Day 1 :
Keynote Forum
Robert Elias
BioComposites Centre - Bangor University, UK
Keynote: Low environmental impact packaging: From pulp moulded to bioplastic
Time : 09:15-10:00
Biography:
Robert Elias is the Director of the BioComposites Centre at Bangor University with a staff of 26 Scientists. The centre was established in 1989 which works with companies to develop new technologies based on the use of sustainable materials. The centre has state of the art facilities including pilot scale equipment that enables companies to demonstrate their ideas by developing prototype materials. He has major interest in the development of bio-derived materials that reduce global warming potential and has an industrial and academic background in natural fibre production. His expertise includes wood based panel production, biomass extraction, chemical composition and product development. His current research interests include bio refining, production of bioplastic products, extraction of value added molecules from plant materials, utilisation of wastes and agricultural co-products for packaging and construction applications.
Abstract:
In recent years, non-wood fibres such as straw (wheat, rice and barley), grass, bamboo and oil palm empty fruit bunches have been used as alternative fibre sources for pulp moulding products. Such fibres are normally treated as agricultural wastes and burned or composted, the advantages of using such fibres for packaging solutions include: Economical, readily available, good processing characteristics and environmental benefits. This talk will summarise research outcomes from a range of past and current projects undertaken at The BioComposites Centre (BC). A key challenge for biobased materials is to overcome the barriers to wider commercial adoption. The talk will also look at some of the barriers that are hampering the development of biopolymer products. Factors such as processing cycle time and high raw material costs will be highlighted alongside the environmental benefits of using biopolymers. A critical area of research that is emerging is the potential to increase shelf life by using moulded products or bio-based polymers. Increasing shelf life could be a major factor in helping fully or partially to replace plastic packaging in the near future. Performance of pulp moulded packaging is influenced by a number of interrelated factors which can be broadly separated into three areas: fibre characteristics, method used to form the moulded product and surface properties. Through the safe biopack project, partners in Malaysia and the UK are collaborating to tackle all of these issues and improve packaging products made from a variety of different raw materials. BC have contributed by assessing alternatives to the established method of chemical pulping of empty fruit bunch fibre. By using no chemicals but just controlling the refining stages we have successfully produced a fibre size distribution suitable for the production of moulded products, thus helping to reduce the environmental impact of the whole process. In terms of surface properties it is well known amongst food suppliers and retailers that fresh products, particularly soft fruits and mushrooms are very sensitive to the type of material used in their packaging. In the case of mushrooms if the packaging is too hydrophilic, moisture will be transferred to the fibre based packaging which can lead to loss of pack strength and consequently a degradation in food quality as the mushrooms then dry out. However if the packaging is hydrophobic then the mushrooms sweat and because the moisture cannot escape they degrade quickly. By adding food contact approved waterproof additives to pulp moulded products the degree of hydrophobicity of the surface can be controlled so that both water barrier performance and breathability can be tailored to maximise and extend product life.
Keynote Forum
Tanja Cirkovic Velickovic
Ghent University Global Campus, Incheon, South Korea
Keynote: Interactions of major catechin of green tea with food proteins
Time : 10:00-10:45
Biography:
Tanja Cirkovic Velickovic has completed her PhD from Belgrade University and Postdoctoral studies from Karolinska Institute, Department of Medicine. She is the Head of the Center of Excellence for Molecular Food Science of the University of Belgrade; Professor of Biochemistry at the Department of Biochemistry of University of Belgrade; and Professor of Food Chemistry of Ghent University and Ghent University Global Campus, Korea. She has published more than 85 papers in reputed journals.
