News

Open call for the EuChemS Food Chemistry Division Young Researcher Award 2025

The Food Chemistry Division of the European Chemical Society (FCD-EuChemS) presents every two-years the EuChemS Food Chemistry Division Young Researcher Award to recognize excellent research in the field of food chemistry and related areas during the PhD thesis of a young chemist researcher. The award comprises a certificate, a scientific book, free registration for EuroFoodChem 2025 and prize money (1,000 euros). The awardee will also be distinguished with the possibility to present the awarded work at the EuroFoodChem conference (https://eurofoodchem2025.schems.sk).

The award is intended for a doctorate in food chemistry or related areas, that fulfills all the following conditions:

1.         Has been awarded a doctorate (PhD) from a European University.

2.         The candidate should not be older than 35 years by the deadline of the application.

3.        The PhD degree should have been awarded within 2 years preceding the deadline for applications (15^th February, 2025).

4.         The candidate must be a member of a Member Society of EuChemS.

Young food chemists are encouraged to submit the applications by 15th February 2025.

The application must be accompanied by the following documents:

• Motivation letter with a convincing presentation of the innovative character and the relevance of the scientific results (1 page maximum, in English).
• A document that certifies the granting of the doctorate (note: for the PhD certificates, the date it was awarded must be present). 
• Copy of an identification document.
• Document that certifies that the applicant is a current member of a Member Society of EuChemS.
• Title and abstract of the PhD thesis (2 pages maximum, in English). 
• Curriculum vitae (2 pages maximum, in English).
• A dissemination paper regarding the scientific content of the PhD thesis:
  • The paper should be written in English and have a maximum of 15000 characters including spaces and captions (list of references not included).
  • The tables and/or Figures should be included in the text and should be of good quality.

All applications should be in English and should be submitted in electronic format to the email: 

6th Webinar on Food Chemistry

Dear colleagues,

Dear colleagues, 

 We are delighted to invite you to the webinar on “ Neurobiological regulation of food intake: Unbiased identification of food bioactives” by Prof. Dr. Monika Pischetsrieder. 

Prof. Monika Pischetsrieder studied food chemistry at the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität in Munich, Germany, from where she also received her PhD. After a postdoctoral stay at the Institute of Pathology, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland/Ohio USA with Prof. Vincent Monnier, she returned to the LMU Munich to start her independent research. During this time, Monika was also Visiting Assistant Professor at the College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, USA with Prof. Ann Marie Schmidt. In 1999, she was appointed Professor at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany and holds the Chair of Food Chemistry there since 2004.
Apart from her academic functions, Prof. Monika Pischetsrieder is member of the scientific boards of several institutions, such as the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the General Federal Institute of Risk Assessment or the Bioecomy Council of the Federal Government. 

To participate in the webinar, please register at 
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Kk7nqkULSF6SdcXu72m73A#/registration

We look forward for your participation. 

 FCD-EuChemS

Book Edition by Prof. Amos Nussinovitch, delegate from Israel at the EuChemS Food Chemistry Division

Use of Hydrocolloids to Control Food Appearance, Flavor, Texture, and Nutrition 

by Amos Nussinovitch (Author), Madoka Hirashima (Author)  

1^st edition published 2023 by Wiley

 

The book combines comprehensive and authoritative discussions on the conventional use of hydrocolloids to influence shape, structure and organoleptic properties of foods with exciting and emerging areas of innovation, such as texturing for 3D printing and enhancement of food nutrition.  

The book explores the four principal quality factors of food: appearance, flavor, texture and nutrition, and introduces students and food technologists to the myriad uses of hydrocolloids. It also presents illustrations of relevant commercial food products that rely on hydrocolloids for their appeal, as well as recipes exemplifying the unique abilities of particular hydrocolloids.

