Research
1. Food Quality
Evaluation of physicochemical, microscopic, sensory, and microbiological parameters of food products and raw materials and the manufacturing practices involved in the food production process, determining their quality and indicating changes to meet quality standards.
1.1 Physicochemical analysis of food: automation, development, optimization and validation of methods; programs of interlaboratory comparison; production and characterization of reference materials; analytical quality control.
1.2 Toxicological analysis of food: residues of veterinary drugs in animal products and residues of pesticides in vegetable products; food additives; organic and inorganic contaminants in food.
1.3 Food safety: microbiological analysis; good manufacturing practices; hazard analysis and critical control points in the food supply chain.
1.4 Quality of foods of plant origin: influence of farming, cultivation, processing, and storage on the physicochemical, microscopic, microbiological, and sensorial characteristics of plant origin foods; evaluation of the quality of plant origin food; processes improvement for productivity and quality.
1.5 Quality of animal products: influence of the species, breed, handling, slaughtering conditions, obtainment, processing and storage on the physicochemical, microscopic, microbiological, and sensorial characteristics of animal origin food; evaluation of the quality of animal products; processes improvement for productivity and quality.
2. Food Chemistry and Biochemistry
Chemical constituents of food, biochemical changes in raw and processed products, and biotechnology.
2.1 Biotechnology: lipases, xylanases, proteases and other microbial enzymes; bacteriocins; fermented foods and beverages; probiotics; biotransformation.
2.2 Fermentation processes and microbiota: isolation, characterization, and use of starter cultures in fermented products; alcoholic, lactic, and acetic fermentation.
2.3 Bioactive substances in foods: phenolics, anthocyanins, caffeine, isoflavones, amines.
2.4 Use of agro-industrial waste: characterization; production of biopolymers, adsorbents, and dietary fiber; antioxidant potential of waste; recovery of compounds of interest to the food industry.
3. Nutrition, Food and Health
Action of foods, nutrients and substances with functional properties in relation to deficiency, excess, toxicity and interactions.
3.1. The influence of diet on health and disease: mechanism of action and interaction of nutrients in pathological processes or specific stages of life.
3.2. Nutrition, development and activity of nutrients and compounds active in the body: physiological and pathological aspects of food restriction at different stages of development; models for studies of nutrients and food effect on the central nervous system.
3.3. Functional properties of food: effect of substances in foods on growth, development, maintenance and other normal body functions.
3.4. Nutrition and homeostasis of the gastrointestinal tract: the role of immunonutrients, probiotics, antioxidants, and chemotherapeutic agents in the homeostasis of the gastrointestinal tract; use of nuclear techniques, conventional methods and nanostructures in mucositis, colitis and hyperthermia.