Conference Schedule

Day1: April 22, 2019

Keynote Forum

Biography

George M Siragakis is a Food Chemist and MSc Director of FA Food Allergens Lab Ltd. He has thirty two years of experience on food testing. He is the Reviewer of Journal of American Oils Chemistry Society. He is also a Member of WG12 CEN for Food Allergen Testing and CEN/TC 275/WG 6/TAG 3. She is the President of Organizing Committee of Greek National Biotechnology and Food Technology Congress. He is also a Member of Euro Lipid Forum, World Science Poultry Association. He has 45 publications. He has given presentations in AOAC, AOCS, WSPA Mediterranean Poultry Congresses. He has extensive food quality control and food laboratory analysis carrier (since 1987 in several positions as Quality Control Manager.

Abstract

The increasing of allergic reactions in part of the population often causes unpleasant clinical symptoms to sufferers, reaching even death. Considering that even infinitesimal amounts of these allergens can cause anaphylactic shock the European Union set Reg 1169/2011, which requires all packaged foodstuffs to include in their ingredients label all food allergens (cereals, eggs, fish and seafood, milk, peanuts and nuts, soy, sesame seeds, mustard, SO2, celery, lupine and molluscs) even in traces. Greek Food Safety Authority (EFET) also announced a lot of recalls for allergen contaminated foods. Greek traditional products based on wheat and other cereals are tested. Sesame, mustard, lupine and soy were the allergens that ore found in a great percentage of them. Fish, mollusks and celery was not found in none of them. The techniques used were RT-PCR for celery and immunoassay for all the other allergens and with these we can detect or identify one allergen at a time.The products with the existence of many allergens were wheat flour, halvas, tahini and dakos. For the detection of multiple allergens with one injection, LC-MS/MS technique was used. The method was compared to official immunochemical and molecular methods (ELISA and Real-Time PCR) that are capable of detecting the presence of a single type of allergen with satisfactory results for the parameters. This method is capable of screening and identifying egg white, skim milk, peanut, soy, mustard and lupine at a detection limit of 10 ppm in incurred bread bakery products. It was further tested for the quantitative analysis of milk, peanut, and lupine, which are incurred or spiked into selected food matrixes as defined in AOAC International Standard Method Performance Requirement (SMPR®) 2016.002. The method demonstrated an excellent sensitivity with a method quantitative limit of 3 ppm for whole egg and 10 ppm for the remaining three allergen commodities. It also demonstrated good recovery (80-109%) and repeatability (RSDr <20%), with an analytical range of 10-1000 ppm for each allergen commodity and was able to meet the minimum performance requirements of the SMPR.

Biography

Sterling Crew is a Managing Director of SQS Ltd. He is a Strategic Advisor at Dynamic Risk Indicator and the Shield Safety Group. He is the Independent Scientific Advisor at Campden BRI and sits on its
board. He is also on the audit governance board at Eurofins. He chairs the Institute of Food Science and Technologies Food Safety Group and was its immediate past Vice President. He has 35 years’of experience of working in the field of international food safety, governance, communication and regulation. He started his career in local government before a successful track history in retailing with Marks and Spencer and Tesco. He has also worked in the branded environment for Coca Cola and Disney and two food manufacturers. His experience as a Regulator, Retailer, Brand Owner and Food Manufacturer has given him a unique perspective of the challenges in the global food supply network. He is a regular Public Health Commentator.

Abstract

Culture is increasingly cited in reports and papers related to food safety incidents and outbreaks are also being identified as a significant emerging risk factor in food fraud. The challenge for food businesses is to inoculate a food safety culture into their operations so that good practice is second nature and embraced from the board- room to the shop floor. Only by understanding and changing food handler behaviour will we be able to embed food safety in an organisations culture and drive improvement. A strong food safety culture will ensure that good practice is not only understood but more importantly being followed. Real food safety is what happens when managers and supervisors are not present and individuals are left to their own devices. This is a real challenge to every link of the international food supply chain. To illustrate the increasing recognition of the importance of food safety culture it has been included in the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety Issue 8. There is a new appreciation that understanding food safety cultural drivers is a useful addition to the food safety toolbox of training, audit, and testing and risk management. Appreciation of affective management of behavioural interactions is essential to develop positive attitudes and the necessary behavioural changes to drive food safety.

