Gerhard Rechkemmer is full professor and chairman of the unit biofunctionality of food at the Life and Food Sciences Center Weihenstephan of the Technische Universitaet Muenchen. His main interests are to study the functional effects of phytochemicals, with a major focus on polyphenolic substances and on carotenoids in relation to colon carcinogenesis, cardiovascular health and obesity.

NAME
With his studies Max Rubner (1854-1932), physician and physiologist, laid the foundation of today's nutrition science. Rubner studied medicine in Leipzig and Munich, attained a doctorate in 1878 (on the absorption of certain foods in the human intestinal tract) and qualified as a professor for physiology with a study on the calorific values of nutrients in 1883. Professor in ordinary for hygiene in Marburg since 1887, he was appointed in 1891 as the successor of Robert Koch and was professor and director of the Hygiene Institute in Berlin. From 1909 to 1922 he taught physiology and founded the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Arbeitsphysiologie (research centre for working environment and human factors). With his experimental work on the energy content of nutrients Max Rubner created the bases for the today still valid calorie tables.

ORGANISATION
Max Rubner-Institut is granted the status of a federal high authority and is subordinate directly to the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV). President of Max Rubner-Institut is Prof. Dr. Gerhard Rechkemmer.

TASKS AND GOALS
Max Rubner-Institut is the research and consulting body of the BMELV in the fields nutrition, nutritional-physiological effects of food, improvement of the nutritional behaviour, health consumer protection in the food sector as well as evaluation, assurance and improvement of the product and process quality in food.
The research focus lies on the determination and nutritional-physiological evaluation of health-relevant ingredients in food, the investigation of careful, resource-maintaining methods for processing, and on the quality assurance of plant and animal food. The investigation of economic and sociological parameters of nutrition and the improvement of the nutrition information are thereby important subsections.

Max Rubner-Institut is responsible for the advancement and realisation of the national nutritional monitoring, which is footed on the national consumption study II. It works on issues dealing with the safety of food and settles also governmental tasks within the framework of the Agrarian Statistics Act and the Precautionary Radiological Protection Act.

STRUCTURE
Departments with cross-product research topics:
- Department of Physiology and Biochemistry of Nutrition (Karlsruhe)
- Department of Nutritional Behaviour (Karlsruhe)
- Department of Food and Bio Process Engineering (Karlsruhe)
- Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology (Kiel)

Departments with research topics along the process chain:
- Department of Safety and Quality of Milk and Fish Products (Kiel)
- Department of Safety and Quality of Fruit and Vegetables (Karlsruhe)
- Department of Safety and Quality of Meat (Kulmbach)
- Department of Safety and Quality of Cereals (Detmold)

FINANCING
Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV)

ANNUAL BUDGET
Basic financing 2007: 36.5 Mio. EURO
Third-party financing 2007: 2.6 Mio. EURO

STAFF AND/OR PERMANENT POSTS
approx. 428, including 106 scientists

Website: http://www.mri.bund.de/