Join us for a friendly online taster lecture to support your current studies and find out what it might be like to study chemistry at university.
Session time: Monday 19 January, 1.30-2.15pm
In this Forensic Chemistry session, Professor Kate Kemsley and Dr Maria J. Marin from the School of Chemistry, Pharmacy and Pharmacology at University of East Anglia will run an interactive talk for students on Using Spectroscopy to Detect Food Fraud.
Vast amounts of agricultural commodities are traded around the world every day. These global supply chains mean that many foods are vulnerable to adulteration with cheaper ingredients for economic gain. Analytical chemistry provides important tools for detecting and deterring this kind of ‘food fraud’: using techniques such as spectroscopy, we can profile a sample’s chemical composition and compare it to that of genuine products. This supports consumer trust and protects the livelihoods of honest growers and suppliers.
Foods, especially plants, are complex materials containing multiple different biochemical compounds. The levels of these vary naturally with growing conditions, and sometimes also with authenticity: a good example is coffee, where the compound 16-O-methylcafestol is found only in ‘robusta’ beans. These are sometimes used to adulterate Arabica beans, which are higher quality and more valuable. We will show how a chemical fingerprint of Arabica coffee obtained by NMR spectroscopy can quickly and easily confirm the absence of this compound and thereby verify authenticity.
Suitable for: Aged 16+ pre-university students studying, or with a possible interest in studying, Chemistry, Food Science and related disciplines. Student groups as well as students and teachers joining individually are very welcome.
For details and to book your place, visit: https://www.channeltalent.co.uk/event/chemistry-the-chemists-role-in-food-security-with-university-of-east-anglia/