Food Group

The Food Group is one of the Royal Society of Chemistry's many Interest Groups. The Interest Groups are member driven groups which exist to benefit Royal Society of Chemistry members, and the wider chemical science community, in line with the Royal Society of Chemistry's strategy and charter.

Aims

The aims of the food group are to promote the role of chemistry in food and enable transfer and sharing of information and networking between academia and the food industry. This includes analytical, biochemical, chemical, physical, nutritional and toxicological aspects of food and food ingredients and the composition and relationships between structure and functionality throughout the entire food chain in a way to enhance sustainability and food and nutrition security. We also aim to:

• foster an awareness of the importance of chemistry in the food chain
• encourage interactions between scientists and technologists engaged in food research and development
• help transfer such scientific research from ideas to applications

Food Group Schools’ Poster Competition 2023 Winners

The competition was very well supported, and we enjoyed reading all the entries. Thank you to all the schools for their entries and to the teachers supporting this competition and helping us to raise the importance of chemistry in food.

The winning entry

This was from a group of three from Holyhead School, Birmingham:

• Muhammed Sameer Sohail
• Attar Chohan
• Dhanish Lal

Their poster was beautifully presented, easy to read and showcased the chemistry of chocolate from bean to bar, discussing changes at each step in the process (fermentation, roasting, conching), focussing on the development of aroma via the Maillard reaction, texture and appearance during tempering, and the bitter taste and stimulant nature of caffeine.

See the winning poster

The runner-up

Melissa Andrews from St Michael's Catholic Grammar School, London

Melissa showed great talent in her beautiful hand-drawn poster of a young person in a tree enjoying a bar of chocolate. The poster was also informative, covering the aspects of the clean snap, shiny appearance, perfect texture and great taste.

Highly commended certificates

These were awarded to:

• Venus Raman from Nottinghill and Ealing High School
• Zain Khan, Alfie Towler, and Robbi Cockburn from Aldenham School
• Valentina Panasiuk from More House School
• Hafsa Bint-Imran, Maryam Soyer, and Nashita Nazeem from Woodford County High School for Girls.

The winners and the runner-up with their teachers were all invited to spend half a day at the Mondelēz chocolate factory in Bournville where they learnt about the origins of cocoa, the different polymorphs and the different aroma compounds which are naturally present in chocolate. Then they had a go at tempering their chocolate.

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The competition for 2024 will be launched in spring 2024.

Food Group Open Medal 2022

"His international collaborations underline his reputation in the field, working not only with other academics but also with regulators and working parties.”

Professor Mackie was presented with his medal at the RSC AGM Meeting held at Burlington House on 1 December 2022.

The RSC Food group would like to thank Elsevier for their sponsorship of the Open Medal and the kind donation of £2000 prize.

Winner of the RSC Food Group prize at the Nursten symposium 2023

The Nursten Flavour Symposium (named after the late Professor Harry Nursten) is an annual event specifically dedicated to postgraduate students in the area of food and flavour science in the UK in order to give them early experience in presenting scientific findings to an academic audience.

This was awarded to Roisin McCarron from the University of Reading who has contributed the report below.

“It was held at the University of Nottingham and was a great opportunity to meet others working in food and flavour science from Nottingham and Reading - many of whom I had met at The Nursten Symposium the year before, and it was nice to see again. It was interesting to see what other PhD and MSc students were working on, and how different some of the areas of research are – ranging from biotechnology and microbiology to sustainable agriculture, sensory approaches, and exploring alternative food and drink options. The tour of the Sutton Bonington campus on day 2 was particularly interesting, as the labs contained equipment and methods I was previously unfamiliar with. 

I was very pleased and surprised to win the flavour chemistry award, on my presentation on how the nutritional content of plant-based milks may affect the sensory profile. In this, I presented LCMS results on compounds; avenanthramides and avenacosides in commercial oat-based milks, and the correlation between these and astringency as perceived by the sensory panel. The presentation also included results from a study whereby oat-based milk was fortified with varying plant proteins and the effect this had on the sensory profile, particle size, colour, and volatile compounds. In this, we found that potato protein resulted in a powdery mouthfeel and reduced stability, pea protein resulted in astringency, a bitter and metallic taste, as well as increased volatile compounds leading to a higher perceived aroma, and protein, in general, was increasing off-white colour and stale flavour.”

Relevant publications

Check out the latest Saltmarsh’s Essential Guide to Food Additives: Edition 5

Get Involved

We are always looking for new members who are keen to get involved and to help organise our activities. If you would like to find out more please contact the Secretary using the form below.

We also encourage you to connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (@RSC_FoodGroup).

We also have an online chemistry community for food at MyRSC for anyone who shares our interests.

How to Join

RSC members can join the Food Group by updating their details in the “My communities and subscriptions” tab of the online RSC membership area. Please click here to login and add to your list of Interest Groups.

Quick links

Awards

The Food Group awards two medals: the Early Career Medal (previously Junior Medal) and Open Medal (previously Senior Medal). Both are awarded biennially, in alternate years. The next call for medal proposals will be for the 2024 Open Medal.

These awards aim to encourage and recognise excellence in the application of chemical sciences to food from those in academia, in industry or consultancy of governmental roles.

MyRSC Food Group

This group is open to anyone with an interest in food science. You will be required to register for MyRSC, then you can sign up to become a member of this group

Forthcoming events

Forthcoming events organised by the Food Group.

Contact the Secretary

For further information on the Food Group you can contact the Secretary, Mr Alan Cross MRSC.

Support for interest groups

Useful information and resources for all RSC interest groups.

Committee

Chair

Professor Jane Parker MRSC

Treasurer

Professor Wendy Russell MRSC