spectroscopy for food quality control is shortly described as well. This relatively new method is used to reveal adulteration in honey, com- position of sunflower ...
BAOJ Nutrition Aladjadjiyan A, BAOJ Nutrition 2018, 4: 2 4: 056
Review Article
The Role of Physics in Food Quality Anna Aladjadjiyan National Biomass Association, “Antimparvi”, 22, BG-4000, Plovdiv, Bulgaria Abstract The role of physics in biological sciences has not been neglected but recently it grew due to the rising problems with food quality and its control. A short review of the substitute of chemical fertilizers and plant protection products with treatment with physical factor, as a means of providing clean row materials, is presented. The use of electromagnetic fields (magnetic, microwave, electric field) is mentioned and the ultrasonic treatment as well. Physical methods for food control also contribute for raising the role of physics. The use of electromagnetic and optical techniques and in particular fluorescence spectroscopy for food quality control is shortly described as well. This relatively new method is used to reveal adulteration in honey, composition of sunflower, pumpkin and melon oils, as well as some wild fruits.
Key Words: Physical Methods; Treatment; Raw Materials; Food Quality Control
Introduction It is well known that the word physic in Greek means nature. That is why the contemporary tendency to eating natural food led to a renewal of the interest to physical methods of impact on food. Nowadays there are two general directions for developing the role of physics in food quality. One is the substitution of chemical fertilizers and plant protection resources with physical factors for stimulation of plants and disinfection of seeds. The other one is the development of physical non-destructive methods for control of food quality. Physical Methods for Treatment of Food Raw Materials First direction is well described previously with an accent on the influence of magnetic field, laser irradiation, ultrasonic treatment and microwave [1, 2]. The stimulation and improvement of plant development till now is accomplished by using preferably magnetic field, sometimes in combination with other factors as water sand other organic substances [3, 4, 5, 6, 7] other electromagnetic fields like microwave also are used [8, 9]. Microwave treatment is preferred often BAOJ Nutrition, an open access journal
for preliminary disinfection of seeds [10, 11, 12, and 13]. Less often the treatment with electric field is used [14, 15, and 16].Ultrasonic treatment is used also for disinfection of caw and sheep milk before fermentation [17].The substitution of chemical additives (fertilizers, plant protection chemicals) with physical (i.e. natural) factors brings higher quality to the raw materials for food production. The yield of plants is registered to be risen under the influence with determined combinations of the intensity of used physical factor and the duration of influence. The combination of the intensity Iand duration Δtdefines the dose of the treatment: D=IΔt. The dose varies largely depending on the object of the treatment (plant, seed, and seedling). The dose characterizes the energy absorbed by the treated object. This energy can be transformed and further be used for accelerating the biological processes in the object. The energy of microwave field is absorbed directly by water molecules; magnetic field also affects the energetic status of diamagnetic water molecules, while the ultrasonic waves may affect not only the water ones. The absorbed energy can activate different cell structures. Water is important ingredient of the cell, even if it is in bound state. However, the absorption of large amount of energy (corresponding to bigger *Corresponding Author: Anna Aladjadjiyan, National Biomass Association, “Antimparvi”, 22, Bg-4000, Plovdiv, Bulgaria Sub Date: Aug 13th, 2018, Acc Date: Aug 21st, 2018, Pub Date: Aug 22nd, 2018 Citation: Aladjadjiyan A (2018) The Role of Physics in Food Quality. BAOJ Biotech 4: 056. Copyright: © 2018 Aladjadjiyan A. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Volume 4; Issue 2; 056
Citation: Aladjadjiyan A (2018) The Role of Physics in Food Quality. BAOJ Biotech 4: 056.
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doses of the treatment) can destroy the cells in the sample. That’s why the preliminary investigation for finding the most appropriate dose is necessary.
Optical Techniques are based on the interaction of light (the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum) with food products and foreign objects.
Physical Methods for Food Quality Control
Recently, fast developing optical method for control of food contamination and adulteration is the fluorescence spectroscopy. It is based on the change of the photoluminescence spectra of investigated products (honey, sunflower oil, wild fruits) depending on their composition or after inclusion of different contaminants [20, 21, 22, and 24]. Comparison of the basic spectra of clean products with investigated ones can reveal such properties of investigated samples as addition of sugar to the honey, the presence of different minerals in wild fruits, fatty acids in oils of sunflower, pumpkin, and melon seeds, etc.
The second tendency for developing the role of physics is related to the use of physical methods for food quality control. Food quality strongly depends on food contamination which often is related to the presence of foreign bodies in the raw material or food. The foreign bodies can cause different injuries. Foreign body detection assumes an important place in the food industry, with a view to avoiding food defect prosecution. Foreign body detection includes set of Physical methods for control [18].These methods are based on the physical properties of foreign bodies (contaminants). Electromagnetic Interaction includes a large number of techniques that are based on the use of different parts of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum (microwave, infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays) for registration of foreign bodies.
The investigated sample is irradiated with a light source representing light emitting diode (LED) with an integrated lens. As a result of absorbed light energy, the sample further emits a fluorescence spectrum, recorded and analysed by special set-up [25]. The comparison of the spectra of basic sample with the investigated ones allows revealing the features such as adulteration [20], fatty acid content [21], mineral content [23], etc.
Figure 1:Experimentalset-up usedfor fluorescence-spectra observation[20]. The basic experimental configuration for the measurements carried out is presented in Fig. 1. Table 1: Physical Methods for detection of physical food contaminants [19]. Technique
Wavelength
Food product
Foreign bodies
Availability
Magnetic
Not applicable
Loose and packaged food
Metals
Widely commercially available
Capacitance
Not applicable
Products
