Anastasia Kyriakoudi, Stella A. Ordoudi, Maria Z. Tsimidou
The present study aimed at examining the limitations of the protective effect that strong phenolic antioxidants have on the oxidation of saffron apocarotenoids (sugar esters of crocetin or crocins, CRTSEs) using an in vitro gastrointestinal digestion model that mimics physiological conditions in the upper digestive tract. The bioaccessibility of CRTSEs from infusions of two commercial blends of saffron with dried fruits, herbs and spices was investigated. Results are discussed with regard to the total phenol content, DPPH radical scavenging activity and also changes in the contents of...
Anastasia Kyriakoudi, Evangelia Pouliou, Stella A. Ordoudi, Maria Z. Tsimidou
The present study aimed at examining the sensorial and functional attributes of three herbal infusions containing saffron. Results are discussed with regard to their chemical composition, which is expected to be rather complex taking into consideration the synthesis of the commercial blends. Such studies are of great importance for the development of functional saffron based products that are also acceptable by consumers.
Andreia Matos, Andreia Rego, Isabel Castanheira, Ana Sofia Matos
This paper presents a study where Statistical Process Control (SPC) are used as an internal quality control tool to monitor and assess the stability of instrumental blank samples for inorganic arsenic determination by inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS). The use of Short Run control charts combined with process capability analysis revealed to be a suitable tool allowing to detect possible reagent or instrumental contaminations in a daily base.
C. Camerlingo, M. Portaccio, M. Lepore
Extra virgin (EV) olive oil has been characterized by means of micro-Raman spectroscopy. In order to overcome the natural fluorescence of oil a seed layer of Au nanoparticles (GNP) has been used on the top of microscope glass substrates that hosts the liquid sample during the measurement. This method enhances the Raman signal with respect to fluorescence and allows to obtain a deep insight on the chemical and structural state of the sample.
Luisa Mandrile, Andrea Giovannozzi, Francesca Durbiano, Andrea Mario Rossi
The scope of this work is to standardize a Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering methodology for the detection of food contaminants in order to provide good compromise between sensitivity and reproducibility of analysis. A stable methodology to analyse fungicide’s traces directly on fruit peal by depositing gold nanoparticles on its surface is proposed. Different types of AuNPs for SERS where synthetized and tested. A comparative study between different AuNPs was performed in order to maximize the enhancement factor. Sensitive and specific method for in-situ detection is provided and two...
Gianluca Persichetti, Giovanni Onorato, Immacolata Angelica Grimaldi, Genni Testa, Romeo Bernini
A compact optofluidic sensor based on liquid jet waveguide has been developed and applied to detect alcohol contents in liquids. Raman spectroscopy improvement is demonstrated thanks to the waveguiding nature of a jet stream. Low detection limits of ethanol in water has been demonstrated (0.34%). The proposed method provides high excitation and collection efficiency of the sample under analysis, avoiding, at the same time, background noise that commonly affects Raman spectroscopy of liquids.
L. Cocola, M. Fedel, G. Tondello, L. Poletto
Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy has been applied to the realization of an instrument for the non-invasive contactless measurement of gaseous oxygen concentration inside sealed food containers. The device performs in-line measurements on samples which are passing on a conveyor belt and has been applied to the measurements on mozzarella cheese bags sealed in modified atmosphere, in which the target oxygen concentration is required to be below 5%. We describe the realization, calibration and validation of the device.
Heidi Ottevaere, Lien Smeesters, Hugo Thienpont, Wendy Meulebroeck
Food quality and food safety are gaining the past decades more and more importance. In particular application domains such as the identification of foreign bodies in solid food streams, the quality screening of vegetables and fruits, the recognition of food products inducing a health risk and themonitoring of the quality and authentication of liquids. In view of this, the authors of this paper started exploring the potentialities of photonics where the main objective consisted in answering the question if food screening methods could be photonics-based.
Federica Corrado, Daniele Simonetti, Antonella De Roma, Daniela Criscuolo, Anna Cutarelli, Bianca Cecere, Giorgio Galiero, Elena Coccia, Carmina Viola, Pasquale Vito, Ettore Varricchio
Corn or wheat (Triticum L., 1753), also said tritico (usually indicates wheter the plant is the kernels of the plant), it is a genus of the family Poaceae (or "glass"), the tribe Triceae. It is an old crop corn, the area is located between the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Considering the variability of its morphological characteristics, we used molecular analysis as a necessary tool for the recognition of the Triticum aestivum.
Antonino Spanu, Massimiliano Valente, Riccardo Leardi, Marco Ciulu, Anna Maria Orlandoni, Francesco Barracu, Gavino Sanna
Here we report results relative to the concentration, in rice grains from 26 different genotypes, of eight elements with an ascertained (As, Pb, Cd) or potential (Cu, Mn, Mo, Ni and Se) toxicity towards humans. All rice genotypes have been cultivated in the same site and irrigated with the same water using three different irrigation methods: continuous flooding, (CF), sprinkler irrigation (SP) and soil saturation (SA). The PCA analysis of results obtained demonstrate that the average amounts of almost all the elements considered - with the only exception of Ni - are minimized in rice...