Key words:
food technology and preservation, food analytical and bioanalytical methods, functional foods, nutrigenomics, functional biopolymer-based materials
The research in the area of Food Science and Technology carried out at GUT covers all steps along the chain “From field to fork” and is not limited to chemical sciences; in contrast it is interdisciplinary and also engages specialists from the agricultural or health sciences. The main strength and greatest diversity of investigated topics is executed at the Dept. of Food Chemistry, Technology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Chemistry, however also studies of other research groups at this Faculty frequently concentrate on specific aspects related to food sciences. The following research areas are pursued that refer to the consecutive steps on the road from “Field to Fork”:
Field:
experimental and field studies aimed at the assessment of the impact of environmental pollutants on soil and crop quality; the influence of non-conventional, especially involving the use of microoranisms, plant crop protection on the healthiness of obtained crops and then quality of food products
Crop:
selection of crops with particularly promising composition of bioactive components with the aid of the formerly developed and still expanded toolbox of analytical and bioanalytical methods
Food products:
the design and development of functional food products with improved safety and quality, with particular emphasis on nutritional value and health benefits; search for new combinations of bioactive components, beneficial microorganisms in this number, to design functional foods, including functional fermented products, addressing both general consumers as well as those with specific dietary requirements; continuos development of the array of modern analytical and bioanalytical methods of food analysis to select and assess the composition and quality of proposed food products
Food technology:
cooperation with food industry on the development, implementation and marketing of new products; supporting food producers with up-to-date and knowledgable advice concerning their food products and production lines; development of new methods of food preservation ensuring among others the safety of minimally processed foods; obtaining of new biopeptides for the use in food industry as well as generation of bioactive peptides during food processing; isolation and characterization of enzymes with potential application in the food industry
Food quality:
cooperation with food industry in the area of food safety and compliance with national and international standards; development of new set of methods to monitor food products along the whole production line with particular emphasis on functional ingredients such as bioactive phytochemicals and probiotics; the assessment of sensory quality of foods
Health impact:
the development of biological models suitable to monitor health benefits of bioactive ingredients and most of all whole products containing them; development of modern analytical, bioanalytical and genomic methods for the assessment of health impact of food products; application of nutrigenomic tools to investigate the impact of bioactive food components, with particular emphasis on antioxidants, on human genome function; evaluation of the content and development of preservation methods ensuring maximal maintenance of bioactive ingredients of human milk realized in cooperation with pediatric medicine research groups
Waste revalorisation:
exploitation of agricultural and food industry wastes for high-value products; isolation of natural polymers form biomass for their conversion into functional biopolymer-based materials, among them: biodegradable food packaging, food additives, products with cosmetic and medicinal applications or dietary supplements; enhancement of the content of bioactive phytochemicals in plant crop waste by elicitor treatments to obtain raw material for the production of organic fertilizers or biofumicants as well as a source of bioactive compounds for dietary supplements production
