Research topics

The Food Safety Section at the Department of Veterinary Medicine carries out and coordinates research, enhancement, technology transfer and training activities related to the safety of animal origin food. The Section’s research focuses mainly on the following topics:

- development and optimization of conventional culture-dependent microbiological methods to isolate, identify and enumerate pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms;

- development of conventional and advanced biomolecular methods for the identification, characterization and typing of pathogenic microorganisms;

- food shelf-life study;

- parasitological analyses of health significance in foods;

- study of advanced biomolecular methodologies applied to the food authenticity of species for the detection of food fraud by substitution of species;

- biomolecular identification of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in foods;

- determination of the chemical composition of foods for quality control;

- validation of analytical methods for the qualitative and quantitative detection of chemical contaminants unintentionally and intentionally added to food, for risk assessment;

- determination of animal-based parameters for the assessment of animal welfare;

- consulting support services for evaluation and adaptation to food hygiene standards (PRP, prerequisite programs) and the HACCP Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points system;

- inspection and analytical evaluation of the main pathologies affecting beekeeping;

- application and development of experimental methods for the isolation, quantification, and physicochemical characterization of microplastics in foods.

The research conducted by the "Food Safety" Section is to be found in international and national scientific publications of significant editorial value as well as in research projects funded under international, European, and national research and innovation programs.