LABORATORY RULES
One must obey the rules in their laboratory studies. A staff member is assigned to each lab who is responsible that the lab operates in safe and good conditions. The forms that must be presented to the responsible staff member prior to starting laboratory studies and the list of responsible staff member for each laboratory are available in the documentaries.
Students has to follow the Chemical Hygiene Plan in all studies.
INFORMATION ABOUT THE LABORATORIES
The laboratories of the department are classified in two groups as teaching oriented and research oriented. Teaching laboratories have 27 m2 area and research laboratories have 774 m2 area in total. All equipment can be used in both purposes. Teaching laboratories include food quality control lab, food technology lab, microbiology lab, and sensory analysis lab. Research laboratories include microbiology lab, rheology lab, cereal technology lab, and instrumental analysis lab.
Food Quality Control Laboratory
It is used for the evaluation of food quality by various chemical, physical and enzymatic methods. Thus, sample preparation equipment, a Gerber centrifuge and a Soxhelet apparatus (for lipid analysis), drying ovens (for moisture content determinations), refractometers (for dry matter analysis), a spectrophotometer (for colorimetric determination of various food additives, such as dyes, chemical preservatives, phosphatase enzyme activity as an indicator of proper pasteurization), a polarimeter (for optic activity based measurements, such as starch determination), a Kjeldahl apparatus (for protein analysis), and also thin layer chromatography accessories, a UV lamb and an ash oven (for inorganic residue determination) are available in the lab. In addition to those, general purpose centrifuges, water baths, electric heaters, and weighing balances are available in the laboratory.
Food Technology Laboratory
There are a plate heat exchanger (for lab scale pasteurization of various fluid foods), a fluized bed dryer( for lab scale drying of solid food), a spray dryer (for drying food to particle size), a sieve (for particle size measurement), a sedimentation equipment, a hectoliter meter, dry gluten test apparatus (for evaluating gluten power/quality) and a water activity meter in the laboratory. General purpose vacuum pumps, weighing balances, incubators and water baths are also available in the laboratory.
Food Microbiology Laboratory
It is the laboratory that microbial contamination of foods are evaluated. An autoclave (for sterilization) and sample preparation equipment, such as a Pasteur oven, cooling incubators, water baths, mixers and blenders, are available in the laboratory. We do tests to detect total bacteria, yeast and mold contamination of food as well as isolation of pathogens, such as coliform bacteria, E. coli, Listeria, Staphylococcus and Salmonella. A bioreactor that can be used in fermentation studies is also available in the laboratory.
Instrumental Analysis Laboratory
A high pressure liquid chromatograph, sample preparation equipment and a vacuum pump are available in the laboratory. The liquid chromatograph has a UV-absorbance detector and a fluorescence detector. Another high pressure liquid chromatograph has a DAD detector and is used for inspecting phenolic content of food. Vitamin analysis, aflatoxin analysis, natural food pigment analysis, such as chlorophyll and anthocyanin, can be conducted by employing this detector. There is also GLC equipment that is mainly used for analysis of fatty acid composition. Thermal properties of food components is studied in the laboratory by differential scanning calorimetry. Flow properties and texture of food can also be evaluated by using a rheometer and a texture analyzer.
Sensory Analysis Laboratory
Sensory properties, such as taste, texture, color, shape and size, of food is evaluated by employing methods that use human senses as an instrument. A gas oven, a microwave oven, an electric oven and cooking and serving equipment are available in the laboratory to conduct the tests for product developing, new product formulations, quality preservation and research. The laboratory is used for teaching and industrial analysis.