Food chemistry

The subject of food chemistry is the ingredients of food and their changes from the extraction of raw materials to human consumption. Chemical analysis , but also the determination of physical properties (such as color or consistency) and the associated laboratory activities are therefore in the foreground. Food technology, on the other hand, encompasses the associated process steps in food production including storage and transport.

tasks and goals

The task of food chemistry also extends to the areas of environmental protection , quality control , monitoring of food additives , cosmetics and consumer goods as well as other specialist areas that are related to food. The goal of food chemistry is to know the composition and effects of food.

Ideally, the knowledge gained will benefit consumers. See also: consumer protection .

This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

Differentiation from food technology

Food chemistry is an independent research, teaching and examination subject in Germany. Only state-certified food chemists are allowed to examine food in the official examination or, as a freelance expert, on behalf of the food manufacturer, to examine counter- samples taken by the official food control . Although the university reform has made it possible to obtain degrees such as bachelor's and master's degrees in food chemistry, the state examination is therefore (in Germany) the standard qualification for food chemists.

In many cases, the chemical analysis of food is used to determine whether legal requirements (minimum quantities of value-determining ingredients, maximum quantities of undesirable substances, indications of unauthorized manipulation) have been complied with. The necessary legal knowledge is acquired and deepened in an internship at an official examination facility after graduation. In addition to the basic chemical disciplines (inorganic, organic, physical and biochemistry) and the special chemistry of food, the areas of botany , microbiology , toxicology and food law are also dealt with during the course . Technological processes that cause changes to the ingredients of food are treated from this point of view. Basically, the subject of food chemistry treats all food groups as well as cosmetics and so-called consumer goods with equal weighting. The processing and production of food under process and machine technology aspects is the subject of engineering-oriented food technology . Within food technology, individual disciplines have emerged as independent subjects (beverage technology, brewery technology, dairy technology, meat technology, grain technology, packaging technology, canning technology). This subdivision does not exist in the Anglo-Saxon countries - there food chemistry and technology are integrated into "Food Science".

history

Humphry Davy

After various discoveries of phytonutrients, Sir Humphry Davy's book Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, in a Course of Lectures for the Board of Agriculture , founded food chemistry in 1813 . On the basis of this book, many American universities began to study foods specifically with regard to their ingredients. Harvey W. Wiley also had a large share in the findings of the 19th century .

In Germany, Joseph König, the founder of food chemistry, can be seen as an independent science. His multi-volume work, Chemistry of Human Food and Beverage, from 1878 introduced quality controls into food chemistry for the first time and made Münster a center of this research branch. While the focus was on the analysis of the ingredients in the 19th century, since the single-grain experiment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the effects of food on living things have become another important field of research.

price

In Germany, the Joseph König commemorative coin has been awarded by the Food Chemical Society since 1934 .

See also

• European Food Research and Technology , trade journal
• Food Chemistry , trade journal
• Food Hydrocolloids , trade journal

literature

• Markus Fischer , Marcus A. Glomb: Modern Food Chemistry, Behr's Verlag, ISBN 978-3-89947-864-8 .
• Werner Baltes : Food chemistry . 6th edition. Springer , Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-540-38181-5 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-540-38183-9 .
• Hans-Dieter Belitz , Werner Grosch, Peter Schieberle : Textbook of food chemistry . 6th completely revised edition. Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-540-73201-3 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-540-73202-0 .
• Johannes Friedrich Diehl: Chemistry in Food. Residues, impurities, ingredients and additives . Wiley-VCH , Weinheim 2000, ISBN 978-3-527-30233-8 .
• Eisenbrand, Schreier: RÖMPP Lexicon of Food Chemistry . 2nd completely revised and expanded edition. 2 volumes. Thieme Verlag , Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-13-736602-7 .
• Claus Franzke: General textbook of food chemistry . B. Behr's Verlag , Hamburg 1996, ISBN 978-3-86022-234-8 .
• Reinhard Mattisek, Gabriele Steiner, Markus Fischer: Food analysis . 4th edition. Springer, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-540-92205-6 .
• Wolfgang Frede: Handbook for food chemists . 2nd Edition. Springer , 2010, ISBN 978-3-540-28198-6 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-642-01685-1 .

reference books

• L. Acker, KG Bergner [u. a.] (Ed.), Josef Schormüller (general editor): Handbuch der Lebensmittelchemie in 6 volumes, Springer Verlag Berlin; Heidelberg; New York DNB 456884874 (published between 1965 and 1970).

Web links

Portal: Food Chemistry  - Overview of Wikipedia content on the subject of food chemistry

• The current weekly newsreel of food chemistry - project of the LChG (2009)
• Markus Fischer : How do you study what for what? Food chemistry - from farm to food function , Lecture2Go, University of Hamburg , May 29, 2017

Societies, organizations and associations

• Society of German Chemists (GDCh) ( Society of German Chemists )
• Food Chemical Society (LChG) ( Food Chemical Society )
• Young Food Chemists (AG-JLC) AG of the LchG in the GDCh (Young Food Chemists Working Group)
• Federal Association of Food Chemists in the Ö.D. e. V. (BLC)
• Federal Ministry for Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture ( Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture )
• Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) ( Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety )
• Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) ( Federal Institute for Risk Assessment )
• German Nutrition Society (DGE) ( German Nutrition Society )
• Federation for Food Law and Food Science e. V. (BLL) ( Federation for Food Law and Food Science )