OVERVIEW

The course will provide a picture of the advanced strategies applied in food analysis, showing the coupling of instrumental techniques and chemometrics. The focus will be on the most common chemometric methods for traceability studies and determination of low-concentration compounds in food.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Knowledge of the principles and applications of advanced techniques for food analysis, focusing on chemometric methods for analytical data treatment.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course will provide basic theoretical knowledge of the main chemometric techniques applied to food analysis. In particular, it will deal with traceability studies and optimization strategies for the determination of trace contaminants in various foods. Moreover, the course aims to make the students develop critical abilities, to judge literature works in the field of advanced food analysis.

Once the course is completed, the student will be able to:

• describe the different analysis types and choose the most suitable analytical techniques, based on the scope;
• depict the most common chemometric methods applied in food analysis;
• fill down a possible workflow for a traceability study;
• hypothesize an optimization strategy for the analysis of specific compounds in food;
• evaluate the agreement of a workflow to good practices related to the application of chemometrics.

The course also provides that students who have attended at least 70% of the lessons and participated to the group activities, can obtain up to 4 Open Badges at an advanced level on transversal skills (soft skills), namely:

- functional literacy skills: reading, writing, appropriate use of language and use of sources;

- personal skills: autonomy, concentration, resistance to stress;

- social skills: relational skills, collaborative attitude, sensitivity and empathy;

- ability to “learn to learn”: self-assessment and self-learning.

PREREQUISITES

It is recommended to follow this course after having participated to the courses “Advanced Analytical Techniques” and “Statistical Methods in Analytical Chemistry". Therefore, it is recommended to take the exam after having passed the above mentioned.

TEACHING METHODS

The course will be held in Italian. The teaching mode will involve frontal classes as well as some more interactive activities. The material provided to support the lessons will be in English.

Frequency is not mandatory, but highly recommended.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Advanced food analysis: scope of different analysis and corresponding used techniques.

The role of chemometrics: optimization studies; traceability studies; characterization studies.

Experimental design for food analysis optimization.

Supervised and unsupervised chemometric methods applied to food analysis: principal component analysis; linear/quadratic discriminant analysis; regression methods; methods for signals resolution.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Scientific publications uploaded on Aulaweb by the teacher.

Slides of the lessons.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

February 23rd, 2026.

Class time schedule available on "Portale EasyAcademy"

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Oral exam.

For students with disability refer to "Further Information".

ASSESSMENT METHODS

During the exam, the student will be evaluated based on:

- the proficiency and in-depth understanding of the techniques learned

- the ability to apply the knowledge acquired in different contexts

The following criteria will be used for evaluation:

- the quality of the presentation,

- the correct use of specialized vocabulary,

- the ability to hypothesize strategies for particular analysis scopes

- the ability to evaluate the goodness of an already developed workflow involving advanced food analysis.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Students with disabilities or specific learning disorders (SLD) are reminded that in order to request adaptations during the exam, they must first enter the certification on the University website at servizionline.unige.it in the “Students” section. The documentation will be verified by the University Services Sector for the inclusion of students with disabilities and SLD, as indicated on the federated website at the link: CHIMICA E TECNOLOGIE CHIMICHE 8757 | Studenti con disabilità e/o DSA | UniGe | Università di Genova | Corsi di Studio UniGe.

Subsequently, at least 10 days before the exam date, an email must be sent to the teacher, copying both the School Contact Teacher for the inclusion of students with disabilities and SLD (sergio.didomizio@unige.it) and the Sector indicated above. In the email the student must specify:

• the name of the course

• the date of the exam

• the surname, name and student number

• the compensatory tools and dispensatory measures deemed functional and required.

The contact person will confirm to the teacher that the applicant has the right to request adaptations during the exam and that such adaptations must be agreed with the teacher. The teacher will respond by communicating whether it is possible to use the requested adaptations.

Requests must be sent at least 10 days before the exam date in order to allow the teacher to evaluate the content. In particular, if you intend to use concept maps for the exam (which must be much more concise than the maps used for studying), they must be sent in advance, otherwise there will not be the technical time necessary to make any changes.

For further information regarding the request for services and adaptations, consult the document: Linee guida per la richiesta di servizi, di strumenti compensativi e/o di misure dispensative e di ausili specifici