General information about the Chair

The Chair's core research areas are consumer goods with a focus on food contact materials. Consumer goods are products that come into contact with food and the human body.
The aim is to analyze the substances contained in these materials that can be transferred to food, the human body or the ambient air.

A wide variety of materials are examined, such as plastics, coatings, thermoplastic elastomers, elastomers (including silicone and natural rubber), adhesives, printing inks, paper and cardboard. The measured contents in the material or transitions into food or food simulants are then subjected to a risk assessment.

Olfactory active volatile organic substances (oVOC) are a special case of the substances tested that can be released from materials. These can lead to off-odors or off-flavors in indoor spaces (in the case of consumer products or building materials) or in food (in the case of food contact materials). The working group uses both human sensory methods to characterize and determine the intensity of an off-aroma and instrumental sensory investigations combining analytical separation methods and the human nose (e.g. GC olfactometry).