Food oxidative stability by lipidomics

Lipid oxidations in foods are responsible for the development of rancid flavors, loss of (micro)nutrients and the end of the shelf-life. This process depends on many factors, such as fatty acids composition, temperature, light, oxygen, and the presence of metal catalysts. Also, food systems confine fats in droplets, forcing lipid oxidations to occur at the interfaces. Because of the heterogeneity of food systems, and the variety of oxidation mechanisms, oxidative stability of foods requires the development of ad hoc stress testing methodologies, together with advanced analytical tools. Thus, this WP aims to develop reactors where to apply stress-test events (i.e., UV-light, peroxyl radicals, metal catalysts, etc.) and, simultaneously, record the multidimensional fingerprint signal (i.e., lipidomic) by calorimetry, mass spectrometry (MS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and electrochemical detectors.

• Develop lipidomic methods based on the use of calorimetry, mass spectrometry (MS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and electrochemical detectors, to investigate the nutritional composition and functionality of fats, under stress test events.
• Apply lipidomic methods to characterize fat oxidation in food during processing and storage. The resulting transient fingerprints will be used to determine the oxidative stability and shelf-life of important food systems, like vegetable bulk oils, emulsions systems, meats and dairy fats.
• Apply lipidomic methods to assess the antioxidant activity of the products developed in tasks T4.1.1. and 4.1.2.

Upon completion of the project, the expected results will:

• Provide advanced analytical procedures to assess the quality of relevant 
  food products.
• Characterize foods rich in fats by applying lipidomic procedures.
• Compare the unique fingerprint (foodome evaluation) of important food systems, like vegetable bulk oils, emulsions systems, meats and dairy fats with relevant benchmark products. 
• Apply the advanced analytical procedures for the assessment of the composition and functionality of the products developed in WP1 (especially, Task 4.1.2).