WelcomeThe economic development and modernization of our country, its integrations in the European and world circuit of material values imply the necessity of special attention to the quality of products, which have to be competitive and meet the qualitative levels required by this circuit. Food quality represents an extremely complex entity due to the fact that, unlike the one specific to other industrial products, it has a much broader meaning and much deeper effects. If for the majority of industrial products, quality is illustrated by means of one feature or a group of well-defined physical and chemical feature, in the case of food products quality encompasses sensory, physico- chemical, biochemical, microbiological and toxicological characteristics. We have to emphasize the fact that the food product, through its quality, has dramatic implications upon life as food represents an essential factor of metabolic processes and of organic equilibrium. Achieving products for large collectivities, food companies are responsible for the consumers’ state of health, taking part in one of the most effective ways of protecting and promoting health. As a result, the food production has to meet three vital requirements: · To have hygienic qualities; · To have nutritional qualities; · To have sensory qualities. These requirements involve a permanent control through the usage of complex and performant methods which would allow the collection of certain and reproducible data. Recent issues related to sicknesses caused by food consumption , as well as those regarding dioxine, heavy metals, acrilamid, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, have reduced consumers’ trust in some food products. In order to regain these people’s trust, the legislative organisms and food companies have stared to place the features related to food safety before those referring to sensory and nutritional qualities. The new approach, generically called food safety, refers to the safety measures applied to food products with regard to microbial, chemical and physical threats which might occur along the entire nutritional chain and which could jeopardize consumers’ health. In other words, the food safety measures protect the quality of food products. In the previous century the technological revolution lead to an extraordinary increase of the offer in food products, without people taking into account the processing impact on the nutritional value of food . The abundant, ultra-refined food, the consumers’ insufficient information regarding the food-health impact, the wrong selection of food products (on sensory grounds, as a result of aggressive advertising, according to the financial possibilities) lead to a worrying increase of food-related illnesses, also known as civilization illnesses (obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancers, etc.) Modern global trends in the field of food products involve the use of some raw materials which contain active biological compounds ( antioxidants, phytosterols, isoflavones, bioflavones, isotiocianats, conjugated linoleic acid – CLA, resveratol, etc. ) which posses certain specific features that determine a positive physiological response when they reach the metabolic circuit. This orientation rests within a special dynamic and has generated a new range of products called “functional food”, whose impact grows exponentially on the world market. The promotion of such food products requires: · The existence of some important knowledge regarding the presence of some active biological compounds in various raw materials; · The assessment of food content in components which offer them functionality These requirements ensure an effective monitoring of the quantity and efficiency of the active biological components in the raw materials and finite products. Thus, the current trend of consumers in the developed countries is towards safe products, which, in addition to that, by means of their content in bioactive compounds, should guarantee the state of health (functional food products). In this context, the sensory qualities of food products have become a secondary selection criterion for the consumer, however without losing their economic significance for producers. The sensory qualities of food products obtained at industrial levels cannot be ensured and capped for the longest possible time unless a wide range of additives is used. The latter are either natural or synthesized compounds, whose addition in food products is under strict regulations and whose safety is periodically reassessed based on the latest scientifical information. For that reason, the use of allowed additives and abidance of allowed additive dosage are essential conditions in order to maintain the consumers‘ health, which is why it is necessary to observe the types of additives used and their levels. The project in question aims at extending the performances of the Physico-chemical Analyses Laboratory for the Research Centre in Food Biotechnologies and Aquaculture within the Faculty of Food Science and Engineering at “Dunarea de Jos“ University in Galati in order to insure the food products quality control through the development of high-performance techniques which should allow extremely detailed analyses in: 1. the food safety assessment and certification through: · Determining some pathogen microorganisms: