Hans-Dieter Belitz

Hans-Dieter Belitz (born March 9, 1931 in Merseburg ; † March 31, 1993 ) was a German food chemist and professor at the Technical University of Munich . Since 1969 he was also director of the German Research Institute for Food Chemistry , at that time in Garching. Together with Werner Grosch, Belitz was the author of the most important German textbook on food chemistry, the “Belitz-Grosch” (first in 1982), which was published several times and translated into English, Spanish and Greek. The textbook was continued by Grosch and Peter Schieberle until 2008 .

Life

Belitz studied chemistry at the University of Halle (1950–1951) and at the Technical University of Berlin (1951–1955). Here he did his doctorate in 1957 under Josef Schormüller and received the Venia legendi in 1962 . He completed his habilitation on the phosphor proteins of the egg yolk and their enzymatic breakdown. In 1966 he was offered a professorship for food chemistry from the Technical University of Munich and in 1969 was also appointed director of the German Research Institute for Food Chemistry. Since 1973 he has been in charge of what was then the Kurt Hess Institute for Flour and Protein Research, which is now named after Belitz.

In over 200 scientific publications, he has mainly researched structure-activity relationships in proteins and flavors. His most influential work analyzed wheat gluten , the protein that - in contrast to other grains - makes up the special baking properties of wheat. By analyzing characteristic split peptides, the special position of wheat in terms of baking properties was analyzed. In addition, the structures of the grain proteins that cause celiac disease in genetically predisposed people were elucidated . Above all, Belitz is guided through this work in the database of the "Highly Cited Researcher" of the Institute for Scientific Information , which lists the 250 most cited scientists from individual fields.

Belitz received several awards for his work and was a member of numerous national and international committees. In 1988, for example, he received the Joseph König commemorative coin from the Society of German Chemists . For 21 years he was chairman of the scientific committee of the “Research Group of the Food Industry”. Today the research group awards the Hans Dieter Belitz Medal. In 1985 he received the "Cross of Merit on Ribbon" of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany .

Hans-Dieter-Belitz-Medal of the Research Group of the Food Industry

The Research Group of the Food Industry has been awarding the Hans Dieter Belitz Medal since 2002 to promote cooperation between industry and science. Previous winners are:

2002: Rolf Stute (1935–2006), Bestfoods Heilbronn (previously Maizena GmbH and CPC)
2005: Friedrich Meuser , Technical University Berlin, Institute for Food Technology and Food Chemistry
2005: Hans Steinhart , University of Hamburg, Department of Chemistry, Institute for Food Chemistry
2008: Heinz D. Jodlbauer, Food Consulting GmbH, Hanover
2013: Bernd Schartmann, Lindt & Sprüngli, Aachen
2017: Udo Spiegel, Dr. August Oetker Nahrungsmittel KG, Bielefeld
2019: Peter Schieberle , TU Munich

Editions of the textbook "Belitz-Grosch"

first German edition: textbook of food chemistry . Springer-Verlag 1982, 788 pages, ISBN 3-540-10935-8 , currently sixth German edition 2008, XLVI, 1118 pages, ISBN 978-3-540-73201-3 . Peter Schieberle has been a co-author of the textbook since the fifth edition in 2001 .
first English edition, Springer 1987: Food chemistry. Berlin: Springer 1987, XXXV, 774 S., ISBN 3-540-15043-9 , so far fourth English edition 2009: Food chemistry . ISBN 978-3-540-69935-4
second Spanish edition: Química de los alimentos. Zaragoza (España): Ed. Acribia 1997, XLC, 1087 pp. ISBN 84-200-0835-4
Greek edition (into Greek after the 3rd English edition) 2006: Chemeia trophimon . 1599 pp., ISBN 978-960-418-138-4

literature

Werner Grosch, Jürgen Weder: Obituary: Prof. Dr. Hans-Dieter Belitz in memory . In: Journal of Nutritional Science 32: 156 (1993)

Web links

Literature by and about Hans-Dieter Belitz in the catalog of the German National Library
Hans-Dieter-Belitz-Medal of the Research Group of the Food Industry

Individual evidence

^ A review of the 3rd English edition: Elke Anklam: H.-D. Belitz, W. Grosch, P. Schieberle: Food Chemistry, Third Edition , in: Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry (2005) 382: 10-11.

personal data
SURNAME	Belitz, Hans-Dieter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German food chemist
DATE OF BIRTH	March 9, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH	Merseburg
DATE OF DEATH	March 31, 1993

[1] A review of the 3rd English edition: Elke Anklam: H.-D. Belitz, W. Grosch, P. Schieberle: Food Chemistry, Third Edition , in: Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry (2005) 382: 10-11.