Biography

Iryna Gavrylova is the head of food development division of a Ukrainian-Bulgarian food venture for the last 2 years. Iryna brings in excellent real-life commercial experience and 15+ years of expertise in finance and marketing which result in her research focus exclusively on commercially viable solutions. She has been part of several functional food R&D projects; some of them resulted into discovery of new functional ingredients. Educated in both classical and practical way, an MBA in finance and international business as well as a hands-on developer of unique functional recipes and scientific research projects, Iryna is an active public speaker, supporter of professional media and influencer in food industry and science. Her network of food professionals consists of 30,000+ experts: from line cooks supplying realistic field data to top scientists busy with inventing the future of food, nutritionists, food bloggers, technologists, etc

Abstract

The study aims at discovering opportunities to extending shelf life of functional foods by means of innovative live ingredients which enable avoiding or diminishing the depth of processing of food products. Live spicederived functional ingredients are a novelty category of food preservatives, palatability defining ingredients and health claimers. They are used in production of functional foods targeting special needs in nutrition as well as in premium products for mass market. The aim of the study is to discover benefits of spice-derived live ingredients beyond modifying palatability and contributing into culinary variety. Ingredients derived from coriander, fennel, anise and cumin seeds, have been analysed and demonstrate outstanding effects on final product’s shelf life and its microbial condition. No exceptional actions or processes are required; the effects are achieved by simple adding of the ingredients into the main product virtually at any stage at producer’s convenience. Such effects in certain cases double shelf life of final product at feasible cost and create massive opportunities in marketing and sales.

Tracks

  • Food Nanotechnology | Food Safety and Hygiene | Food Packaging | Food Quality Standards | Food Engineering | Food Microbiology | Kinetics of Food Process
Location: Attica Hall
Speaker

George.M. Siragakis

Food Allergens Lab Athens, Greece

Chair

Speaker

Sterling Crew

Shield Safety Group, United Kingdom

Co Chair

Biography

Mircea Oroian has completed his PhD from Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, Romania. He has published more than 40 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of repute. His main expertises are in the field of food rheology, food chemistry and food authentication and adulteration detection.

Abstract

Food adulteration has three main issues: public health, because much adulteration involved the use of different ingredients that have toxic or allergenic potential; legal, because national or European regulations forbid the addition of different ingredients into food products without their mention on the label and economic, because of the unfair competition between correct manufacturers and incorrect manufacturers. Honey was adulterated from ancient times using: water, sugar, inverted sugar, glucose, fructose, corn syrup, maltose syrup, etc. The aim of this study is to evaluate the influence of glucose, fructose and inverted sugar on honey rheological parameters. In order to achieve the influence of the adulteration agents, the samples were measured using dynamic state and creep and recovery analysis. The addition of glucose had a positive effect on the magnitude of loss modulus and complex viscosity; the fructose decreased the magnitude of these two parameters while the inverted sugar had not a significant influence on the loss modulus and complex viscosity, respectively. The rheological parameters (dynamic viscosity, loss modulus and J(max) proved their usefulness of detecting the adulteration since 5% adulteration agent added.

Biography

Yiannis Kourkoutas is an Associate Professor, Head of the Laboratory of Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology at the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, at Alexandroupolis, Greece. Ηe obtained his PhD from the University of Patras, Greece at 2002 and he continued his Post-doctoral research in the field of Biotechnology at the University of Ulster, UK at 2002 and 2005, and at the University of Patras at 2004-2007. He has published more than 80 papers in peer-reviewed journals, 14 chapters in books, >100 conference proceedings (>10 invited talks) and four patents (citations >1250; h-index: 17). He has served as Chairman in several conferences, as Lead Guest Editor and an Editorial Board Member in many special issues and reputed scientific journals, as Member of the steering and organizing committees of a high number of international conferences and as evaluator of research proposals in national and European calls. His current main research focus is on development of novel functional food products with health-promoting properties and on exploitation of agro-industrial wastes for production of high-added value products. He has participated in many research projects, coordinating most of them. His funds  derive from National Grants, ΕU, and the Food/Agriculture Industry.

