Food chemistry and analysis (6 CFU)
Prof. Daniele Merli
When: december-january
During the course, it will be discussed how the compounds responsible for the organoleptic characteristics of food originate and how they interact with the receptors to lead to the sensorial perception. Both classical tastes (sour, sweet, umami…), chemestetic sensations (spicy, refreshing, astringent) and olfactory perceptions of food taste will be considered. The biosynthetic ways and reaction mechanism leading to some key compounds involved in food taste will be considered, as well as they transformation during food processing (storage, cooking, maturing).
In detail, the formation of aromatic esters in fruit, of smelling compounds in vegetables (tomatoes, onion, cucumber) and the generation of off-flavour and toxic substances (e.g. acrylamide) and the ways to prevent their formation will be considered.
A thematic part of the course will be focused on the analytical techniques that allows the determination of the geographical location of foods, with particular emphasis to electronic nose and tongue and sniff-chromatography. As examples, the cases of olive oil and honey will be considered.
Lastly, the principal chemical contaminants of foods will be described, describing in detail the analytical techniques for the analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and N-nitrosamines in complex matrices.
Learning ability test: presentation of a topic of the course