Snelle methoden voor het testen van plantaardige, biologische producten

The talk presented new strategies and challenges for the authentication of organic foods to a non-technical audience. The talk presented the use of chemomentrics as a tool for the simultaneous analysis of a number of compounds which can be detected in foods

ANALYTICAL AUTHENTICATION OF ORGANIC FOODS

A growing consumers’ awareness of human health’s risks, environmental fragility, and animal welfare has boosted organic production of foods. Due to their high production costs, however, organic products tend to retail at a higher prices than their non-organic counterparts. This premium price exposes organic products to fraud and counterfeiting, which, in addition to administrative controls, call for confirmatory assessments of the organic identity. Authentication of organic products is a complex task, which requires the identification, quantification, and distribution analysis of multiple compounds which are considered discriminators (i.e., fingerprints) between organic and non-organic products. Unlike conventional analytical methods, in fact, identifying, in foods, a single marker of authenticity would be, if even possible, useless. Selective fingerprinting uses state-of-the-art mass spectrometry, and a variety of spectroscopies to determine multiple chemical fingerprints in the organic product; in addition, these techniques produce large numbers of data which enable a statistical verification (for example,by multivariate statistical protocols) of the authenticity of the product. The talk gives an overview of fingerprinting approaches and their application to the authentication of real-life foods, such as eggs, meat, tomatoes, cereals, fruits, and coffee

A computational view on nanomaterial intrinsic and extrinsic features for nanosafety and sustainability

In recent years, an increasing number of diverse Engineered Nano-Materials (ENMs), such as nanoparticles and nanotubes, have been included in many technological applications and consumer products. The desirable and unique properties of ENMs are accompanied by potential hazards whose impacts are difficult to predict either qualitatively or in a quantitative and predictive manner. Alongside established methods for experimental and computational characterisation, physics-based modelling tools like molecular dynamics are increasingly considered in Safe and Sustainability-by-design (SSbD) strategies that put user health and environmental impact at the centre of the design and development of new products. Hence, the further development of such tools can support safe and sustainable innovation and its regulation.This paper stems from a community effort and presents the outcome of a four-year-long discussion on the benefits, capabilities and limitations of adopting physics-based modelling for computing suitable features of nanomaterials that can be used for toxicity assessment of nanomaterials in combination with data-based models and experimental assessment of toxicity endpoints. We reviewmodern multiscale physics-based models that generate advanced system-dependent (intrinsic) or time -and environment-dependent (extrinsic) descriptors/features of ENMs (primarily, but not limited to nanoparticles, NPs), with the former being related to the bare NPs and the latter to their dynamic fingerprinting upon entering biological media. The focus is on (i) effectively representing all nanoparticle attributes for multicomponent nanomaterials, (ii) generation and inclusion of intrinsic nanoform properties, (iii) inclusion of selected extrinsic properties, (iv) the necessity of considering distributions of structural advanced features rather than only averages. This review enables us to identify and highlight a number of key challenges associated with ENMs' data generation, curation, representation and use within machine learning or other advanced data-driven models to ultimately enhance toxicity assessment. Finally, the set up of dedicated databases as well as the development of grouping and read-across strategies based on the mode of action of ENMs using omics methods are identified as emerging methodologies for safety assessment and reduction of animal testing.Horizon 2020(H2020)814426Solid state NMR/Biophysical Organic ChemistrySupramolecular & Biomaterials Chemistr

Active and Non-Active Large-Area Metal-Molecules-Metal Junctions.

Active junctions are those aimed at switching the electrical response by an external stimulus acting "in situ" to modify the electronic structure of the molecular system. Non-active junctions are those aimed at studying different conduction regimes by incorporating molecules of different electronic structures. Depending on their geometry, the junctions can incorporate different numbers of molecules. Large area molecular junctions present two main advantages: (1) a simpler assembly, by requiring less sophisticated fabrication and (2) a higher versatility, relative to single molecule junctions, towards potential applications in organic electronics. The present chapter focuses on the fabrication of a variety of large-area molecular junctions and summarizes and compares the experimental results

Using bio-impedance for rapid screening of water injection into chicken filets

Injecting chicken products with water has emerged as a considerably spread method for increasing the weights of the product in order to increase profits. Due to the huge number of products that are retailed daily, it is out of reach to test them with conventional methods for water injection. Here we present results for rapid screening of water amount in chicken filets done by electrical bio-impedance, a technique that is easy to implement, rapid, portable. Electrical impedance depends on structure and composition of the sample, and as such, its values correlate with water amount. We present results for values of electrical bio-impedance for 50 samples from the Dutch market and compare them with values of bio-impedance obtained with chicken filets injected with tap water, salty water, and with moisture retaining agents. Results demonstrate that, after proper calibration, bio-impedance is a convenient method for a rapid screening of meat products

Chemopreventive efficacies of rosiglitazone, fenretinide and their combination against rat mammary carcinogenesis

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-gamma) and retinoic acid receptors (RAR/RXR) belong to the nuclear steroid receptor family. In vitro studies have suggested that PPAR-gamma ligands are highly effective in preventing mammary tumours and these effects are enhanced by some retinoids. However, in vivo anti-initiator and anti-promoter efficacies of this combination are not clear