Research Projects

The ‘Integrated Food Technology and Nutrition’ research programme encompasses technologies for meat, plant food, wine processing and human nutrition. A balanced nutrition through life helps to maintain good health and functional independence for older people. The development of modern food processing technologies is based on the preservation of the bioactive components and their sensory properties, and on food safety. New technologies also enable the development of functional foods and foods for special groups of people, such as for children and the elderly.

The ‘Integrated Food Technology and Nutrition’ (P4-0234) research programme was implemented in the Department of Food Science at the Biotechnical Faculty in 1999. The programme team is currently headed by Prof. Dr. Rajko Vidrih, and it brings together 12 Researchers, 1 Young Researcher and 4 Technical Associates from the Chair of Technologies of Plant Food and Wine, the Chair of Meat Technology and Food Assessment, and the Human Nutrition Group.

We are investigating innovative and sustainable processing systems for foodstuffs in the meat industry, sprouting of various types of cereals and pseudo-cereals, and starter cultures of yeast and lactic bacteria in oenology. A second area involves dynamic heat treatment of foods, with the aim of reducing ‘foodborne’ components (e.g., heterocyclic aromatic amines, acrylamide, hydroxymethylfurfural) and studying the suitability of alternative oils (e.g., cold pressed) for different ways of food preparation. A third area comprises the study of dynamic packaging, which includes a modified atmosphere for maintenance of the nutritional and sensory quality of the foods. In terms of fruit storage, we are studying light treatments with light-emitting diodes, hot water dipping for fruit, application of coatings, and dynamic storage atmospheres. In the field of bee products, we are studying the physicochemical and sensory properties of honey, bee pollen and royal jelly. In the field of human nutrition, we are mainly concerned with determining nutrient intake, with studies of nutritional status that are focussed on athletes and elderly people, and with the evaluation of nutrition in educational institutions.

Among the notable achievements in the past 3 years there are the following:

The most important publications of the last 3 years include articles on the influence of commercial starter cultures on degradation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) during drying/ ripening of dried salami (Lušnic Polak et al., 2016), the study of oxidation of n-3–enriched chicken burgers over 8 days of storage (Penko et al., 2015), the influence of storage atmosphere composition on synthesis of aroma compounds in pears (Zlatić et al., 2016), the influence of light-emitting diodes on the content of bioactive substances in fruit and vegetables (Kokalj et al., 2016), the influence of the degree of malting on the phenolic profile of buckwheat (Terpinc et al., 2016), the phenolic profile of radicchio (Sinkovič et al., 2015), the content of sugars and dietary fibre in bee pollen (Bertoncelj et al., 2018), the elemental composition of honey (Kropf et al., 2017), the effects of rosemary extracts on the microbiological stability of juices (Piskernik et al., 2016), and the response of magnetised lactic bacteria to lactic fermentation (Dušak et al., 2016).