OVERVIEW

The course will provide a picture of the chemometric strategies applied in food analysis, showing the coupling of instrumental techniques and chemometrics. The focus will be on the most common chemometric methods for optimization, authenticity and traceability studies for 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. In particular, to achieve the Open Badges, participatory activities will include:

- researching scientific literature, extracting information, and reworking it. This activity will be carried out partly in the classroom and partly independently (functional literacy skills and personal skills);

- discussing the information obtained and exchanging opinions in groups (social skills);

- self-assessment of the work completed, based on criteria identified in class (ability to “learn to learn”).

The material provided to support the lessons will be in English.

Frequency is not mandatory, but highly recommended, especially to achieve the Open Badges.

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; classification methods; regression methods.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Scientific publications uploaded on Aulaweb by the teacher.

Slides of the lessons.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

According to the timetable reported here 

Class schedule

CHEMOMETRICS FOR FOOD ANALYSIS

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

Compensatory and dispensatory measures Disability/Invalidity/Specific Learning Disorder

Dispensatory measures and compensatory tools are intended to enable students to achieve the same learning objectives as their fellow students, not to facilitate the examination.

The use of compensatory tools and the application of dispensatory measures must be authorised in advance by the teacher in agreement with the Referee.

To take advantage of the adaptations during the examination, fill in the Adaptation request form; the request will be automatically sent by the system to the teacher in charge of the teaching, to the Contact Person of your School/Area/Department and in copy to the Sector; you will also receive a copy of the request sent by e-mail.

The adjustments available to students are as follows:

• Additional time (+30% DSA)
• Additional time (+50% disability/invalidity)
• Additional time during oral exams to organise the answer
• Calculator (programmable and graphing calculators are not allowed)
• Conceptual Maps
• Tables and/or Forms
• Take the exam in written form
• Take the exam in oral form
• Tutor reader (for written tests only)
• Tutor-writer (for written tests only)

Your request for adaptations must be submitted at least 7 working days before the scheduled exam date.

All information for students with disabilities and DSA is available on the webpage: Services for students with disabilities or DSA | UniGe | University of Genoa

Reference for inclusion: Sergio Di Domizio - sergio.didomizio@unige.it