Rapid and non-destructive measurement and imaging of lipid oxidation in foods

Both national and international, new and alternative methods for measuring the level of lipid oxidation in complex foods are asked for. Today's standard methods are based on quantification of intermediate products and end products formed in the oxidation processes. They are time consuming and destructive, and do not always apply well for cornplex foods where the resulting sensory attributes are dependent of the rnatrlx. The main airn of this project is to develop a rapid, non-destructive metbod for meas urement and imaging of lipid oxidation in complex foods. Solid sample autofluorescence is a very promising method in this respect, and the project will focus on evaluation, developruent and understanding of it's properties. This will be done by well desig ned experiments on poultry meat and salted cod where autofluorescence will be calibrated and compared with sensory analysis and traditional cliemical metliods for lipid oxidation. A substantial advantage by using an optical technique is that it easily can be expanded to two dirnensions. This means that the optical properties of rancidity can be mapped by means of a multispectral imaging system. This approach is novel and has the potential to permit unigue studies ofhow lipid oxidationdevelops i n food material.