Düsseldorf 2007 – scientific programme

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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik

MO 26: Poster: Biomolecules

MO 26.3: Poster

Tuesday, March 20, 2007, 16:30–18:30, Poster A

Revealing Food Quality by Raman Spectroscopy — •Rasha Hassanein, Patrice Donfack, Malte Sackmann, and Arnulf Materny — International University Bremen (Jacobs University Bremen as of Spring 2007), Germany

In the food industry, various ingredients and biopolymers are commonly used in order to optimize the texture or the flavor of food. The distribution and the microstructure of the ingredients strongly determine the properties of the final product. Therefore, research and development as well as quality control require powerful analytical tools for studying the distribution of the various compounds.

Raman spectroscopy provides a nondestructive method to determine the chemical composition of a sample and requires only a minimum of sample preparation. Raman spectroscopy has therefore become a widely used technique for analytical purposes both in industry and scientific research. However, up to now only little work was invested in an application of this spectroscopical method in food chemistry. In our recent work, we have started to investigate food quality applying various Raman techniques. Because food quality is very often mainly determined by ingredients, which may be present at low concentrations or which are trapped in a complex matrix, separation methods have to be improved and an enhancement of the Raman signal is required. For the latter, surface enhanced Raman scattering is used, which also helps to suppress the fluorescence background. In our contribution, we discuss our first experiments, which e.g. aimed at the characterization of different types of whisky.