Listeria; Salmonella; coliformi fecali; stafilococi coagulazo+; sulphitoreductive clostridiums; Bacillus cereus. · Determining microbiological loads of the air · Determining microbiological loads of the surfaces · Determining some mycotoxines: patuline, afltoxines B1,B2,G1,G2; ochratoxine A; zearalenone, trichotecenes; DON; fumonisines (B1+B2). · Determining some toxic metals: lead , copper, zync, etc. · Determining some pesticides and other chemical contaminants: organochlorurates, organophosphorics, carbamates, etc. · Determining some additives: colourings, preservers, antiseptics, aromatizers, etc. · Determining genetically modified organisms/products. · The HACCP analysis · Appropriate labeling, with the specification of potential allergens and OGMs. 2. The food quality assessment and certification through: · High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is an extensively used laboratory technique, being introduced as a safe method of controlling food products within the legislation of several state. The dosage of various compounds form products involves a preparational techniques, the chromatographic separation and detection (based on the refraction index, by means of UV/VIS spectroscopy, the fluorimetric index, the conductrometric index, etc.). There have been established procedures for numerous groups of organic compounds. It is currently used for: · Identification and dosage of glucides. Through the HPLC method one can simultaneously determine monoglucides (glucosis, fructosis, etc.), diglucides (zaharosis, maltosis, etc.) as well as oligosugars. Thus, simultaneous assessment of glucosis, fructosis, and zaharosis allows the detection of illegal addition of invert sugar in food products. The method can be used to determine the lactosis in centrifugated powder milk, thus making possible the direct assessment of the fat concentration. It is used to determine raphinosis and stahiosis, their presence indicating the addition of soya flour in meat products. Assessing the presence of some oligosugars allows selecting sources of compounds with prebiotic characteristics necessary to the development of an important and interesting range of functional food products, which is the probiotics. · The compositional assessment of lipids. Using this method, we can determine the nature and percentage quantity of fat saturated and unsaturated acids from oils or fats. The chromatographic analysis is also useful to determine the content of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in animal based products (beef, milk, butter). The conjugated linoleic acid has been lately under the nutritionists’ scrutiny due to its beneficial properties in cardiovascular, malign diseases, in stimulating the defence system. · The composition in aminoacids. The HPLC technique is the best separation method of aminoacids in food products and especially of the essential aminoacids. The investigation into the presence of the essential aminoacids proportion is a compulsory in order to evaluate the nutritional qualities of proteins from various products, in particular those of proteins from products obtained by using some proteins with different qualities (e.g. the introduction of proteic derivatives in soya, or the mechanically deboned meat – MDM – in food products). At the same time, by using HPLC we can determine the authenticity and type of some proteins. This way, the concentration and relative proportion of aminoacids are two criteria by which one can identify the type of protein in a meat product. This assessment relies on the fact that there are small variations of L- aminoacids quantities from various proteic sources. · The indentification of type and quantities for proteins and various peptides. · The dosage of the vitamins: hydrosoluble and liposoluble, other substances with vitaminical action. · Other types of substances. HPLC is a useful technique for determinig the minor compounds and metabolites. One can determine: colourings in fruit juices of wine, diacetyl in butter, flavonoides in fruit juices, antioxidants from vegetals , etc. The spectrophotometric techniques are indispensable for the dosage of compounds which absorb in UV (antioxidants, vitamins, aromatic aminoacids, nucleic acids, nucleotides, etc.). Based on refraction indeces we can detect glucides (xilosis, fructosis, glucosis, manosis, zaharosis, maltosis, lactosis, maltotriosis, etc.), organic acids (citric, tartaric, malic, lactic, acetic, etc.), methanol, ethanol, etc. · The chromatographic gas analysis, extremely useful, especially for: - identification of counterfeit food products rich in carbohydrates, such as fruit juices and honey, by means of the precise ascertainment of the glucidic profile; - the hall-marking of beverage and milk products, as a proof of the verified authenticity and origin. Ø Microbiological analyses: Leuconostoc mesenteroides (sugar quality ), Bifidobacterium sp. (functional milk products) etc. Ø Nutritional labeling The proposed project will not end when the 18 allocated months are over. The equipment purchased through this program will support the diversification for the range of the RENAR accredited analyses, which will become compulsory for the nutritional labeling, the free food product circulation in EU space and the imported food product control.
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