Chemometrics and Authenticity of Foods of Plant Origin

One of the challenges facing the world is feeding the ever-increasing population, with food security being a growing 21st century problem. This stresses the need for coordinated international systems to prevent and mitigate food fraud in global food supply chains. Food fraud, which is usually financially motivated, has significant consequences including unfair competition, major damage to markets and organizations, loss of consumer confidence, and it raises food safety issues.

A shift toward a more plant-based diet can be endorsed to promote sustainability but also to improve public health and minimize animal suffering. The aim of this book is to deal with issues related to authenticity and chemometrics of the most important food products of plant origin, such as cereals, nuts, legumes, table olives and olive oil, coffee, tea, fruits and vegetables, fruit juices, spices, mushrooms, beers and wines, and honey, using state-of-the-art analytical techniques and instrumentation coupled with available chemometric tools.

Professor Dr. Theodoros Varzakas is a full senior Professor at the Dept. of Food Science and Technology University of the Peloponnese, Greece. He owns a Bachelor (Honours) in Microbiology and Biochemistry (1992), and a Ph.D. in Food Biotechnology and an MBA in Food and Agricultural Management from Reading University, UK (1998). He has also worked as a postdoctoral research staff at the same university. He has worked in large pharmaceutical and multinational food companies in Greece for 5 years and has also got at least 22 years experience in the public sector. Has written more than 167 research papers and reviews and has presented more than 140 papers and posters in national and international conferences. He has written and edited ten books in English and 14 in Greek. He serves as Section Editor in Chief for Journal Foods section Food Security and Sustainability since 2020. He has served as Visiting Professor at Ghent University South Korea and EFSA expert Scientist for Biological hazard group. Currently he serves as Research Fellow for University Technology Malaysia. He has an h index of 30 and more than 3500 citations. He has been cited in September 2022 data-update for "Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators" in the 2% of citations wordlwide in Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry: Food Science / Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing.

Dr. Maria Tarapoulouzi comes from Cyprus. She has a BSc in Chemistry (2009), and an MSc in Environmental Engineering (2013) from the University of Cyprus, as well as a PGDp in Toxicology (2010) from the University of Birmingham, UK. In 2020, she gained her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Cyprus focusing on spectroscopic characterization and authenticity of Cypriot traditional cheese Halloumi in combination with chemometrics. She is currently a Post-Doc Researcher at the University of Cyprus and chemometrics specialist. Dr. Tarapoulouzi is a teaching collaborator at the European University of Cyprus since 2018, for the courses “General and Inorganic Chemistry” and “Toxicology and Forensics”, and she supervised 7 undergraduate dissertations. Between 2011 and 2017, she was working at the State General Laboratory of Cyprus where she was responsible for food analyses and food safety. She has presented her research with poster or oral presentations in 15 international conferences.

Dr. Sofia Agriopoulou owns a Bachelor in Agriculture from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece (1992) and a Μaster in Plant Production from Agricultural University of Athens, Greece (2000). She gained her Ph.D. in Food Science from University of Patras, Greece (2015). She has done Postdoc research in Chemometrics in University Aix Marseille, France (2020). Dr Agriopoulou is Lecturer with specialty Postharvest Physiology-Storage of Agricultural Products, in the Department of Food Science and Technology, University of the Peloponnese, Greece, for courses “Food Toxicology” “Postharvest Physiology” and “Food Packaging”. She has written 16 research papers and reviews and her research has been presented at 33 international and national conferences. She has also written 3 chapters in books. She is reviewer in 38 scientific journals, including in Food Chemistry, Food Control, Toxins, Foods, Mycotoxin Research, Sustainability, Molecules, and Coatings. She has participate in 2 international and 3 national research programs.