Technology Transfer Department

Application sectors

Problem to solve

Quality, safety, and shelf life of fresh or minimally processed products depend closely on factors intrinsic to the matrix, environmental variables, and the production, processing, and packaging stages. For this reason, it is essential to have specific, rapid, flexible, and environmentally and economically sustainable analytical methodologies. Given the complexities of biological matrices, these techniques must ensure high sensitivity. Furthermore, they must enable the identification of emerging chemical and microbiological contaminants, ensuring producers' full compliance with current regulations. This service is primarily aimed at micro, small, and medium-sized businesses that often lack the resources to implement these activities independently. In this context, the ability to leverage advanced services and tools represents an opportunity to improve product quality and optimize the process.

Description

This service is designed to meet the needs for safety, quality, sustainability, and efficiency within agro-industrial supply chains, by proposing an integrated analytical approach that employs traditional microbiological techniques, advanced molecular methods (PCR, Real-time qPCR), enzymatic, colorimetric, and spectrophotometric techniques, as well as high-performance chromatographic methods (HPLC–DAD/LSD, GC-FID) for the microbiological, chemical-physical, nutritional, and sensory analysis and characterization of raw materials, intermediates, final products, and by-products of agro-industrial supply chains. Specific proposed applications include: the development of analytical protocols for monitoring the microbiological, chemical-physical, and nutritional safety and quality of fresh plant-based products (such as first- and fourth-range fruit and vegetable products); the isolation, identification, and characterization of spoilage and toxigenic molds in cereals and their derivatives, oilseeds, fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, and dairy products; the implementation of microbiological and chemical-physical stability studies (using Microbial Challenge Tests) for the evaluation of the shelf life of fresh or minimally processed foods; the development of biopreservation procedures based on the use of bioactive molecules (phenolic compounds or bioactive peptides) extracted from agro-industrial residues or by-products for the biocontrol of pathogenic or spoilage fungi responsible for food deterioration (a phenomenon known as food spoilage); the identification and characterization of filamentous fungi as a source of nutritionally valuable compounds for reuse in food formulations; and the qualitative and nutritional characterization of edible mushrooms grown on alternative and sustainable substrates (produced using agricultural or agro-industrial residues and by-products).

Research group involved