Abstract

Low alcohol wines (<10.5% vol) represent a new trend in the global wine market driven mostly by modern lifestyle and environmental awareness, as well as economic reasons. In winemaking, mololactic (ML) fermentation usually occurs naturally and leads to reduced acidity, microbial stability, and improved sensory characteristics, but does not always proceed favorably under the natural conditions of wine. Thus, simultaneous alcoholic and malolactic fermentation that can be accomplished by yeasts in association with ML bacteria is suggested. As the use of wet cultures is incompatible with the industrial and commercial needs, freeze-dried cultures are considered preferable due to the advantages related to longer preservation times, resistance to microbial contamination and easy-handling during storage. Based on scientific evidence that cell immobilization results in enhanced fermentation productivity, maintenance of cell viability, improvement of product quality, and offers the ability for cell recycling, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of freeze-dried immobilized kefir culture in low-alcohol wine-making. Kefir is a microbial consortium of yeasts and lactic acid bacteria that has been successfully tested in alcoholic and ML fermentation of wine and cider, recently. In this vein, repeated batch fermentations using freezedried free or immobilized cells produced with no cryoprotective agents were conducted at a wide temperature range (5-30oC). All systems demonstrated high operational stability for a period longer than one year. Ethanol content ranged 5.9-10.5% (v/v) depending on fermentation temperature and malic acid conversion up to 67.3% was noted. Concentration of higher alcohols was low in all cases and a significant reduction was observed at 5oC, indicating the high quality of the products. The main volatiles were identified by HS-SPME GC/ MS analysis were esters, organic acids, alcohols, and carbonyl compounds. Application of Principal Component Analysis showed that the fermentation temperature rather than the nature of kefir culture had a significant effect. Noticeably, all wines were accepted by the sensory panel during the preliminary organoleptic evaluation.

 

Biography

Cuneyt Dincer has completed his PhD from Akdeniz University. He is the Assistant Director of Akdeniz University, Food Safety and Agricultural Research Center. He has published more than 14 papers in reputed journals.

Abstract

In the present study, grape, pomegranate and black carrot juices were concentrated to 65 °Bx from initial concentrations of 15.93, 13.91 and 11.23°Bx respectively. The concentration kinetics of the juices were investigated using a rotary vacuum evaporator at 80°C, a microwave vacuum evaporator at 180 W and 300 W and osmotic distillation (OD) at room temperature. Experimental data were compared according to three statistical parameters: the correlation coefficient (R2) reduced chi-squared (χ2) value and root mean-square error (RMSE), with values predicted by 13 models. The Midilli model exhibited a better fit for the concentration kinetics (R2≥0.9990; χ2≤0.4588; RMSE≤0.5350) than the other models, in general. This model was followed by the logarithmic, Page and two-term exponential models. Logarithmic model exhibited slightly better fit for the thermal concentration method than Midilli model. The quantities of energy consumed during the various concentration processes were also compared. The lowest energy consumption (1.334-1.540 kWh) was determined for the OD technique.

Biography

Nesrine Ben Hadj Youssef is a Food Science Engineer. She is currently in her final year of PhD at University of Technology of Compiegne, France, where she is working on the encapsulation of antioxidants for food enrichment. She has participated in several scientific meetings in the field such as the 10th training school on microencapsulation, Sep’ 2018, Trondheim, Norway. She was selected for the ‘Three minute thesis’ regional final, Apr’ 2017, Paris, France.

