Food Technologies and Quality Laboratory
The Food Technologies and Quality Laboratory is a highly competent networked laboratory of the Cereal and Industrial Crops Center, with multiple locations, that has the necessary equipment and expertise to study the quality of raw materials, semi-finished and processed products, and for innovation in cereal and industrial food supply chains.
In the Foggia site there are various instruments dedicated to the study of the rheological properties of doughs and to the study of the organoleptic quality of pasta and bread. In particular, there are 2 Chopin Alveographs, a micro-visco-amylograph (to study the behavior of starch), a Brabender Farinograph and a structure analyzer (Tx.ta plus). There is also a laboratory dedicated to grinding (mill with stone grinders, mill with cylinders for durum wheat, bench mill for soft wheat) and equipment for pasta making and baking.
At the Acireale site, the laboratory specializes in Baking Quality and biochemical analysis related to the quality of cereals. You are able to experiment with bread making and evaluate the bread-making attitude of autumn-winter cereals and the quality of cookies, snacks and other baked goods, according to the official international AACC methodologies. The laboratory is equipped with a Brabender Farinograph, the Falling Number Test, mixers of different volumes, a fermentation cell, a moulder machine, a ventilated oven, a bread volume detector, an image scanner and a colorimeter. With regard to the electrophoretic characterization of the storage proteins of the kernels (SDS PAGE method), the method execution protocol was modified, in order to adapt it to the new formulations of the reagents defined by the protocol itself. The scientific equipment consists of vertical electrophoretic chambers and support equipment.
The Technology and Quality laboratory of the Vercelli site is currently specialized in the quality of rice. It has a system for determining the yield at rice processing, a system for morphometric analysis (Winseedle®), the complete system for the determination of amylose, consisting of a Soxlet delipidizer and a FiaStar® analyzer and the instrument for determining protein content through the Kijeldahl method.
For further informations:
- Clara Fares clara.fares@crea.gov.it - Foggia Site
- Alfio Spina alfio.spina@crea.gov.it - Acireale Site
- Patrizia Vaccino patrizia.vaccino@crea.gov.it - Vercelli Site