Molecules Webinar | Food Chemistry: A Focus on Natural and Thermally-Induced Food Color
Meet Our Speakers
Dr. Lucia Panzella
Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy;
Lucia Panzella is Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Department of Chemical Sciences of University of Naples “Federico II” (Italy) since 2019. She graduated at the University of Naples “Federico II” and obtained her Ph.D. in Chemical Sciences (2004) and in Experimental Dermatology (2008) at the same university. In 2007 She was winner of the Prize “L’Oreal Italia Per le Donne e la Scienza”, promoted by L’Oréal Italia in collaboration with the Italian National Commission for Unesco (2007). Her main research interests include the structural characterization, extraction and evaluation/modulation of the antioxidant properties of natural phenolic compounds, with particular reference to the exploitation of these compounds for the development of functional materials to be used in the food, cosmetic, and biomedical sectors. She is the coauthor of more than 130 publications. At present, she is Editor-in-Chief of the Colorants section of Molecules.
The Molecules Webinar “Food Chemistry: A Focus on Natural and Thermally-Induced Food Color” took place on February 10. Two very important speakers participated to this webinar, that is Prof. Olivier Dangles from Avignon University (France) and Prof. José Ángel Rufián-Henares from University of Granada (Spain). The talk from Prof. Dangles was focused on anthocyanins and their potential as natural food colorants, with particular reference on the effects of chemical structure on anthocyanin thermal stability. Prof. Rufián-Henares talked instead about the impact of thermal processing of foods, particularly of Maillard processes leading to food browning, on the composition and functionality of the gut microbiota. These very stimulating and inspiring talks provided the audience with a sniff of the recent advances on food color chemistry, a very important topic for all the researchers involved in food science.