Abstract:
Naturally occurring polyphenols can form complexes with globular proteins and such interaction may result in complexation, protein unfolding and precipitation. Major green tea catechin, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is a major polyphenol of green tea. We have investigated binding force, binding strength and binding places for EGCG to major food allergens: 2S albumins of peanut, ovalbumin, alfa-lactalbumin and beta-lactoglobulin. The effects of glycation of beta-lactoglobulin via Maillard reaction on the binding capacity for EGCG have also been studied. Binding constants were measured by the method of fluorophore quenching. Binding of EGCG was confirmed by circular dichroism (CD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and microcalorimetry. The binding sites were examined by molecular docking. Uptake of EGCG/allergen complexes by monocytes was studied by flow cytometry. EGCG binds to major food allergens of peanut, egg and milk with a binding constant in the range of 104 M-1. Glycation of beta-lactoglobulin and Ca-depletion did not significantly influence the binding constant of EGCG for the examined proteins. Conformational changes were observed for both native and glycated proteins upon complexation with EGCG. Complexation of proteins with EGCG slows down uptake of proteins by monocytes. EGCG binds to major food allergens and induces conformational changes and slowes down uptake by monocytes. Those effects could be relevant for the processes of allergic sensitization and allergic inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract.
- Food and Beverage Packaging | Food Safety and Quality | Food Package Testing
Chair
Loredana Liguori
University of Salerno, Italy
Co-Chair
Richard Coles
Emagine Packaging Limited, UK
Session Introduction
MeeKyung Kim
National Institute of Food and Drug Safety Evaluation - MFDS, South Korea
Title: Regulations and current issues of food contact materials
Biography:
MeeKyung Kim has completed her PhD from State University of New York at Albany, USA. She is a Senior Researcher and Director at Food Additives and Packaging Division, National Institute of Food and Drug Safety Evaluation (NIFDS), Korea. During 2000-2012, she had worked at National Animal, Plant and Fisheries Quarantine and Inspection Agency. Her specialty was the development of scientific quarantine and inspection system included analytical methods for POPs in food of animal origin. Since 2013, she is working at NIFDS for the method development of food additives and food contact materials and for the safety assurance of food and related packaging.
Abstract:
Standards and specifications including labeling for food contact materials (FCMs) are hereby introduced. Major differences between countries related regulations, recent trends, and related researches are also presented. Standards and specifications regarding FCMs consist of general rules which describe purpose, scope and structure. The common specification standards describe manufacturing process and usage, application of the rules, suitability determination, sampling and handling methods, storage and distribution standards. The labeling standards of FCMs require the marking on all the food contact articles regarding the names and addresses of businesses, material names, and the words for food or labeling of utensils design for food, and precautions. With technological advances, many novel materials have been developed for food contact articles. In this field, the application of new technology can greatly improve thermal resistance, barrier function and anti-gas permeability etc. However, some well-known or unknown compounds inside food packaging might leach/migrate into food or beverage. Nowadays, since the database concerning these leached/migrated compounds is still inadequate and doubts and anxiety continue to persist in the public imagination, safety assessment related research works need to be continuously carried out. Researches have been engaged in numerous projects to secure the safety of food packaging in recent years. Some major projects are as follows: study of nanomaterial-applied food containers and packaging, development of analytical methods regarding perfluorinated compounds, antioxidants and UV absorbers migrate from polyethylene and polypropylene, bisphenol analogues, and mineral oils from food packaging materials. Non-intentionally added substances, nano materials, plastic colorants, and volatile organic compounds in food packaging will continue to be very challenging topics in the present and near future. Harmonization of standards, specifications and analytical methods are also needed to manage safety of FCMs. Collaboration studies of international bodies are suggested to solve these global issues.
Francesco Capecchiacci
University of Florence, Italy
Title: Contamination tests of metal and non-metal elements from packaging materials to food gases
Biography:
Francesco Capecchiacci has graduated in Geological Sciences at the University of Florence, where he also completed the PhD in Earth Sciences. He currently works at the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Florence as post doc research fellow and is also associated to National Research Council (CNR)-Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources (IGG) section of Florence. He has a long experience in the field of fluid geochemistry and in particular for all those aspects concerning the knowledge, practice and develop of sampling and analytical methods for water and gas in natural environments (in particular volcanic and geothermal) and anthropized systems (landfills and industrial areas). Work experience in national and international projects at Department of Earth Sciences - University of Florence and CNR-IGG of Florence.
