“FOOD Quality in Digital Age” network visited Slovakia!

On 19^th – 22^nd March, 2024 the participants of the „FOOD Quality in Digital Age” project visited Slovakia for a study visit organized by the Slovak University of Agriculture (SUA) in Nitra and Piešťany. The visit was combined with Partners’ participation in the XXI. SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE WITH INTERNATIONAL PARTICIPATION under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic “FOOD SAFETY AND CONTROL” and focused on promotion and dissemination of the first results of the project. Participation in the conference allowed the Consortium to exchange knowledge and experience as well as contribute to spreading research excellence to the Visegrad region, opening new possibilities of future cooperation and empowering young researchers.

During the visit, PhD students and researchers from Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Serbia took part in the 4^th module of the 5-modules training on digital food quality evaluation methods. According to their expertise, the Host provided a module on the methodology of electronic eye. The training was conducted by the AgroBioTech Research Centre’s scientific and research staff and the teaching staff of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Science, who are involved in food analysis and have practical experience in the use of instrumental sensory analysis equipment available at the AgroBioTech. One of these instruments is the electronic eye, an advanced computer vision technology. It is a nondestructive technology for evaluating shape, size, color monitoring and texture analysis. A person overseeing the content of the training from the Host was dr. Jana Štefániková – she is dedicated to LC- and GC-based separation and detection devices (HPLC-DAD, GC-FID, GC-MS) for analysing very low concentrations of environmental, chemical and process contaminants or specific nutrients. Dr. Štefániková is experienced scientist, especially in terms of electronic eye analysis for the quality evaluation of cheese and wheat bread with grape seeds micropowder.

The participants of the study visit had a chance to visit a dairy plant in Bánovce nad Bebravou, Slovakia, where they got familiar with the production of pasta filata type cheeses.

As a part of the study visit, during the “FOOD SAFETY AND CONTROL” conference, each Partner presented its digital method for food quality evaluation, what initiated a networking part of the event. The networking meeting was  a great opportunity to learn about the innovative food quality evaluation methods, exchange knowledge and establish valuable interpersonal links!

During this event the University of Life Sciences in Lublin was represented by:

• Bartosz Sołowiej – Project Coordinator,
• dr hab. Maciej Nastaj,
• dr Jagoda Szafranska,
• mgr inż. Anna Krajewska (PhD student),
• mgr inż. Robert Waraczewski (PhD student).

More information about the project.

The project is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe..