Milano 29th may 2014
Scientific report on training school in Milan The training school on “ Spectroscopic and chemometric approaches to saffron analysis” tokk place in Milan on 27th-29th of June, 2014. There were a total number of 25 trainees (15 eligible for reimbursement) and it was very intense from all point of view. The first morning was dedicated to three lectures by prof. Tsimidou, prof. Polissiou and dr. Consonni to give basic information on saffron, quality parameters, ISO requirements, spectroscopic techniques and to show some practical applications of the spectroscopies applied to saffron study and in general to food analysis. The general aims of SAFFRONOMICS objectives were also presented to all trainees. The afternoon section took place in Varedo (close to Milan) for the outdoor section, where dr. Borsani and dr. Galli from the small farm “Zafferanami” illustrated the agronomical aspects about saffron farming. It was a good opportunity to visit and to discuss together “on the field” the problems raised and the open questions. We have proposed them (together with prof Tsimidou and prof Polissiou) to be invited as producers to the next annual meeting. The second day was fully dedicated to the statistical approach for spectroscopic data. The theoretical aspects presented by dr. Stocchero (from S-in informatiche) were focusing from the basic PCA up to more sophisticated classification approaches (OPLS-DA) and the use of filters for data treatment. The afternoon was fully dedicated to practical section, where all the participants had the opportunity to evaluate the software on their PC. The last day was spent to Bruker lab for a more dedicated focus on the NMR spectroscopy (theoretical aspects of NMR) where dr. Benevelli, dr. Minoia and dr. Napoli showed the problems involved in NMR data acquisition and processing. By remote acquisition, we were able to measured “in real time” few NMR experiments on a real saffron sample we provided. We received the application from a researcher from l’Aquila (PDO region for Italian saffron) during the school and he came on the second day. He is very interested and it was a good opportunity to get in touch with his group. He was told to join us in the action. At the end of the school, all the presentation were available to be downloaded by all the trainees in order to let them a more detailed report.
According to prof Tsimidou and prof Polissiou, we have also discussed with “Zafferanami� about the idea to plan an expert meeting for producers, where they could exchange and compare their knowledge. It could be very useful for them. Roberto Consonni