Contaminants and Chemical Hazards

Recommended Prerequisites

The recommended prerequisites include what is taught in the 1 st cycle courses in the area of Pharmacy, Medicine, Veterinary, Nutrition, and Agricultural, Bioanalytical, Biological, Chemical Sciences or Engineering or, other courses considered appropriate by the FFUC Scientific Council.

Teaching Methods

Lectures: lectures with a strong component of dialogue, essentially using the visual media ("data show").
Theoretical and practical: Discussion of case studies that were described in the recommended bibliography or provided by professors.

Learning Outcomes

The aim of this curricular unit is to provide students with a comprehensive view of processes occurring chemical contamination in food, as well as knowledge about the main chemical contamination agents in foods.
The students will be prepared to acquire and apply the learned competencies in order to identify and understand the main effects which may be caused by chemically contaminated food.
It is intended to ensure a strong interdisciplinary background, allowing the acquisition of essential knowledge in depth and in an integrated way, contributing to create specialists capable of facing challenges and solutions in Food Safety, and contribute prospectively for the development of new related areas.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

The syllabus of the theoretical component of this curricular unit includes, in a succinct form, the following matters: A global perspective of food chemical contamination, types of contaminants and major routes of contamination.
The focus of detailed theoretical and practical aspects of contaminants: heavy metals, nitrates and nitrites, pesticides, mycotoxins, veterinary medicines, Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, Heterocyclic aromatic amines, Dioxins, furans and PCBs, acrylamide and packaging materials in contact with food will be studied.

Head Lecturer(s)

Angelina Lopes Simões Pena

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Exam: 100.0%

Bibliography

http://www.who.int/foodsafety/chem/en/
SILVAet al. Occurrence of antibiotic residues in portuguese foodstuffs of animal origin. Chap 5. Food Quality: Control, Analysis and Consumer Concerns. Ed D.A.Medina, AM. Laine. Nova Science Publishers
DUARTE et al. Ochratoxin Mycotoxins and their implications in food safety. Ed. S.Duarte, C.Lino A. Pena Future Science© 2014
ALMEIDA A.et al., Human and Veterinary Antibiotics used in Portugal A Ranking for Ecosurveillance. Toxics, 2, 2014, 188.
DUARTE S. et al. Mycotoxin food and feed regulation and the specific case of ochratoxin A: review of worldwide status. Food Ad. Conta. Part A. 27, 2010, 1440.
PENA A.et al. Determination fluroquinolones residues in poultry muscle from Portugal. Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 397, 2010, 2615.
PENA A.et al. Determination of tetracycline antibiotics residues in edible swine tissues by liquid chromatography with spectrofluorimetric detection confirmation by mass spectrometry. J. Agr. Food Chem. 55. 2007, 4973.