Abstract:
This study presents the results of different tests carried out to evaluate the possible contamination of food gas due to contact with different materials used for gas storage and distribution, including carbon steel cylinders and tanks, as well as copper pipes. A specific procedure for sampling and analysis of up to 26 metal and non-metal elements, was defined and tested on: (i) CO2 stored in a ~45 m long copper pipe, (ii) CO2, N2 and O2 stored within 36 carbon steel cylinders of different inner volume, and (iii) CO2 stored in 20 tanks constituted of different steel types (e.g. CRYALSIM, SELCO 52 LT FALK). After a storage period, the gases were transferred to a trap, i.e. dewars equipped with gas bubble diffusers and filled with 100 mL of a 1% HNO3 solution in Milli-Q water. The analysis was carried out by ICP-AES and ICP-MS. Although no reference values indicating the concentration limits of metal/metalloid contaminants in food gases are currently promulgated, the effective contamination level of the elements that were systematically detected in the CO2 samples (Al, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, and Zn) was estimated by considering the limit concentrations for mineral waters for human consumption (European Directive 98/83/EC). Such a comparison showed that the contaminant concentrations were 3 to 6 orders of magnitude lower than the limit concentrations (LCs). This implies that the amount of contaminants that could be possibly related to the contact of CO2 with the selected packaging materials was negligible.
Ghislaine Laraki
Microbiotech Inc., Canada
Title: Packaging supplier approval program that meets the food safety requirements
Biography:
Ghislaine Laraki is holding a Master degree in Microbiology and Immunology from McGill University in 2003 and a Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Montreal in 2001. She has five years experience in the pharmaceutical industry like Merck Frosst, Canada and Boehringer Ingelheim, Canada and 10 years in the food industry as a food safety specialist. She is training, implementing and auditing food safety programs as GMP, HACCP and GFSI (SQF, FSSC 22 000 and BRC). She is a Microbiologist certified by the CCM (Canadian College of Microbiologists), and a Certified SQF (Safe Quality Food) Consultant.
Abstract:
Several food safety hazards are related to food packaging. These hazards may be microbiological (presence of pathogenic microorganisms due to contamination by vermin or inadequate handling or dirty facility of the supplier), chemical (presence of allergens or packaging materials not of food quality and not suitable for the intended use leading to chemical migration from packaging into food) or physical (presence of hazardous metal and/or non-metallic foreign material (glass, wood…). What do we request from our suppliers in order to control these hazards? To answer to this question, different case studies will be addressed in this presentation.
Francesca Melini
CREA - Research Centre for Food and Nutrition, Italy
Title: Packaging as a carrier of information on nutrition and health claims in cereal-based products: From the source of to the gluten-free claim
Biography:
Francesca Melini has been working at the CREA Research Centre on Food and Nutrition since 2007. She acquired expertise on cereals and cereal products with a specifi c attention on food authenticity and labelling, protected designations of origin, sourdough and gluten-free bread. She has published scientific papers and some book chapters on food authenticity, protected designations of origin ang gluten-free products.
Abstract:
Bread and bakery products play a pivotal role in the diet of worldwide consumers, despite considerable differences in country consumption patterns. The food market hence offers myriad cereal-based products meeting the taste, dietary habits and nutritional requirements of everyone. The main role of packaging in this food category is to prevent staling and spoilage and keep crunchiness. Packaging is also the carrier by which consumers make informed choices when buying cereal-products. It displays the content through images, appeals consumers, and claims nutrition and health properties thereof. This work presents the main nutrition and health claims which are mandatorily reported on packaging of cereal-based products, with a focus on understanding the nutritional recommendations by the World Health Organization they originate from, the technological challenges encountered by the food industry and the health benefits of the new formulations. The importance of formulating bread and bakery products which are whole-grain, with a low salt content, free from palm oil or high fructose corn syrup is discussed. A special attention is paid to packaging of gluten-free products. Packaging plays, in fact, a key role in gluten-free products, as labels contribute to better understand whether or not gluten-containing ingredients and additives have been used. The gluten-free claim and label thus give consumers a standardized tool for managing health and dietary intake. Clean labels are also discussed, since over the last two decades the number of health-conscious consumers has increased to search for foods which are minimally processed or formulated with bio-preservation techniques.
