Course

Advanced Food Analysis

10th advanced course on analytical techniques used in compositional analysis of food

Organised by	VLAG Graduate School in cooperation with the laboratories of Food Chemistry and Organic Chemistry of Wageningen University & Research
Date	Mon 8 December 2025 until Fri 12 December 2025
Venue	Wageningen Campus, Wageningen, the Netherlands

Knowledge on the techniques and strategies used for analysis of food is essential in the field of food science and technology. Technological and scientific advances constantly open new ways to analyse the composition, study the structure of individual compounds, or monitor changes of specific constituents in agricultural raw materials, food ingredients, and final food products. Food scientists and technologists active in food research and food industry need to be aware of the established techniques as well as new strategies for food analysis. The course will focus on several commonly used (advanced) techniques and their applications in food analysis.

Course

Course aim

After the course, participants should have a detailed knowledge of the state-of-the-art in food analytical methods, including the possibilities and limitations of commonly used techniques & strategies, and their applications in complex food systems.

Target group

The course is aimed at PhD candidates and young researchers working in food research, as well as scientists from industries involved in food analysis.

Programme

Course design

The course will be composed of a series of lectures. The first lectures will establish an understanding of the key techniques (GC, LC, MS, NMR, and other spectroscopies). Subsequently, advanced strategies (e.g. hyphenation, -omics) based on these techniques will be explained. Building on this, opportunities and challenges in the analysis of various classes of major food constituents and small or trace molecules in a wide variety of complex food-related systems will be discussed. This is complemented with demonstrations of applications of food analysis from food research as well as food industry. The participants are also requested to present a poster of their own work within the field of food analysis.

Programme topics

Gas chromatography (GC) and liquid chromatography (LC)
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy
Mass spectrometry (MS)
Spectroscopic techniques, e.g. ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) and near-infrared (NIR)
Transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics
Molecular sensing
Macro-compositional food analysis: proteins, oligo- and polysaccharides, lipids
Small & trace molecule analysis: phytochemicals, contaminants, toxins

Applications of food analysis in research and industry

A preliminary programme will be shared in due time.

Lecturers

Organisation

Course coordinators

Dr W.J.C. de Bruijn, Food Chemistry, Wageningen University & Research
Dr G.IJ. Salentijn, Organic Chemistry, Wageningen Food Safety Research , Wageningen University & Research

Other faculty

Prof J.P.M. van Duynhoven, Unilever R&D and Wageningen University & Research
Prof J.G.M. Janssen, Unilever R&D and Wageningen University & Research
Dr G. Dervilly-Pinel, LABERCA, Oniris, Nantes
Dr J. Jansen, Analytical Chemistry & Chemometrics, Radboud University, Nijmegen
Dr G.J.C. Vreeke, Food Chemistry, Wageningen University & Research
Prof N. Kuhnert, Chemistry, Jacobs University, Bremen
Dr R.J. Hilgers, Food Chemistry, Wageningen University & Research
Dr C.O. Pandeirada, Carbohydrate Analytics, Nestlé, Switzerland
Dr M. Hennebelle, Food Chemistry, Wageningen University & Research
Dr J.J.J. van der Hooft, Bioinformatics, Wageningen University & Research
Dr M. Grajewski, Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening

General information

Date & duration

The course will be held from 8 - 12 December 2025.

Study load

The study load of this course is 2 ECTS credits (if participants opt-out of presenting a poster, this will be reduced with 0.6 ECTS to 1.4 ECTS).

Language

The course language will be English.

Contact information

For organisational matters please contact
Jochem Jonkman, phone: +31-317-489549 (jochem.jonkman@wur.nl).

More information concerning the content course can be obtained from
Wouter de Bruijn (wouter.debruijn@wur.nl) or Gert Salentijn (gert.salentijn@wur.nl).

Location

Location & accommodation

The course takes place on Wageningen Campus. The town of Wageningen is 5 km from Ede-Wageningen railway station, from which there is a regular bus service to the city centre of Wageningen. The Ede-Wageningen railway station can be reached by train from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in about one hour. For train schedules visit: www.ns.nl.

Hotels:

Hotel WICC

Hotel de Nieuwe Wereld

Hotel de Wageningse Berg

Hotel de Wereld

Other accomodation:

Short Stay Wageningen

Bed & breakfast Wageningen

Registration

Registration & course fee

You can register for the course at https://event.wur.nl/vlagafa25/subscribe

The final registration date is 7 November 2025. When you register before 10 October 2025, you will receive an early bird discount.

Registration will be accepted in the order in which the registration form is received. You will be notified on acceptance of your registration. Additional information will follow afterwards.

The course fee (which includes coffee/tea during breaks, lunches and one dinner but does not cover accommodation) depends on the participant's affiliation:

Course fee
Registration type	Early bird fee	Regular fee
VLAG/WUR PhD candidates*	€ 325	€ 375
All other PhD candidates	€ 550	€ 600
Postdocs and staff affiliated with VLAG	€ 550	€ 600
All other postdocs and university staff, as well as non-profit organisations	€ 825	€ 875
Industry / for-profit organisations	€ 2000	€ 2050

* VLAG/PE&RC/EPS/WIAS/WASS/WIMEK PhD candidates with an approved TSP

Cancellation policy

After acceptance of your registration, the VLAG Cancellation Conditions for course participants will apply.

Downloads

The course programme will be posted and communicated about as soon as it becomes available.