The doctoral dissertation in the fields of Physics will be examined at the Faculty of Science and Forestry on the Joensuu Campus.
MSc Sampson Saj Andoh, what is the topic of your doctoral research? Why is it important to study the topic?
Adulteration of edible palm oil is already a serious problem in most developing countries. This may be an issue as food adulteration has the potential to affect consumer confidence, health and can even cause death.
What are the key findings or observations of your doctoral research? What in the implementation of your research or its findings is new, valuable and interesting for the general public and/or the scientific community?
This work presents simple and easily obtainable methods, tools, and parameters that aids in authenticating and detecting adulteration in the most used oil in the world. This scope of this work is focused on developing countries where there is no or weak regulatory bodies with stringent structures, funding, and policies in overseeing and dealing with these adulteration.
How can the results of your doctoral research be utilised in practice?
The results of this work will help developing countries to authenticate and detect adulteration in edible palm oil. This is because most developing countries use palm oil to prepare local cuisines and in some cultures used to treat vitamin A deficiency. Finding ways to detect adulteration will boost consumer confidence and even save lives as the adulterant (Sudan dyes) are classified as mutagenic and carcinogenic by the International Agency for Cancer Research (IARC) and hence banned as food additives.
Please describe the process of your doctoral research. For example, what are the key research methods and materials used in your doctoral research?
This opens possibility for an accurate and portable tools and application in the open market, points of entry or on the field. This tool will save time, energy, and resources as this device eliminates completely sample preparation as required in the sophisticated laboratory tools and methods.
The doctoral dissertation of Sampson Saj Andoh, MSc, entitled Photonic solution for adulteration detection in edible palm oil will be examined at the Faculty of Science and Forestry on the Joensuu Campus on 15 October at 12.15. The opponent in the public examination will be Professor Juha Toivonen, Tampere University, and the custos will be Professor Matthieu Roussey, University of Eastern Finland. The public examination will be held in English.
For further information, please contact:
Sampson Saj Andoh, sampson.andoh (a) uef.fi
