Thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of foods analysed through phase/state diagrams.

FARRONI, ABEL; DOS SANTOS, CRISTINA; PONCE, PEGGY; ELIZALDE, BEATRIZ; SANTAGAPITA, PATRICIO R.; MAZZOBRE, M. FLORENCIA; BUERA, M. PILAR

Porto, Portugal

Congreso; Integrating Safety and Environmental Knoledge Into Food Studies (ISEKI_Food 2008); 2008

Introduction The use of supplemented phase/state diagrams is a novel approach for predicting the dynamics of physico-chemical changes and, thus, shelf-life of food products during processing and storage. The inclusion of non-equilibrium concepts aids in the understanding of the kinetics of physical and chemical changes.   Objective Transfer the knowledge on physical properties of biomaterials acquired through research to undergraduate and graduate food science education courses in the School of Exact and Natural Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires. Results and discussion Knowledge transfer was carried out through the organization of theoretical and practical lessons. The practices included problems and lab experimental work, which were designed based on the latest investigations conducted by the group. Thermal transitions (such as glass transition, sugar and water crystallization, protein denaturation, starch gelatinization/retrogradation) and molecular mobility in food systems were evaluated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and microscopy. These different analytical techniques allowed analyzing the transitions through the changes of different properties. The representation of the conditions of the system in temperature-composition state diagram was incorporated as a very useful tool to analyze the possible transitions and the kinetics of changes in simple systems. This integrated multilevel approach provides a best knowledge of state and phase transitions. Conclusions Through the generation of phase/state diagram the students are able to have a new perspective of the dynamics of changes occurring during food processing or/and storage providing them useful and innovative tools to analyze food stability. Reciprocal interactions between research community and higher education, which can only be conduced when professors are involved in research activities, are important to promote an integral professional development improving students’ possibilities to become part of the workforce in food and pharmaceutical industries.