– New computer applications allow to classify Iberian pig meat automatically

Fast identification of animal meat for human consumption is especially interesting as it is a guarantee of quality for consumers and producers. Consumption of Iberian pig meat is traditional in Spain as an exponent of good taste and maximum gastronomic quality. In the last years, a booming economic sector is growing around such animal species, already exceeding the Spanish borders: Iberian ham, dried meat, cold meats and cold cuts are already been exported all over the world.

Up to now, they had been using methods based on traditional processes like tasting and genetic assessment by means of molecular analysis methods to assess the quality and purity of Iberian pig meat and its possible contamination with other less-valuable breeds. Scientists of the University of Granada (departments of Pathological Anatomy and Chemical Engineering) have developed new techniques by combining technologies from different scientific and technical fields, which allow an immediate classification of Iberian pig meat, guaranteeing the quality of these products.

Different articles published in the “Journal of Food Engineering” and a doctoral thesis support the recognition of the new advances. More than four years of work have led to the reading of the thesis “New computer applications for the classification of Iberian pig meat by using morphometry and spectral reflectance”, by Fernando García del Moral Martín, under the la direction of doctors Francisco O’Valle Ravassa and Leopoldo Martínez Nieto.

Combined techniques
The work has two essential areas. “First -García del Moral says-, we have addressed the “histological quantification by artificial vision of 6 animal species: White pig of the Large White hybrid breed, Iberian pig, lamb, cow of the Galician Blonde breed, Kobe ox and pigeon. The designed application permitted to quantify automatically the intramuscular connective tissue and the retraction of the muscular fibres in images taken by a system or artificial vision coupled to a microscopy”.

Second, the study has developed non-invasive techniques with a high analysis potential, such as spectral reflectance in the visible range and close infrared of the spectrum. They have worked with 30 porcine animals, 15 of white breed and 15 more of pure Iberian breed. They have carried out, in all of them, the quantification of the spectral reflectance on the masseter muscle of the animal’s jawbone”.

Thanks to the combination of spectral radiometry and artificial vision techniques conceived in this doctoral thesis, they have been able to design computer samples of neuronal networks which correctly classify the meat samples, in all cases, with a success rate over 97%.

Applied research work
The described work, both the thesis and the scientific papers, have been inserted in the project “Improvement of the Iberian pig meat’s gastronomic quality: a textural, physical-chemical, histological and culinary study”. The study is now at a more advanced stage which means the transference of research results to the productive sector. Actually, the project has been possible thanks to the support of the Technological Corporation of Andalusia, the Stock Cooperative Society Valle de los Pedroches (COVAP) and Bodegas Campos.

At present, they are carrying out a more advanced study with 66 Iberian pigs applying the above mentioned techniques in order to identify the genetic purity of the Iberian phenotype expressed in animals, as well as to improve the control, security and quality levels in the productive chain according to the “from the farm to the table” philosophy.
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– Most new mothers agree that early diet is important for the long term health of their babies

A survey of new mums in five different European countries has found that most of them (85 – 90%) agreed that the way they fed their babies was important for their babies’ long term health. The preliminary results of the survey were recently presented at the International Symposium on Early Nutrition Programming held in Granada, Spain.

Dr Heather Gage, from the University of Surrey, who presented the survey findings on behalf of an international group of researchers, said: “The number of new mothers who thought that the way they fed their babies had long term health implications was quite high considering this is a new and developing area of science. Especially as we have shown previously that it is not yet reflected in official advice to parents.”

The survey was carried out in five countries across Europe: England, Finland, Germany, Hungary and Spain. Around 2000 first time mothers with healthy babies were asked about the way they intended to feed their babies and what were their beliefs about the associations between infant feeding and lifelong health.

Almost all mothers (95%) agreed that the way they fed their babies was important for their health in their first year of life. However, when mothers were asked about specific long term health conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure and cancer, they tended to think early diet was less important suggesting that they are not so clear about how diet might impact later health.

Dr Gage went on to say: “Once we have looked at our results in more detail, we hope we will be able to identify gaps in new mothers’ understanding of the importance of early diet in different countries and recommend guidance on what sort of advice should be given in each country.”

The mothers will be followed up when their babies are 8 months old to ask them about their milk feeding and weaning experiences.
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– Determined a new method to establish the antioxidant capacity of extra virgin olive oil

A group of scientists from the Nutrition and Food Science Department from the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Granada have reported the beneficial effects of extra virgin olive oil on human health, determining in vitro and in vivo the antioxidant power that the examined extra virgin olive oil samples present. With this work, researchers have found out a more effective method nowadays in order to establish the antioxidant capacity of extra virgin olive oil.

Research has been directed by doctors M. Carmen López Martínez, Herminia López García de La Serrana and José Javier Quesada Granados, and its main author is Cristina Samaniego Sánchez. The scientists have prepared four methods that let us know know the antioxidant capacity and he beneficial effect of the extra virgin olive oil obtained from olives of the Picual variety.

Work in vitro
In order to carry out this work, they determined the best method to calculate the in vitro antioxidant capacity in oil samples. They concluded that, among all the applied methods, the ABTS was the most suitable in order to study this kind of samples as it shows the correlation with the total polyphenol index in a better way. Moreover, scientists observed that the reproducibility of the results of these methods is good and that the variation coefficients obtained by the different methods are acceptable, which makes it possible to conclude, generally, that the four studied methods could be applied to measure the antioxidant oil capacity.

