PhD Candidate
EMMANOYIL ORFANAKIS
eorfanakis@materials.uoc.gr
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Title
Development of Photonics Based Methodologies for the Assessment of Agricultural Products and Environmental Pollutants
Supervisor
VELEGRAKIS MICHAIL, Researcher A, FORTH, Heraklion Crete GREECE
Committee Members
PAPAZOGLOU DIMITRIOS, Associate Professor, Materials Science & Technology Dept. - UOC
SAMARTZIS PETROS, Researcher B, FORTH, Heraklion Crete GREECE
Abstract
Quality control and safety of agro-food products is of high importance. These products, due to their high commercial and nutritional value, are prone to fraud. In addition, as a result of poor collection and management practices, there is a possibility of their contamination with various pollutants. These pollutants can be threatening to consumers health and jeopardize the products safety. Detection of adulterants and contaminants in food and the environment is carried out with modern analytical techniques, which are expensive, time consuming and are carried out in laboratories by specialized personnel. In recent years, the application of spectroscopic methods has risen as an alternative approach to the study of agro-food and environmental pollution products. Optical spectroscopic techniques can provide information on the chemical composition and require no or minimal pretreatment of the samples. These methods are rapid, non-destructive to the sample, environmentally friendly and have low cost of analysis. The combination of optical spectroscopic methods with advanced statistical techniques based on machine learning leads to better evaluation of the results. They can provide useful information about the origin (geographical, botanical), quality and the detection of adulteration, as well as the detection of various contaminants in agro-food products. The aim of this doctoral thesis is the development and application of photonics methodologies in olive oil and honey products in order to evaluate and distinguish them in terms of their botanical and geographical origin. At the same time, the detection of environmental pollutants such as pesticides, plasticizers, mineral oils and heavy metals will be examined. The work will be carried out at the Laboratory of Photonics Applications for Agrofood and Environment of the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser of FORTH. The research will be performed with optical spectroscopy techniques such as Absorption spectroscopy from Ultraviolet to Infrared region, Fluorescence Spectroscopy and, also, with advanced optical spectroscopy techniques such as Raman Spectroscopy, Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS), Coherent anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy (CARS), Fourier Transform InfraRed spectroscopy (FT-IR) and laser spectroscopy (Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF), Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy, LIBS) The ultimate goal of this thesis is to develop appropriate methods and devices based on photonics, that could potentially be applied in the field of food products, providing a fast and low-cost alternative methodology to control the origin, the safety and the quality of these products. The implementation and development of new advanced optical spectroscopic methods will be a valuable analytical tool for all those involved in the production, standardization and distribution of food products.