Abstract

Betacyanins are red beetroot (Beta vulgaris) pigments that have a growing interest due to their high antioxidant capacity, preventing several diseases such as cancer and diabetes. They are thus promising candidates to conceive food products with enhanced health-promoting properties. However, betacyanins are unstable when exposed to light, high temperature, high water activity and low pH. The aim of this work is to encapsulate the pigments to protect them from unfavourable conditions that occur during the fabrication process of food products and digestion. A betacyanin-enriched extract was obtained from raw beetroots using a food-grade process and spray-dried with several food-grade biopolymers: soy proteins, pea proteins and polysaccharides such as arabic gum, maltodextrin, alginate and chitosan. Physico-chemical studies were conducted to characterize the betacyaninenriched extract (degree of purity, water activity, protein, polyphenol and carbohydrate contents) and the spray-dried powders (morphology, particle size, water activity, moisture). The effect of encapsulation on the antioxidant capacity of betacyanins was studied as well as their release in digestive conditions. The results showed that the spray-drying yields and encapsulation efficiencies were superior to 50% for all the tested biopolymers. In addition, no loss in betacyanin antioxidant capacity was found upon spray-drying for most biopolymers. Pea proteins, soy proteins and alginate microcapsules showed a lower release rate in acidic conditions compared to neutral pH conditions. They can thus be good promising biopolymer candidates to encapsulate and stabilize betacyanin compound using spray-drying and to protect it from acidic food products and stomach conditions. We thus find that such microcapsules are interesting functional additives to enrich food products with health benefits.

Biography

Dr. Dimitris Sarris has completed his PhD in Food Biotechnology and 3 post-doc research projects at Agricultural University of Athens, Greece. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Molecular Biology & Food Biotechnology in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, School of the Environment, University of the Aegean, Greece. He has published 13 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as a reviewer in more than 10 journals. Amongst his scientific interests are the treatment and valorization of agro-industrial by-products and wastes (and in general food industry effluents) via biotechnological processes for the production of (high-) added value products.

Abstract

Crude glycerol is the main by-product of alcoholic beverage and oleochemical production activities (including biodiesel production). The tremendous quantities of glycerol produced worldwide represent a serious environmental challenge. The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of Yarrowia lipolytica strain ACA-DC 5029 to grow on nitrogen-limited submerged shakeflask cultures, in media with ascending initial glycerol concentration (~70
g/L, ~120 g/L and ~170 g/L) and produce cellular mass, cellular lipids, citric acid and polyols. The yeast strain managed to fully assimilate crude glycerol in all experiments. In media with initial glycerol concentration (Glol0~70 g/L) maximum biomass production (Xmax) was 11.96 g/L (yield of biomass produced on substrate consumed, YX/Glol=0.17 g/g) and maximum production of cellular lipid (Lmax) 1.27 g/L (yield of microbial lipid produced on dry biomass produced YL/X=10.6% w/w). Maximum citric acid production (Citmax) was 42.5 g/L (yield of citric acid produced on substrate consumed, YCit/Glol=0.59 g/g) and maximum erythritol production (Erymax) was 14.9 g/L (yield of erythritol produced on substrate consumed, YEry/Glol=0.23 g/g). In media with Glol0~120, Xmax was 12.40 g/L (YX/Glol=0.10 g/g) and Lmax was 2.07 g/L (YL/X=19.7% w/w). Citmax was 63.8 g/L (YCit/Glol=0.52 g/g) and Erymax was 38.4 g/L (YEry/Glol=0.40 g/g). In media with Glol0~170 g/L, a shift towards erythritol production was noted (Erymax~66.0 g/L, YEry/Glol~0.39 g/g) simultaneously with high amounts of produced citric acid (Citmax~79.0 g/L, YCit/Glol~0.46 g/g). Xmax was 12.48 g/L (YX/ Glol=0.08 g/g) and Lmax was 2.54 g/L (YL/X=22.4% w/w) suggesting that higher concentrations of crude glycerol in the media clearly favoured the production of cellular lipid. Fatty acid analysis of microbial lipids demonstrated that in media with high glycerol concentration, oleic acid production was favoured.