Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV)
Laboratory of Chemistry and Food Microstructure

Person in charge: Isabel Perez Munuera (iperez@tal.upv.es)
Main tasks in the project: WP2, WP3, (WP6, WP7, WP8, WP9)

Description of Participant and Expertise:
The research group of “Food Chemistry and Microstructure” in the UPV has developed an intense activity in the field of Food Microstructure in which the group has been a pioneer in Food Technology area. In this context, this group has characterized the microstructure of a great variety of foods and has studied the influence of processing on the microstructure of foods.
A lot of foods as dairy products, bread making products, fruits and vegetables, legumes, muscle foods, etc have been studied.

The experience in this field has been useful to give professional advice to other research groups.
The financing for this research has come from competitive regional and national projects and a big number of papers, contributions to congresses and book chapters have been published. The group has also participated in infrastructure projects in order to implement the equipment in the Service of Electronic Microscopy of the UPV. During the last decade, the subject “Food Microstructure” has been taught to obtain the Ph D on Food Technology.
                           
Participating people
7 senior researchers with scientific background will carry out the research activities:

• Ma Ángeles Lluch - Agricultural Engineer, Professor in UPV and “Responsible of the Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Microstructure”
• Isabel Pérez-Munuera - Biologist, MSc in Food Technology and Lecturer in UPV
• Isabel Hernando - Pharmacist, MSc in Food Technology and Lecturer in UPV
• Amparo Quiles - Food Technologist and Lecturer in UPV
• Ana Puig - Chemist and Lecturer in UPV
• Empar Llorca - Agricultural Engineer and Technician in UPV
• Virginia Larrea - Food Technologist, Pharmacist and Technician in UPV

References relevant to the field of research:

• “The baking process of wheat rolls followed by Cryo-Scanning Electron Microscopy”. (2000). Rojas, J.A.; Rosell, C.M.; Benedito de Barber, C.; Pérez-Munuera, I.; Lluch, M.A. “European Food Research and Technology” , 212 (1), 57-64
• “Impact of mass transport on microstructure of Granny Smith apple perenchyma during osmotic dehydration”. (2003). Quiles, A.; Pérez-Munuera, I.; Hernando, I.; Lluch, M.A. “Journal of the Sciences of Food and Agriculture”. 83: 425-429
• “The effect of calcium and cellular permeabilisation on the structure of parenchyma of osmotic dehydrated Granny Smith apple”. (2004). Quiles, A.; Hernando, I.; Pérez-Munuera, I.; Lluch, M.A. “Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture”, 84, 1765-1770
• “Microstructural changes in rabbit meat wrapped with Pteridium aquilinum during postmortem storage”. (2004). Sotelo, I.; Pérez-Munuera, I.; Quiles, A.; Hernando, I.; Larrea, V.; Lluch, M.A. “Meat Science”, 66, 823-829
• “Microstructural study of a frozen batter-coated squid rings prepared by an innovative process without a pre-frying step”. (2004). Empar Llorca; Isabel Hernando; Isabel Pérez-Munuera; Amparo Quiles; Virginia Larrea; Susana M. Fiszman; M. Ángeles Lluch. “Food Hydrocolloids”,19, 297-302.

Sub-contractor