angelika plòoeger - dal suolo vivente alla salute umana: un approccio alla qualità alimentare....

Prof. Dr. Angelika Ploeger

Fachgebiet Ökologische Lebensmittelqualität und Ernährungskultur

From the Living Soil to Human Health

An approach to Food Quality

Alleanze per Nutrire il Planeta



Food Quality is linked to different perspectives ….



• sensory properties

Food Quality Aspects



• sensory properties• nutrients, vitamins,

minerals, secondary plant compounds




• sensory properties

• nutrients, vitamins,

minerals, secondary

plant compounds

• food quality linked

to environmental, social and ethical parameters




• sensory properties• nutrients, vitamins,

minerals, secondary plant compounds

• food quality linked to environmental, social

and ethical parameters• food quality linked to diets




Possibilities to evaluate Food Quality

Nutrition tableSensory evaluationISO- Norms

Picture developing methods



Haughley Experiment 1939

"Evelyn Barbara Balfour" by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Evelyn_Barbara_Balfour.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Evelyn_Barbara_Balfour.jpg


Evidence of the Importance to

Human Health of Soil Vitality, with

Special Reference to Post-war Planning

Soil Association, 2006



• The primary factor in health is nutrition • Fresh unprocessed food have a greater

nutritive value • Fresh foods are more health promoting than

preserved foods • The nutritive value of food is vitally affected

by the way in which it is grown• An essential link in the nutrition cycle is

provided by the activity of soil fungi ...




“the concept that the nutrient cycle is not merely a transfer of nutrient materials from one form of life to another but also a circuit of energy, though even now not universialy accepted, is no longer considered revolutionary.....”

Balfour: The living Soil and the Haughley Experiment, Universe Book NY 1976 pp 11-12)




12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961

Erwin SchrödingerNobel Prize-winningAustrian physicist(Quantum theory)


1944

Stanford University Press, 2011



• Wave-Particle Duality: Light

Light behaves as a wave, or as particles, depending on what we do with it (experiments), and what we try to

observe. (Heisenberg uncertainty principle)

Our Hypotheses:

The Duality of Food Chemical composition and self-organisation properties




Food Quality Aspects1988 : Food Quality – holistic

methods and concepts

Aim: • scientists with different background

define their approach to food quality

• based on the definition the appropriate method(s) were chosen• took part in a joint research project

with the same products



Food Quality AspectsResult:Building a interdisciplinary research group focus on picture developing methods

Aim:Standardization of picture developing methods • lab documentation• scanning and computer - analysis• sensory evaluation on picture analysis



Food Quality AspectsStandardization of picture developing methods • lab documentation• scanning and computer - analysis• sensory evaluation on picture analysis




Evaluation of different regions

ROIWith different

computer programs

Texture Analysis

Structure Analysis




Validation of the methods on differentiation

• plant and animal products (age, variety)

• organic vs. conventional products

• food processing techniques




Winter Wheat Milk Carrot

characteristic pictures for different foods




Carrot juice fresh Carrot juice 4 days




Milk




Differentiation of partikel size with copper chloride crystallization

Sum variance über ROIParticle size after

milk homogenisation



Comparison picture and fat particels under mikroskope




Pattern of the crystallisation picturesshow the characteristics of a Self-organization Process

(principle in physics)

The underlying principle

J. Sci Food Agric, 2014



Food Quality AspectsFood Quality Aspects

Pattern from CuCl2 (110 mg) without additive.Pattern from CuCl2 (110 mg) with

fresh carrot juice as additive.



• Crystallisation process embedded in evaporation process

• Entropy flow of the evaporation

• Rayleigh – Benard structures can appear (self organization system)

• A dentric growth deeply researched in physics

• Viscosity and molecular weight





Open question:

If food includes „self-organization“

what does it mean for human health ?

For food industry?



Thank you

Ernährungskompetenz durch sinnliche ErfahrungFood Quality Aspects



Texture Analysis

Structure Analysis


angelika plòoeger - dal suolo vivente alla salute umana: un approccio alla qualità alimentare....

Science