FP6 priority
1.1.5   Food Quality and Safety
Title of the proposal

Thermal transformations of carbohydrates during food processing

Institute
Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Chemistry,
Dubravska cesta 9, 84238 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
chem.sav.sk
Contact
Name:
Ivan SIMKOVIC, Ph.D.
Phone:
+421 2 59410289
E-mail:
chemsimk@savba.sk


Research subject for a potential FP6 project

Carbohydrates represent an important part of food consumed by human beings. They are either in the form of polysaccharides or as sucrose and other oligo- and monosaccharides and are contributing to the test of food. The advantage of carbohydrates in contrary to proteins is that usually they do not contain nitrogen that forms aromatic heterocycles during food processing at elevated temperatures that are procarcinogenic. At temperatures over 250oC also polysaccharides could be transformed to aromatic hydrocarbons.

The goal of the research group is to identify the structures of the formed degradation products of carbohydrates during thermal treatment as well as to alter the mechanism of the process by introducing new functional groups into carbohydrates. Part of the process is also synthesis of expected intermediates of thermal degradation.


Recent international cooperation of the research team

Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary;
Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria;
ATO-B.V., Wageningen, The Netherlandes.


Proposerīs relevant publications related to the research subject

1. I. Simkovic, E. Jakab: Thermogravimetry/mass spectrometry of weakly basic starch-based ion exchangers, Carbohydrate Polymers 45, 53-59 (2001).
2. I. Simkovic, B. A. Francis, J. B. Reeves: Pyrolysis-gas chromatography mass spectrometry analysis of starch-based ion-exchangers, J. Anal. Appl. Pyrolysis 43, 145-155 (1997).
3. I. Simkovic, B. Plage, H.-R. Schulten: Pyrolysis-field inization mass spectrometry of modified bagasse fractions, Biomass & Bioenergy 1, 329-337 (1991).