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The main objective
of this program is to provide solutions to problems to be solved at
present regarding the safety and quality of food. To this end,
analytical methodologies will be developed to allow the
identification of compounds regulated under European law legislation
which constitute a risk to health or significantly alter the quality
of food and other currently unregulated in the absence of
appropriate analytical tools but also potentially dangerous to
health or degrading the quality of the food.
From these assumptions, the research aims to develop in the program
have the following objectives:
1. Development of
innovative analytical methodologies for the determination of
xenobiotics in foods for which there are maximum allowed levels
under current legislation or to set maximum levels expected in the
near future.
Within this group are industrial contaminants, persistent organic
compounds such as PCBs, PCDD / Fs, PBDEs and metals, contaminants
from agriculture, as commonly used pesticides, antibiotic residues
generated by the treatment of livestock at the beginning of the food
chain and small amounts of acrylamide generated during food
processing. In all cases, the development of new and optimized
analytical methodologies can be a qualitative step in reducing time
and costs (simplification and automation of processes), and
validation of these procedures will provide robust analysis of
transferable management and development laboratories engaged in
routine analysis of these compounds in foods. The research lines to
be developed for achieving this objective are:
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Determination of persistent organic compounds DDTs, PCBs,
PCDD / Fs, PBDEs in fatty foods of animal origin.
To develop new miniaturized and rapid methodologies of sample preparation this, in combination with GCXGC-TOF will lead to a rapid and sensitive analytical tool. |
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Speciation
and Bioavailability of trace elements.
New methods for rapid sample preparation for determining the
species of As, Se and Hg will be developed. The
bioavailability of these species by testing in vitro to
identify the transformations of species during the digestion
process and the interactions Se / Hg (Essential / toxic)
will be addressed. The use of techniques such as coupled
HPLC-ICP-MS will allow the identification of species and a
better characterization of the metabolism of them. |
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Determination of pollutants of agricultural origin as
commonly used pesticides in fruits. Miniaturized
methods for rapid and accurate determination of triazine,
organophosphate and pyrethroid pesticides at levels below
the maximum levels set by the legislation will be developed
and validated. |
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Determination of macrolide antibiotic residues in milk and
dairy products associated with the treatment of livestock.
New selective MIPs for antibiotics will be developed to
enable preparation of a sample in one step. Its use in
combination with HPLC-MS/MS (ITD) will provide a new
analytical methodology for the rapid determination of these
xenobiotics. |
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Development
of new analytical methods for treatment of samples based on
the MSPD
for the
determination of macrolide antibiotics (erythromycin,
oleandomycin, roxitromicyn, josamycin, spiramycin, tylosin
and ivermectin) in milk and cheese. |
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Coupling
microcolumns stuffed with MIP's (antibiotics) with liquid
chromatography,
to isolate, identify and continuously preconcentrate
analytes from a matrix in a fast and appropriate way. |
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Determination of acrylamide generated during processing of
foods of plant origin.
Development
of new sample preparation methods based on the use of
cartridges of solid phase extraction (SPE) coupled on-line,
which will result in greater speed and robustness of the
process by eliminating of any manipulation of the extract.
Combined with HPLC-MS or CE-MS will provide a fast, simple
and accurate method for its application in routine analysis. |
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