Giuseppina Adiletta
Università di Salerno, Italy
Title: Effect of different packaging systems on the shelf life of soft-seeded pomegranate arils
Biography:
Giuseppina Adiletta has completed her PhD with scholarship in Food Technolgy from Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria, Italy, associated with University of Salerno Italy. She is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Industrial Engineering at University of Salerno, Italy and she is working on food preservation and innovative food process technologies. She has published more than 20 papers in reputed journals on different food technology topics and she has been serving as Rewiever of several reputed journals.
Abstract:
A new soft-seeded pomegranate cultivar, Kingdom®, suitable for ready-to-eat arils, was selected to study the shelf life during storage at 5°C. Kingdom is a late variety with a sour touch flavour and excellent red colour of arils. Kingdom® fruit were randomly harvested from trees grown under biological practices in the commercial orchard owned by Comercial Gallo. Fruits were picked up at commercial ripening stage with depth-red skin and arils and then processed for aril extraction. Arils were stored in three different packages: micro-perforated polymeric film, semipermeable film and semipermeable film with an adsorbent material® (Aldomar). The arils were stored for 21 days at 5°C, 90±2% RH and sampled at different times during cold storage. The main physico-chemical properties were evaluated to investigate the shelf life of soft-seeded Kingdom® arils. Furthermore, malondialdehyde content and the enzymatic activity of lipoxygenase were determined. The water status of arils was monitored directly on the intact fruit measuring the relaxation times (T1 and T2) by means of a low resolution NMR spectrometer. Three components were observed and recognized as water in the vacuole, cytoplasm, and cell wall in T2 spectra of fresh pomegranate arils. The main results showed that the semipermeable film with and without adsorbent preserves the weight loss of samples, maintaines membrane integrity by delaying lipoxygenase activity, and reduces malondialdehyde accumulation. These results are well correlated with the observed changes in T2 relaxation time.
Yanming Liu
Shandong Institute for Food and Drug Control, China
Title: Determination of L-carnitine in milk and dairy products by hydrophilic liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry
Biography:
Yanming Liu has completed her PhD from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences. She was engaged in food safety inspection and research work for nearly ten years and more than 20 papers have been published.
Abstract:
An analytical method was developed for the determination of L-carnitine in milk and dairy products using hydrophilic interaction chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HILIC-MS/MS). The samples were extracted with 2% acetic acid solution, and the protein was precipitated with acetonitrile subsequently. The separation of L-carnitine was carried out on an Acquity UPLC BEH HILIC column using ammonium acetate-acetonitrile as mobile phase. The quantitation analysis of target compound was performed under the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode by the external standard method. A good linear relationship was obtained between peak area and concentration of L-carnitine in the range of 1-100ng/mL, with correlation coefficients more than 0.99 and limit of quantitation (LOQ) of 0.01 mg/Kg. LOQs of L-carnitine was 0.01 mg/Kg. The spiked recoveries were 96.0%-103.4%. The precision RSD was below 4.3%. The sample preparation was simple and rapid, the results were precise and sensitive. The developed method was suitable for the study of concentration of L-carnitine in milk and dairy product and provided the technical support for the infant formula.