Readers will also find:

• A thorough introduction to the use of hydrocolloids to control food size and shape, including the manipulation of select geometrical properties of foods
• A comprehensive exploration of the use of hydrocolloids to modulate food color and gloss, including the psychological impact of those properties
• Practical discussions pertaining to the modification of food taste and odor using hydrocolloids
• A thorough description of the ways in which hydrocolloids are used to improve crispy, crunchy and crackly foods

Open call for the EuChemS Food Chemistry Division Young Researcher Award 2023

The Food Chemistry Division of the European Chemical Society (FCD-EuChemS) presents every two-years the EuChemS Food Chemistry Division Young Researcher Award to recognize excellent research in the field of food chemistry and related areas during the PhD thesis of a young chemist researcher. The award comprises a certificate, a scientific book, free registration for EuroFoodChem 2023 and prize money (1,000 euros). The awardee will also be distinguished with the possibility to present the awarded work at the EuroFoodChem conference.

The award is intended for a doctorate in food chemistry or related areas, that fulfills all the following conditions:

1.         Has been awarded a doctorate (PhD) from a European University.

2.         The candidate should not be older than 35 years by the deadline of the competition.

3.        The PhD degree should have been awarded within 2 years preceding the deadline for applications (31^st January, 28th February 2023).

4.         The candidate must be a member of a Member Society of EuChemS.

Young food chemists are encouraged to submit the applications by 31^st January, 2023.

DEADLINE EXTENDED by 28th February

The application must be accompanied by the following documents:

• Motivation letter with a convincing presentation of the innovative character and the relevance of the scientific results (1 page maximum).
• A document that certifies the granting of the doctorate (note: for the PhD certificates, the date it was awarded must be present). 
• Copy of an identification document.
• Document that certifies that the applicant is a current member of a Member Society of EuChemS.
• Title and abstract of the PhD thesis (2 pages maximum). 
• Curriculum vitae (2 pages maximum).
• A dissemination paper regarding the scientific content of the PhD thesis:
  • The paper should be written in English and have a maximum of 15000 characters including spaces and captions (list of references not included).
  • The tables and/or Figures should be included in the text and should be of good quality.

Applications should be submitted in electronic format to the following email: 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5th Webinar on Food Chemistry

Dear colleagues,

Dear colleagues, 

 We are delighted to invite you to the webinar on “ Interpreting the gut microbiota function by employing LC/GC-MS metabolomic approaches” by Dr. Josep Rubert. 

Dr. Josep Rubert is an Assistant Professor in Gastrointestinal Health at Wageningen University. After studying food science and technology, he performed his doctoral thesis at the University of Valencia (Spain), honored with an Outstanding Doctoral research prize. During his postdoctoral stay at the University of Chemistry and Technology (UCT), Prague, his research mainly involved food metabolomics and lipidomics approaches, holding Assistant Professor’s rank. Since 2016, Dr. Rubert has started to cross the boundaries between different disciplines. In this line, he has gained a holistic view of how diet and gut microbiota can prevent disease risks and how multi-omics data can decipher homeostasis and disease mechanisms. He established a new research line in investigating the role of gut microbial metabolites funded by a Marie Sklodowska-Curie project and Starting Grant funded by the University of Trento. Currently, he explores the role of gut 
microbial metabolites in preventing gastrointestinal diseases. 

To participate in the webinar, please register at 
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GqaNLkdZRDCLzFNUbLJH_Q [1] 

We look forward for your participation. 

 FCD-EuChemS

Prof. Dr Livia Simon Sarkadi is the Awardee of the 2021 EuChemS Awards for Service

Professor Sarkadi has had more than 2 decades’ experience of working within FECS/ EuChemS. She served as secretary of the Food Chemistry Division (2005-2008), and chair of FCD (2009-2014). She was an appointed member of the Executive Board as one of the two representatives of Division’s Chairs (2010-2013), and an elected member of the Executive Board (2014-2021).

She is the President of the Hungarian Chemical Society since 2011. She is currently full professor and head of the Doctoral School of Food Science at the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Budapest, Hungary. 

Professor Sarkadi has received numerous honors for her outstanding work, including the IUPAC 2015 Distinguished Women in Chemistry/Chemical Engineering Award, as well as the Czedik-Eysenberg Lecturer Award 2019 established by the (Food Chemistry Division of EuChemS.

4th Webinar on Food Chemistry

Dear colleagues,

We are delighted to invite you to the webinar on “Fighting global food crime with analytical chemistry” by Prof. Dr. Chris Elliott from the Institute for Global Food Security, Queen’s University, Belfast.

