-
To identify and elucidate the formation pathways
of newly formed compounds in the various food matrices and in the different
processing/cooking conditions.
-
To develop and optimise analytical
protocols for the quantification on new markers of thermal treatment and for
health-promoting compounds.
-
To develop reliable methods to identify and
quantify the known as well as the new compounds.
-
To suggest appropriate
modification in the EU regulations and industrial practices for improving
traceability and safety of thermally treated foods.
-
To assess the risk
related to the intake of potentially toxic compounds as well as to assess
the health benefits of other compounds by toxicological and epidemiological
studies.
-
To quantify hazardous compounds in European staple foods and to
correlate this data with the cancer incidence.
-
To design processing
conditions able to reduce the concentrations of hazardous/toxic compounds to
as low as reasonably achievable and able to increase the concentration of
health-promoting compounds.
-
To test possible strategies for the reduction
of acrylamide formation in potato chips.
-
To inform and educate consumers
and producers.
-
To develop new ingredients, tailored for each food
preparation, that will be the basis for a new generation of functional
foods.
-
To elucidate the intestinal absorption and prebiotic effects of
compounds formed by thermal treatment in foods and their effects on the
absorption of other micronutrients.
-
To investigate at molecular level the
transduction pathways following the interaction of dietary compounds with AGEs receptors.
-
To elucidate the effects of diet on protein modification
in vivo and the implications for health/disease and aging.
-
To study in
real food the in vitro evidence concerning HA reduction by antioxidants.
-
To test the effect of isolated compounds on the liver detoxification systems.
-
To study the significance of AGEs accumulation in nephropathy and liver
dysfunction.
-
To elucidate the physiological effect of the in vivo glycation for different proteins and enzymes.
THERMALLY
PROCESSED FOODS:
