Dr. Ahmed has interdisciplinary research experiences focusing on engineering properties of foods and biopolymers including rheology, glass transition and dielectric properties, and antimicrobial nanopackaging. He has published about 150 peer-reviewed research papers and 35 book chapters. He has edited 9 books including Glass and State Transitions in Food and Biological Materials, Advances in Food Rheology and Applications, Engineering Properties of Foods, Handbook of Food Process Design, Starch-based Polymeric Materials and Nanocomposites: Starch chemistry, Processing and Applications. Currently, Dr. Ahmed is serving as one of the Editors-in-Chief of Legume Science (Wiley) and Editorial Board Members for many journals including Food Packaging & Shelf-life (Elsevier).

Dr. Ahmed has a long association with Dr. Rafael Auras, School of Packaging, Michigan State University, and they completed one collaborative project on polylactide-based antimicrobial nanopackaging.