Facilities
The Division of Food Sciences has the following significant pieces of instrumentation to underpin its teaching and research:
The Brewing Science Group has specialized facilities include real-time and standard PCR, micromalting and mashing equipment, laboratory, tall tube and 5L fermentors. We regularly access the facilities housed in the Flavour and Sensory Science laboratories and the DNA Microarray facilities located in Plant Sciences.
The Flavour Technology Research Group has three Gel Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS) instruments offering a variety of inlets and Cl/El capability. There are two larger MS instruments that are used for breath-by-breath analysis (in a clean air room) or for rapid analysis of non-volatile compounds.
The Food Structure Group has an extensive range of facilities in its Biomaterials Laboratory. These include a comprehensive rheology suite allowing the study of solutions, soft solids such as gels and intermediate water foods, and foods in the glassy or the solid states over a range of temperatures. Differential scanning calorimetry (including temperature modulation) and microcalorimetry (including mixing) are also available. The spectroscopy facility comprises a range of NMR techniques such as solid state high resolution, relaxometry, diffusiometry, MRI, etc) and mid-infrared spectroscopy. Spectroscopy studies over a range of temperatures relevant to food processing operations (eg freezing, baking, etc) can be performed. The group is also equipped with a wide angle x-ray diffractometer mostly used in the determination of the amorphous crystalline state of foods or their components, and a dynamic vapour sorption analyser where sorption/desorption isotherms and water diffusion into foods can be studied over a range of temperatures. Equipment for particle size and charge determination and biopolymer molecular size is also available. The Biomaterials Laboratory contains equipment for small scale spray drying, and the application of controlled temperature and pressure to low moisture cereal and protein systems.
The Group also makes extensive use of the twin extrusion facilities in the Food Processing Hall. This also contains equipment for the manufacture of bread, canned products and ice cream.
In 2004 the group founded the company, Biopolymer Solutions Ltd , to carry out shorter term contract work, much of which uses the physical techniques listed above.
Using Dynamic Vapour Sorption to monitor humidity induced sugar crystallisation
Environmentally controlled stage of a fluorescent microscope used to image infections of live tissue culture cells
The Microbiology and Food Safety Group have a well-supported equipment base with designated category 2 and 3 laboratories, which feature specialist suites for tissue culture and virus research. We maintain specialist imaging equipment based on a Zeiss Axiovert 135 microscope modified to enable the automated recovery of specific fields of view, the use of a micromanipulator for microinjection studies and the mounting of a cell growth chamber that can operate under gas modified atmospheres. To utilise the ever-increasing range of fluorescent reagents available and the in-house development of lux and gfp marker/reporter technologies for a variety of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, the microscope has been fitted with an excitation monochrometer and a range of emission filters. Alongside microscopy macro image techniques have been developed to visualise contaminated foodstuffs in situ. The group have a strong molecular focus and benefit from local access to post-genomic technologies that have been developed to study the transcriptomes, proteomes and metabolomes of food associated microbes.
The National Centre for Macromolecular Hydrodynamics (NCMH) is well equipped for the study of macromolecules and macromolecular assemblies in the environment in which many occur naturally: in solution. The NCMH has two Beckman XL-A and one XL-I analytical ultracentrifuges, together with a new disc centrifuge for the analysis of large molecular assemblies. It has dynamic light scattering, precision viscometry and isothermal titration calorimenry (ITC), and was the first laboratory in the UK to have "SEC-MALLs" (size-exclusion chromatography coupled to multi-angle laser light scattering. It offers a Facility to outside users in terms of experimentation and data interpretation.