Foodomics

The aim of this research group is to obtain a better understanding of food quality and its impact on human health using metabolomics approaches.

The FOODOMICS Laboratory focuses on examination of the entire set of substances present in our food (foodome) using advanced spectroscopic and chromatographic analytical platforms. Through rapid, untargeted, and unbiased screening, foodomics provides a detailed compositional overview of foods allowing the quality assessment, optimization of food production, and detection of food fraud and authenticity. The outcomes from foodomics have a direct impact on consumers, the food industry and society.

Read more about ongoing research, algorithms, and datasets here. 

 

  • Digital Food Quality Control using rapid spectroscopic and advanced hyphenated chromatographic platforms with a focus on cereals, fruits, aquaculture, edible oil and beverages such as wine and beer

  • On-line Monitoring of Food Processes using robots and spectroscopic sensors, facilitating process analytical technology (PAT) to optimize sustainability of food production

  • Digitalization of the food production including development of chemometric (multivariate data analysis) software for optimal information extraction of complex data streams acquired using advanced analytical platforms

  • Detection of Food authenticity and fraud in raw materials, ingredients, and in food products

  • Food processing kinetics including fermentation analytical technology

  • In-vitro digestibility of foods

  • The impact of food on human health using untargeted metabolomics of human blood, urine and fecal samples. Particular focus is on profiling of lipoprotein particle distribution in blood plasma using highly standardized proton NMR spectroscopy methods

  • Bioactive substances and anti-nutrients in food products and food raw materials

 

The analytical platforms differ in their sensitivity and selectivity towards molecular classes as well as by their high-throughput capacity, but in combination, these platforms allow holistic evaluation of molecular composition of foods and plant food raw materials.

NMR spectroscopy:

  • Bruker Avance TM 400 MHz NMR spectrometer equipped with HR-MAS and CP-MAS probes - analysis of solid and semi-solid samples

  • Bruker Avance™ III 500 MHz spectrometer  equipped with an automatic sample changer (sampleXpress, high throughput analysis of 60) - analysis of liquid samples

  • Bruker Avance™ III 600 MHz equipped with an automatic sample changer (SampleJet, high throughput analysis of 480 samples) - analysis of liquid samples

  • Bruker SamplePro -automated liquid sample preparation unit

  • Oxford Instruments Low field 20 MHz NMR with gas-controlled variable temperature probe  

Chromatography:

  • Agilent GC-MS - single quadrupole MS based system equipped with a Single-Rail MultiPurpose Sampler (MPS) for automatic sample derivatization

  • LECO GC-TOF-MS - HT Pegasus time-of-flight MS hyphenated with Agilent’s GC and equipped with a Dual-Rail MPS for automatic sample derivatization

  • Bruker GC-TQ – GC-MS system based on EVOQ Triple Quadrupole MS

  • Bruker Impact II QTOF – LC-MS system based on quadrupole/time-of-flight MS and Bruker Elute LC system equipped with auto-sampler with a cooling unit for >300 samples

  • Thermo LC-UV/VIS – UltiMate 3000 system equipped with automatic fraction collector unit for quantification and purification of compounds from mixtures

 

Vibrational spectroscopy:

  • Bruker NAME FT-IR / FT-Raman (1064 nm)

  • FOSS DS2500 (400 – 2500 nm)

  • Bomen NAME FT-IR / FT-NIR

  • Kaiser Raman (785 nm) - Confocal Raman microscope with motorized XYZ stage and external macroscopic (FAT) probe

  • Tec5 dispersive CCD NIR (700-1900 nm)

  • MicroNIR 1700ES Viavi (950-1650 nm)

 

Other equipment:

  • XT Plus Texture Analyzer, Stable Micro Systems Ltd

  • Chopin Mixolab 2

  • Perten Falling Number

  • Perten Glutomatic Gluten quantity and quality

  • Fibertec Insoluble and soluble dietary fiber

  • Soxhlet Fat

  • Kjeltec Protein

  • JEL Prüfsieb 200 sieving equipment

  • Thermo Scientific Process 11 Parallel Twin-Screw Extruder

  • Laboratory for robotics (Universal Robots UR-5), automation and rapid prototyping using 3D printers

 

 

 

 

Contact the research group leader:

Picture of Søren Balling Engelsen
Professor 
UCPH FOOD section: 
                    Biotechnology
Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen (UCPH FOOD)
Thorvaldsensvej 40, 4th floor, room number T442
1958 Frederiksberg C
Denmark
Phone: +45 35 33 32 05