• Department of Biological Engineering (http://www.deb.uminho.pt)
Project 3 - "Control of mycotoxin level in foods through the application
of ohmic heating"
| Title of the Project | Control of mycotoxin level in foods through the application of ohmic heating |
| Name of the Institution | University of Minho |
| Town | Braga |
| Country | Portugal |
| Host Faculty/Department/ Institute/Laboratory |
Universidade do Minho – Departamento de Engenharia Biológica |
| Project Supervisor | António Augusto Martins de Oliveira Soares Vicente |
| Address | Universidade do MInho – Departamento de Engenharia Biológica Campus de Gualtar 4710-057 Braga - Portugal |
| Telephone | +351.253.604419 |
| Fax | +351.253.678986 |
| avicente@deb.uminho.pt | |
| Project Objectives | Ohmic heating is defined as a process where electric currents are
passed through foods with the main purpose of heating them by internal
energy generation. It has been used as a thermal processing technique
to pasteurize or sterilize and to control enzyme activity in foods.
Its thermal effect is well established, but there is the possibility
of an electrical effect, which has not yet been well described. Mycotoxins are very toxic metabolites produced by fungi and pose a food safety problem. In many cases they are heat resistant and therefore other destruction mechanisms are sought. The passage of an electrical current may well have effects over mycotoxins and this constitutes a challenge. In this context, the particular aim of this work is to evaluate, at lab scale, the efficiency of ohmic heating in mycotoxin inactivation. |
| Required skills | Usual laboratory skills, namely in terms of knowledge of techniques
such as thin layer chromatography and HPLC as well as some basic knowledge
of mycology. Knowledge of heat transfer phenomena and the associated eng. problems. |
| Techniques to be used | Ohmic heating; detection and quantification of mycotoxins (namely patulin and byssochlamic acid) by TLC and HPLC. |
| Schedule of Activities | Month 1: Bibliography search Months 1 to 3: Development of methodologies to detect and quantify mycotoxin levels Months 3 to 5: Determination of the effect of ohmic heating on the micotoxin levels of selected foods Month 6: Report generation. |
| Related Bibliography | Halden, K., de Alwis, A., and Fryer, P. (1990). Changes in the electrical
conductivity of foods during ohmic heating. Int. J. Food Sci. Technol.,
25, 9-25. Palaniappan, S., Sastry, S.K. and Richter, E.R. (1990). Effects of electricity on microorganisms: a review. J. Food Proc. Pres., 14, 393-414. Palaniappan, S., Sastry, S.K. and Richter, E.R. (1992). Effects of electroconductive heat treatment and electrical pre-treatment on thermal death kinetics of selected microorganisms. Biotechnol. Bioeng., 39, 225-232. |
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