Montpellier Scientific Community



Security and quality of plant products (SQPOV)

Director: Christophe NGuyen Thenguyenth@avignon.inra.fr
Research area
The objective of the Security and quality of plant products unit is the improvement or conservation of the organoleptic, hygienic and nutritional qualities of fresh and processed fruit and vegetables. The research conducted covers the whole chain: pre-harvest quality build-up, the development of preservation and processing technologies, advantages in preventive nutrition and mastery of the microbiological risks involved in the development of ready-to-eat refrigerated products.

Research highlights
Fruit quality and processing

 

  • Development of instrumental methods to measure fruit texture and determination of factors influencing tomato fruit firmness and mealiness.
  • Use of infra-red spectroscopy for non destructive characterization fruit quality.
  • Role of molecular interactions and tissue de-structuration in the extraction and availability of polyphenols and micronutrients during processing of fruits.
  • Development of new extraction methods for plant micro-constituents.

 

Chemistry of anti-oxidant

 

  • Anti-oxidant properties of polyphenols, carotenoids and their metabolites. Mode of action in interaction with lipids, proteins in micelles and emulsions. Development of models mimicking gastro-intestinal conditions.
  • Production and synthesis of carotenoids and polyphenols metabolites and degradation products. Investigation of their biological activities.

 

Microbiological food safety

 

Risk assessment of bacterial food-borne pathogens in minimally processed foods of plant origins. Impact of the ecology and diversity of the pathogens, role of the adaptative response of the pathogen to stresses encountered in the food processing chain and in gastro-intestinal conditions.

 
Staff profile
 
Total permanent staff Total Scientists Scientists with "HDR" [1] Post-doc fellows PhD
49 20 9 2 12

*Scientists per member institution: 10 INRA, 10 UAPV

[1]French university degree for confirmed thesis supervisor

    
         
Research teams
Chemistry of antioxidants

 

Microbiological safety of food

 

Fruit quality
Platforms and other tools
Technical platform for fruit quality analysis (shared equipment with two other RTRA units for integrated horticulture)

 

Containment laboratory for pathogenic bacteria

 

Analytical chemistry tool (HPLC-MS, GC-MS, capillary electrophoresis)
Most important international partnerships
University Jena, Germany

 

Hohenheim University, Germany

 

Norwegian School of Veterinary Sciences, Norway

 

Oslo University, Norway

 

Wageningen University, Netherland

 

Marrakech University, Morocco

 

RIPF Research Institute on Pomoloy and Floriculture, Skiernewicse, Poland

 

Technical University of Lodz, Poland

 
Facts and figures
Publications in international ranking journals
2007: 22
2006: 17
2005: 15
Representative publications
C. Dufour, M. Loonis, O. Dangles, Inhibition of the peroxidation of linoleic acid by the flavonoid quercetin within their complex with human serum albumin, /Free Radical Biology & Medecine/ 2007, /43/, 241-252.

 

P. Goupy, E. Vulcain, C. Caris-Veyrat, O. Dangles, Dietary antioxidants as inhibitors of the heme-induced peroxidation of linoleic acid: mechanism of action and synergism, /Free Radical Biology & Medecine/ 2007, /43/, 933-946.

 

Le Bourvellec C, Le Quéré J.-M. & Renard C.M.G.C.: Impact of non-covalent interactions between condensed tannin and apple cell walls: elaboration of a quantitative model and its application to transfer from fruit to juice. J Agric Food Chem, 55 (2007) 7896-7904

 

Zigha, A., E. Rosenfeld, P. Schmitt, and C. Duport. 2007. The redox regulator fnr is required for fermentative growth and enterotoxin synthesis in Bacillus cereus F4430/73. Journal of Bacteriology 189:2813-2824.

 

Guinebretiere, M.-H., F. L. Thompson, A. Sorokin, P. Normand, P. Dawyndt, M. Ehling-Schulz, B. Svensson, V. Sanchis, C. Nguyen-The, M. Heyndrickx, and P. De Vos. 2008. Ecological diversification in the Bacillus cereus Group. Environmental Microbiology 10:851-865.