Fraud in the global food system is worth more than the entire global heroin trade. Often both illegal activities are conducted by organised crime gangs. To try and fight this trade in food fraud a range of weapons are used and one of these is analytical chemistry to detect the adulteration of food. The lecture will outline some of the techniques used and some of the investigations conducted into food fraud by the ASSET Technology Centre based at Queen’s University, Belfast.

Chris is currently Professor of Food Safety and founder of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast. He has published close to 500 peer review articles, many of them relating to the detection and control of agriculture, food and environmental related contaminants. His main research interests are in the development of innovative techniques to provide early warning of toxin threats across complex food supply systems. Protecting the integrity of the food supply chain from fraud is also a key research topic and Chris led the independent review of Britain’s food system following the 2013 horsemeat scandal. 
Chris  is a visiting Professor at the China Agriculture University in Beijing and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is a recipient of a Winston Churchill Fellowship and is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Royal Society of Biology. Chris was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry Theophilus Redwood Prize and an OBE on 2017. He was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2020 and became Vice President of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health in 2021. Recently was also awarded the Agilent Thought Leaders Award for his work on food authenticity. 

The webinar will take place on-line on the 3rd March at 15:00 CET. To participate in the webinar, please register at  https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Vdo1q8MiT6yEK_fhGKRcRg

We look forward for your participation.

FCD-EuChemS

3rd Webinar on Food Chemistry

Dear colleagues,

We are delighted to welcome you to the webinar on “Chemistry behind pleasure: exploring aroma quality by multidimensional analytical techniques” by Prof. Dr. Chiara Emilia Cordero.

Chiara Cordero is full Professor of Food Chemistry at the Università degli Studi di Torino. Her research interests focus on: (a) development of innovative and advanced instrumental configurations for detailed chemical characterization of food; (b) development and application of miniaturized, fully automated and solvent-free sample preparation approaches for sensomic characterization of food; (c) discovery of food intake markers and metabolic fingerprint after diet induced derangements. She has received several awards among which the “Leslie S. Ettre Award” and the the “John B. Phillips Award”, and in 2016 was included by The Analytical Scientist in the “Women Power List” as one of the 50 most influencing women in the analytical sciences.

Over the last decades, consumer preferences have favored healthier and more flavorsome food with higher nutritional value: the driving force has been food quality. Although the primary condition for food quality is safety, an equally important role is played by its sensory impact, in particular flavor and appearance. Food constituents with their peculiar quali-quantitative distribution concur to define a characteristic chemical fingerprint which encrypts comprehensive information on nutritional properties, sensory attributes, quality, authenticity and safety. 
High quality hazelnuts (Corylus avellana L.) from different botanical/geographical origin are here considered as challenging test bench for multidimensional investigations while trajectories from Academic research to industy application will be discussed as virtuous interactions to achieve a modern concept of food quality.Targeted and un-targeted fingerprinting aiming to reveal hazelnuts aroma potential, to define aroma blueprint or spoilage traits will be presented emphasizing the advantages of a true multidimensionality, from sample preparation (the zeroth dimension of an analytical system) to separation (two-dimensional comprehensive chromatography) and analyte detection and identification (mass spectrometry). Reliable, effective and intuitive data analysis approaches conclude the analytical investigation enabling a productive and comprehensive interpretation of the complex information array in particular by linking analytical data to hazelnut quality attributes. Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence smelling might be effective decision makers with strong correlation to distinctive chemical patterns.

To participate in the webinar, please register at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_18Sck8czRiWmMZvOFdsdyg

We look forward for your participation.

FCD-EuChemS

2nd Webinar on Food Chemistry

Dear colleagues,

We are delighted to welcome you to the webinar on “Emerging mycotoxins in the food chain: Analytical challenges and food safety” by Prof. Dr. Doris Marko.

Doris Marko is a Professor of Food Chemistry at the University of Vienna. With a dual education in food chemistry and toxicology, she synergistically combines both fields to address pressing questions for consumer safety. One prominent research focus is the largely unexplored spectrum of the so called “emerging” mycotoxins and their potential impact on human health. Emerging mycotoxins are secondary metabolites of fungi, where limitation of occurrence data and/or toxicological characterization does not allow a comprehensive risk assessment. Emerging mycotoxins are neither monitored nor regulated in their occurrence. But are they really without risk?

In 1985 – the FAO estimated that about 25% of the global food crops are contaminated with mycotoxins. Since then, global climate change has impacted the occurrence spectrum of respective fungi and, at the same time, improvement in analytics has enabled milestones in sensitivity. Nowadays, estimations speculate up to a contamination rate of 70-80%. In addition to the few regulated mycotoxins such as aflatoxins or ochratoxin A, now hundreds of additional secondary metabolites can be detected. But are these novel multitoxin method approaches just a “nice to have” or do we still overlook important threads for human health? Doris Marko will provide insights on strategies and challenges to elucidate the occurrence and fate of selected candidates out of these group of emerging contaminants. In her presentation she will bridge the spectrum from analytical food chemistry to food toxicology, underlining the important contribution of food chemistry for consumer safety.

To participate in the webinar, please register at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_k7kSWTdyRCmRKbax8mrW5A

We look forward for your participation.

FCD-EuChemS

Webinar series on Food Chemistry

Dear colleagues,

The Food Chemistry Division of the EuChemS has the pleasure to invite you for the 1st Webinar series on Food Chemistry that will be held on the 12th May 2021 at 15:00H (CEST).

We are very happy and honored to have Dr. Reto Battaglia opening this series of webinars presenting the lecture “Why should anyone need a food chemist?”.

For the Food Chemistry Division Dr. Reto Battaglia is both a highly respected past president (1995-2000), as well as an active contributor, and a good friend, to this day. For the EuChemS he was instrumental in the transformation of its precursor FECS into the EuCheMS, which later evolved into EuChemS, in his capacity as the serving President of FECS in its last period and the first “past President” of the EuCheMS.

Dr. Reto Battaglia’s talk will touch upon the breadth of scientific problems that a food chemist encounters and the importance of interdisciplinarity in order to address those problems.

We sincerely hope that many food chemists use this opportunity to hear Reto’s reflections on the very fundamentals of the profession of food chemistry.

For the ones that did not had the opportunity of listening to the talk, you can see the recorded webinar at the following links:

Opening session

Reto’s talk

44th Meeting of the Food Chemistry Division

The 44th FCD meeting was held on-line via Zoom meeting due to the COVID 19 pandemic, on 20th November.

27 Delegates from 19 countries were present at the meeting.

The 45th FCD meeting will take place in 2021 (location to be announced).

50th Aniversary of EuChemS

Click on a flag to see a typical recipe…

From the Division of Food Chemistry, sincere congratulations on this important milestone: a departure, not an arrival!

The Board of the Division of Food Chemistry, representing the community of the European Food Chemists
Marco Arlorio, Joana Amaral, Michael Murkovic

Kaye Innovation Awards 2020

Congratulations to Prof. Amos Nussinovitch, delegate from Israel at the EuChemS Food Chemistry Division, for receiving this prestigious award!

Prof. Amos Nussinovitch and his team have been working on the topic of edible films and coatings for the past 30 years, developing several novel and innovative coating families and the technologies to apply them. Such coatings have attracted commercial interest from industry and agricultural bodies, mostly due to the many advantages of its large-scale application, namely shelf life extension, extensive decreases in weight loss, extension of market availability for export, prevention of insect infestation, improved appearance/gloss, and even the replacement of plastic packaging materials with biodegradable alternatives.
The 1st prize has been awarded to Prof. Nussinovitch for his work on developing edible protective films to extend postharvest shelf life of fresh and processed fruit and vegetables. For more information see: https://en.hafakulta.agri.huji.ac.il/news/kaye-innovation-award-prof-amos-nussinovitch

Royal Society of Chemistry 2020 Inspirational Committee Award

The Royal Society of Chemistry has given the Food Chemistry Group the 2020 Inspirational Committee Award for developing the food chemistry periodic table in addition to addressing global challenges through events and publications.