University of Helsinki
Thursday September 26, 2013, at 14-15, B6, B-house
Dr. John Prescott (TasteMatters, Australia)
Title: Food preference development and the appetite for “unhealthy” foods
Dr John Prescott will be visiting the Department of Food and Environmental Sciences on the last week of September 2013, to be an opponent to Outi Törnwall, (PhD Student, Sensory Research laboratory)
Thursday October 3, 2013, at 14-15 , sr 1, EE-house
Lidija Jakobek, PhD, Assistant Professor Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Food Technology, Department of Applied Chemistry and Ecology
Title: Polyphenolic compound research at the Faculty of Food Technology Osijek, Croatia
Faculty of Food Technology, Osijek, Croatia in its undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate program offers widespread knowledge about food technology, process engineering and food and nutrition research. One of the main topics of research are polyphenols. Polyphenols are natural compounds found in many fruits, berries and vegetables and are a subject of numerous studies due to their various beneficial effects on the human health. At the Faculty of Food Technology, studies were based on identification, quantification and antioxidant activity of polyphenols in many fruits (strawberries, elderberries, chokeberries, old apple varieties, raspberries). The future investigation is oriented towards certain fruits which can be rich sources of these beneficial compounds.
Thursday October 31, 2013, at 14-15 , sr 1, EE-house
Prof. Marina Heinonen (Professor of Food Safety (Chemical Food Safety) Department of Food and Environmental Sciences
Title “Risk assessment at EFSA”
The talk will include an introduction to EFSA and its scientific panels working for ensuring food safety. The focus will be on the risk assessment with examples on food improvement agents, novel food ingredients, contaminants, and botanical preparations.
Slides from the presentation
Thursday November 28, 2013, at 1400-1500 , sr 1, EE-house
Associate Prof. Kati Katina Department of Food and Environmental Sciences
Title: Nutritional aspects of cereal fermentation with lactic acid bacteria and yeast
Cereal foods in various forms are an essential component of the daily diet. Nutritionally, they are an important source of carbohydrates, protein, dietary fibre (DF) and many vitamins and non-nutrients. Recent epidemiological findings have indicated a protective role of especially whole grain foods against several western diseases. DF was long considered the major health protective component of grains. There is now increasing evidence also of other protective compounds, such as oligosaccharides and phytochemicals, which together with DF are concentrated in the outer layers of the grains. According to recent results, the levels and also bioavailability of carbohydrates and various bioactive compounds can remarkably be influenced by fermentation.
Sourdough fermentation is traditionally known as effective tools to modify flavour and texture of cereal foods. However, a significant potential of this technique to also improve nutritional value of cereals has just been recently revealed by several researchers. Sourdough fermentation has been demonstrated to lower glyceamic and insulin indexes both in wheat, barley and rye breads as well as enhance effectively levels of many bioactive compounds (e.g folates, phenolic compounds) in rye and wheat based sourdoughs if appropriate starters are used. Fermentation can also increases bioavailability of many bioactive compounds, such as phenolic compounds, minerals and modify protein quality in plant based foods. Cereal fermentation offer fascinating opportunities to design nutritionally superior ingredients and cereal foods with tailored lactic acid bacteria and yeast fermentation.
Thursday December 12, 2013, at 1400-1500 , sr 1, EE-house
Dr Hanna Koivula Lecturer Department of Food and Environmental Sciences
Title: Use of printing technologies in food packaging applications – innovations and challenges in chemistry
The talk will start with a brief introduction of the speakers scientific and academic background. Printing is a method which combines multiple disciplines: technology, chemistry and physics. It can be applied to efficiently manufacture also other products than prints. The key is to know how to formulate the ink or the ink-like product that will be applied on a surface. This talk will introduce some cases where new materials have been transferred on surfaces and have been used as non-conventional inks as way to create new concepts for packaging and food packaging applications. The challenges of the development process and recycling will be discussed with special attention to the use in food packaging.