Loredana Liguori
University of Salerno, Italy
Title: Influence of different packaging systems on the quality of roasted chestnuts
Biography:
Loredana Liguori has completed her PhD from University Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria in established consorzium with University of Salerno, and Postdoctoral studies from University of Salerno. She has experience in food science and technology, especially in membrane processes for reducing alcohol content in beverages and improvement of taste and aroma. Other researches activities are shelf life extension of fruits and vegetables, improvement of stevia sensory characteristics, alternative methods for peeling of hazelnuts, ready to cook meat products in PET based nanocomposite films for microwave packaging applications. She has published 15 papers in reputed journals.
Abstract:
Chestnut fruits (Catanea sativa Mill.) are widely consumed in various commercial forms, fresh or processed, and are more important in human nutrition for their nutritional qualities and bioactive compounds. Due to their water and sugar contents, chestnuts have a limited shelf-life, hence it is important to extend the shelf-life of both fresh and processed fruits. The present study evaluates the quality of packed roasted chestnuts in modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), semipermeable (SP) and barrier (B) film with and without Aldomar® adsorbent material. Chestnuts were also stored under normal atmospheric conditions to control the efficiency of the above reported packaging conditions. Throughout the storage period (3 months at 4±1°C), product weight loss, O2/CO2 concentrations in the package headspace, physico-chemical composition (colour, total sugars, starch content and composition, organic acids), rheological and antioxidant properties (polyphenols, antioxidant activity), as well as microbial quality were analyzed periodically. Significant differences in the investigated properties were observed during the storage in the various packaged systems. Chestnuts packaged in the semipermeable film showed a weight loss higher than the other systems (MAP, B). Differences in the microbial analyses, rheological properties and sensory evaluation were observed during the storage in SP trays respect to the others. Total sugars and starch content did not appear to be influenced by the different packaging, but the polyphenols content and antioxidant properties slightly changed during in the storage with different packaging. The fruits appear to be marketable for up to 75 days of storage for SP film and for up to 90 days in MAP and B film.
Daniela Spandri
Tecnologo Alimentare, Ordine del Piemonte e Valle d’Aosta, Italy
Title: The food technologist: The professional of quality and food safety
Biography:
Daniela Spandri has completed her Master’s degree in Food Science and Technology at the at Milano’s University, discussing a work of thesis about a new nanosensor coated with PE film suitable for quality control in complex food matrices. After that, she attend some courses in UK and in Italy. She worked in food industry and here she has acquired a solid experience in industrial and artisanal bakery, and has a brief experience in jellies and jams industry. She is a Food Technologist, and from 2017 she is part of professional order of Food Technologists from Piemonte and Valle d’Aosta.
Abstract:
The food technologist is the expert in the quality, safety and sustainability of the agri-food system. The task of the food technologist is to watch over food processes and everything related to them to ensure consumer safety. It is enough to reflect on our personal experience to understand the importance of quality in everyday life. How often does a particular product or service do not meet our needs, or simply our expectations? Quality is defined by the UNI EN ISO 8402 standard as the set properties and characteristics of a product or service that give the ability to satisfy needs expressed or implicit. From this definition we understand how quality has many facets. For the consumer, it is a subjective factor, which is determined by subjective and objective factors and dependent on the moment and/or the situation. For companies and large-scale distribution it is instead an objective factor, that is, well defined, measurable and verifiable with respect to certain standard parameters concerning technology, food safety and environmental sustainability. Therefore, according to these definitions, that of food safety is essential to the concept of quality. Food safety was defined by the FAO in 1996 as the possibility of ensuring sufficient, safe and nutritious food for all people at all times to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Food safety is therefore objective, defined by current legislation and perceived by everyone in the same way. Therefore, in the concept of total quality of food, several interrelated factors contribute, including food safety, as well as the health, chemical, nutritional, legal, organoleptic quality of origin and, in recent years, also factors linked to environmental sustainability. Quality is therefore a wide and constantly evolving subject: the goal of companies is to reach it and keep it throughout time; and the goal of the food technologist to contribute to satisfy the quality.