Scientists from Granada are not discarding the idea of registering some patents related to this research soon, since they already have experience in getting patents related to other studies on food, such as alcoholic drinks. Their research is applicable to every kind of olive oil, and these methods could be used in the areas where olive groves are cultivated, regardless of the variety of olive used in the oil obtaining process.
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– Des chercheurs de l’Université de Grenade déterminent une nouvelle méthode pour établir la capacité anti-oxydante de l’huile d’olive vierge extra

Un groupe de scientifiques du département de Nutrition et de Bromatologie de la Faculté de Pharmacie de l’Université de Grenade ont mis en évidence les effets bienfaisants de l’huile d’olive vierge extra sur la santé humaine, en déterminant in vitro et in vivo le pouvoir antioxydant des échantillons de l’huile d’olive vierge extra qui ont été objet d’étude. Les chercheurs ont réussi, avec ce travail, à trouver la méthode la plus efficace qui existe actuellement pour connaître la capacité anti-oxydante dans l’huile d’olive vierge extra.

La recherche a été dirigée par les docteures M. Carmen López Martínez, Herminia López García de la Serrana et le docteur José Javier Quesada Granados, et son auteure principale est Cristina Samaniego Sánchez. Les scientifiques ont mis à point quatre méthodes anti-oxydantes, qui permettent de connaître la capacité anti-oxydante, et par conséquent, l’effet bienfaisant de l’huile d’olive vierge extra obtenue des olives de la variété Picual.

Le travail “in vitro”
Pour réaliser ce travail, la méthode qui s’adapte de manière la plus correcte à la détermination de la capacité anti-oxydante in vitro des échantillons d’huile a été déterminée. En concluant que de toutes les méthodes appliquées, la méthode ABTS est la plus idéale pour l’étude de ce type d’échantillons, puisqu’elle présente la meilleure corrélation avec l’indice des polyphénols totaux. Les scientifiques ont observé aussi que la reproductibilité des résultats est bonne, et que les coefficients de variation obtenus par les différentes méthodes sont acceptables. Ce qui permet de conclure, en général, que les quatre méthodes étudiées peuvent être appliquées pour mesurer l’activité anti-oxydante dans les huiles.

Les scientifiques grenadins n’écartent pas l’idée de déposer prochainement un brevet relatif à cette recherche, vu qu’ils ont déjà une expérience dans l’obtention des brevets pour d’autres aliments, comme le cas des boissons alcooliques. Leur travail est applicable à tout type d’huile d’olive. Et lesdites méthodes peuvent être employées dans les milieux géographiques où l’oliveraie est cultivée, indépendamment de la variété d’olive employée dans l’obtention de l’huile.

Actuellement, il y a plusieurs articles en cours de publication dans des revues aussi prestigieuses comme “Journal of Nutrition”, “Journal of Chromatography A”, “Talanta” et “Analytica Chimica Acta”.
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– Development of new techniques to understand marble quality and durability

The international commerce of ornamental stones has grown all over the world in the last years, revealing a decided solid support to the aesthetics of natural stones in buildings construction and urban ornamentation.

Marble is, undoubtedly, the ornamental stone par excellence. All through history, numerous civilizations have architectural or sculptural works which constitute the most important pieces of their historic heritage. Despite this, nowadays we have a very limited understanding about the intrinsic features which affect marble durability/changeability.

This fact is paradoxical in countries such as Spain, with a rich historic heritage in marble and one of the most important producing and exporting countries at a worldwide scale of this type of ornamental stone.

Researchers of the University of Granada, led by Prof Eduardo Sebastián Pardo, and of the University of Gotinguen (Germany), led by Prof Siegfried Siegesmund, collaborate in a project to explain the causes for marble physical decay and design new identification and conservation methods.

The study, says Prof Sebastián, permits to “dictate recommendations referred to the specific use of ornamental marble, when they are used in buildings’ external coatings and other constructive functions”. Selection criteria are based on stone intrinsic features. Therefore, the analysis deals with an exhaustive characterization of materials, their petrography and their physical properties.

Studied marbles
The goal is to set an analytical proceeding to determine which types of marble are the most appropriate for construction purposes, as well as the best environment and conditions for their maintenance. The objective is to prevent the phenomenon of marble decay observed in many European buildings, often developed in very short spaces of time (even less than three years after their construction).
The studies have been carried out on different commercial marbles in Spain and Germany, as well as in those marbles historically used for certain constructive and ornamental functions. In the case of Spain, they have analysed the most commercialized varieties of marble in Andalusia, as well as those historically used in emblematic constructions of the Andalusian Architectural Heritage. “Marbles selection has been carried according to their micro-structural and textural features, especially their size and degree preferred crystallographic orientation, mineralogical composition and level of crystallographic and/or physical-mechanical anisotropy. Specifically, marbles from Macael, Almería; Huelva (Blanco Agua, Blanco Aroche and Almaden de la Plata marbles); Blanco Ibérico marble from Alhama de Granada and from Mijas de Málaga”.

Marble prints
Such analysis will also allow to understand the specific features of every stone (their “fingerprints”) to determine their origin and, therefore, protect their emblematic prints against others from different geographic origins. “In a globalized sector like that of natural stone –says Sebastián- this is a key factor, as the purchase of stone is very frequent in countries where manpower costs are very cheap, giving rise to a strong loss of competitiveness of higher quality indigenous marbles. One of the most effective ways to compete with the ornamental stone of such countries is the creation of prestigious brands linked to natural stone”.
This research group has been working on durability assessment of ornamental stones through accelerated ageing tests since the nineties (http://www.ugr.es/~monument).

Reference: European Union – Integrated Action “Anisotropy of marbles: A key in the understanding of marble decay”, led by Professors S. Siegesmund (Department of Structural Geology and Geodynamics, Geosciences Centre of the University of Gottingen) and E. Sebastián Pardo (University of Granada, Department of Mineralogy and Petrology).

Prof Eduardo Sebastián Pardo. Department of Mineralogy and Petrology. University of Granada. Phone number (34) 958 243 340 E-mail. rolando@ugr.es
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