Marina Heinonen has a chair as Professor of Food Safety (Chemical Food Safety).  She is the current head of the Department of Food and Nutrition (2018-). After earning her doctoral degree (Food Science) at the University of Helsinki in 1990, she has held a teaching position in Food Chemistry including professorship in Functional Foods (2002-2007).  She is serving as an evaluator for research grants at the European Research Council since 2017 and earlier also in 2010-2015 and since 2020 also for the Novo Nordisk Committee on Plant Science, Agriculture and Biotechnology. Her ongoing international activites include scientific expert membership since 2004 at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) NDA Panel and its working groups on health claims (untill 2018) and novel foods (ongoing). She is also a member of the UK Committee on Nutrition and Health Claims as well as a SAB member of FACCE-JPI on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change. Apart from carrying out scientific research and expert tasks she takes an active interest in expressing opinions in the public media concerning chemical food safety and health beneficial effects  of foods.

Her research interest include:

• chemical food safety: reactions in foods
• protein oxidation and protein-lipid interactions
• functional properties of  plant phenolics
• action of natural antioxidants such as phenolic compounds and carotenoids
• food composition: flavonoids, phenolic acids, carotenoids, tocopherols, tocotrienols, fat and fatty acids