Food Chemistry

As a special area of chemistry, food chemistry deals primarily with the characteristics and chemical composition of food products and their ingredients. The main areas of focus in food chemistry are the changes that occur during production, storage, or processing of food products and monitoring their purity and quality.

Food products are generally highly complex compound systems of biological origin—in many cases they are parts of plant or animal organisms. As a result, external influences—mechanical processing, heat or radiation–often lead to far-reaching changes in the product’s substance.

Food chemistry also examines numerous food additives used in food production. Another area of food chemistry is determining food fraud and proving the presence of questionable substances in foods. But the work of food chemists is not limited to food. They also inspect and examine animal feeds, tobacco products, cosmetics, food contact materials and other materials and substances that people frequently use or come in contact with. Food chemistry is also involved with the analysis and examination of soil samples, toxic substances, and pharmaceutical products. An area of particular importance in this field is the examination and monitoring of the quality of drinking and service water as well as the analysis of waste water and its recycling. Other areas addressed by food chemistry are environmental protection, consumer protection and the legislation process (food legislation).

Possible lines of work:

Examination and evaluation food products’ composition and the interaction of their ingredients, quality control of food products and articles of daily use, development of new recipes for food products taking food legislation into account, monitoring of sequencing in the food production, refinement of chemical, biochemical, and microbiological analysis methods, quality control in the production of pharmaceutical products, checking for compliance with legal requirements, examination of articles of daily use, cosmetics, and packaging, food legislation process, surveillance and recycling of drinking and service water, surveillance of waste water, environmental analytical chemistry.