include Enhancing Nutritional Quality and Dietary Patterns Integrative Epidemiological and Clinical Nutrition Research, Innovative Food Product Development for Health and Wellness and advanced food analysis. She currently serves as the Principal Investigator of the ICAR-funded All India Coordinated Research Project on Women in Agriculture and as Co-Principal Investigator in several national-level projects funded by DBT, ICSSR, and Nestlé India Ltd. Dr. Aggarwal has published extensively in high-impact international journals and has received best paper and oral presentation awards at prestigious conferences. 

She was also awarded a research fellowship at the Riddett Institute, Massey University, New Zealand. In addition, she serves as the Convener of the Ludhiana Chapter of the Nutrition Society of India (NSI). The chapter has been honoured with the Best Chapter Award for three consecutive years, contributing actively to professional outreach and knowledge dissemination in the field of nutrition science. 

Professional accomplishment- 

Projects:

• All India Coordinated Research Project on Women in Agriculture(ICAR funded project)- PI
• Breeding high yielding quality wheat using nested population and SNP-Chip(DBT funded project)- Co-PI

• Nutritional Awareness Training for Girl students in rural Areas (Misc.51,PC-4056) funded by Nestle India Limited -Co-PI 

• Development of complementary education plan of health and nutrition awareness for school-age children  funded by Indian Council of Social Science Research, Vision Viksit Bharat@2047 (VVB@2047) Co-PI

5 Best research papers 

1. Aggarwal R and  Bains K(2020) Protein, lysine and vitamin D: critical role in muscle and bone health. Critical Rev in Fd Sc Nutr.[Internet]. Dec 8: 1-12. Available from: DOI: 10.1080/10408398.2020.1855101 (NAAS rating: 17.18).
2. Arora L, Aggarwal R, Dhaliwal I, Gupta OP and Kaushik (2023) Assessment of sensory and nutritional attributes of foxtail millet-based food products. Front. Nutr10:1146545. https://doi:org10.3389/fnut.2023.1146545 (NAAS: 12.59)
3. Kaur, P.; Kaur, H.; Aggarwal, R.; Bains, K.; Mahal, A.K.; Singla, L.D.; Gupta, K. (2024)Analysing the Impact of Resistant Starch Formation in Basmati Rice Products: Exploring Associations with Blood Glucose and Lipid Profiles across Various Cooking and Storage Conditions In Vivo. Foods, 13, 1669. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/Foods. (13)11(NAAS: 11.20)
4. Chauhan S, Kaur H, Aggarwal R, Kaur P and Bains K (2025) Impact of Resistant Starch formation in Chickpea Products on Blood Glucose and Lipid Profiles: Effects of Cooking and Storage Conditions. Food Chemistry Advances. 11: doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2024.1424112(Impact factor: 0.5)
5.  Kaur P, Aggarwal R, Kaur H, Sewak A and Bains K(2025)Development and nutritional profiling of Barnyard millet (Echinochloa esculenta )enriched ice-cream and wafer. Annals of Phytomedicine 14(1): 1-10. (NAAS: 7.7)

Awards 

• PAU Merit Scholarship Holder B.Sc.(Home Science)
• PAU Merit Scholarship Holder for M.Sc (Food and Nutrition) 
• Received research fellowship and visited Riddett Institute, Massey University, New Zealand in July-August, 2019 as a visiting scientist
• Best paper award in 6th Technical session of International Conference on “Food, water and nutrition security for health and wellbeing organized by Shahed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi (Virtual) on December, 13-14, 2021.
• Best Paper Award In the 5th International  Conference on Food and Nutrition(USFN) held at Malaysia on November 16-17,2022.
• Third prize in poster presentation in National Symposium on Millets-2022 held at PGIMER, Chandigarh on September 2, 2022.
• Best Oral Presentation  award  in International Conference on ‘Transforming Agrifood Systems in the Face of Climate Change and Energy Transitions’ on November 12-15, 2024 at Punjab Agricultural University.
• Second best poster presentation award at International Conference on Millets- Cultivating Sustainability and nourishing nations held at Amity University, Uttar Pradesh, Noida from January 22-24, 2025.