From farm to fork
The METROFOOD-CZ research infrastructure in the field of food covers the whole agri-food chain
primary production
food science
&
technology
nutrituion
food science
Each author is obliged to indicate in the work the use of research infrastructure, if it was used in the creation of the work:
The work used [data/tools/services/facilities] provided by the METROFOOD-CZ Research Infrastructure (https://metrofood.cz), supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (Project No. LM2023064).
The use of the research infrastructure is also recorded in the RIV database of scientific results from 2020.
Our Services
Agroenvironmental Chemistry
analysis of natural biologically active components; environmental pollutants; residues, processing contaminants and natural toxicants.
Food Analysis
metrology and testing of foodstuffs including beverages and food supplements, food and pharmaceutical raw materials and products,
Matabolomics
metabolomics fingerprinting followed by chemometric data processing aimed at food / feed / food supplements authentication
Food Chemistry
development of novel analytical methods for control of emerging threats, non-target screening strategies
Food Microbiology & Nutrition
wide variety of current research on microbes that have both beneficial and deleterious effects on the safety and quality of foods, and are thus a concern of public health
Foodomics
food analysis that combines food and nutrition science with recent developments in analytical chemistry, mainly omics tools and bioinformatics
Facilities and equipment
Open Access
METROFOOD-CZ provides its services to a wide range of users, researchers, academics, government supervisors, food retailers, consumers and the general public. These end-users can be public and private research laboratories and research groups active in many scientific fields (metrology, analytical chemistry, food analysis, food composition and nutrition, food quality and safety, food processing; epidemiological studies and risk analysis); food companies; institutions and services (education, research, food distribution, input supplies). The METROFOOD-CZ research infrastructure is open to all users with interesting scientific projects from all over the world.
experimental fields and livestocks
Facilities for practical training such as experimental field and stable, ornamental garden, glasshouses
Several experimental fields and greenhouse facilities dedicated to field trials, plant protection and breeding programmes including organic farming and integrated farming systems are available. Experimental field stations include also certified organic field area used for traditional and non-selected field crop varieties, mainly cereals, potatoes, medicinal and aromatic plants.
Expert research in the areas of animal nutrition, feed and feed mixtures usage and in the evaluation of feed quality as well advisory services in mentioned areas.
Sample preparation
Core analytical equipment and a variety of the equipment and laboratories used for sample preparation and bio-assaying in order to assess quality of agricultural products
Sample extraction and preparation is done by supercritical fluid extraction unit Applied Separation SPEED SFE HELIX, multipurpose centrifuge evaporators and preparative HPLC Agilent 1260 Infinity. For specific purposes pipetting robot Tecan Freedom EVO and multi-plate readers e. g. Bio-Tek CYTATION III could be used
laboratory of cereals
The research activity is focused on the issue of quality of wheat varieties, on the evaluation of milling and baking properties of flour and dough and pastry. A special area of research is the connection between the hardness (properties) of the endosperm of wheat grain and the course of grain preparation, its processing in the mill and other quality evaluation of flour, rheological properties of the dough and characteristics of the produced pastry. On the experimental baking line, baking experiments are performed, in which a batch of 1000 g of flour is used as standard.
NMR Spectrometer
500 MHz NMR Bruker AVANCE III HD, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy can be used to study the structure of mole-cules, the interaction of various molecules, kinetics or dynamics of molecules, and the composition of mixtures of biological or synthetic solutions or composites. The size of molecules of interest can range from a small organic molecule or metabolite, to a mid-sized peptide or natural product, all the way up to proteins of several tens of kDa in molec-ular weight.
NMR complements other structural and analytical techniques such as X-ray, crystallog-raphy, and mass spectrometry. NMR’s advantage is it’s unique ability to allow the non-destructive and quantitative study of molecules in solution, in solid state, and allow the study of biological fluids.
MALDI-TOF
Bruker autoflex speed TOF/TOF MALDI based mass spectrometer with MALDI Biotyper for identification and classification of microorganisms is a revolutionary approach to definitive identification and speciation of microorganisms. Autoflex speed delivers mass accuracy ≤ 2 ppm and maximum resolving power >26,000 in reflectron mode due to its patented PAN™ technology and unique FlashDetector. In linear mode, ions with molecular weight >500 kDa can be detected using the FlashDetector.
MALDI-TOF finds application in a number of areas such as proteomics research, biomarker discovery, analysis of biotherapeutics, bioassay development and metabolite distribution, molecular histology/MALDI Imaging, polymer analysis, glycan and glycoprotein analysis, microorganism identification, intact protein sequencing …
LC/MS systems
- 6560 Ion Mobility Q-TOF – Quadrupole Time-of-Flight (IM-QTOF) LC/MS system high performance ion mobility coupled with 1290 Infinity UHPLC (Agilent Technologies);
- 2x 6495 TripleQuad – triple quadrupole LC/MS system coupled with 1290 Infinity II UHPLC (Agilent Technologies);
- 6600 TripleTOF – high resolution QTOFMS with SelexION® ION Mobility Technology (SCIEX) coupled with UltiMate 3000 RS UHPLC (Dionex);
- 5500 QTRAP – quadrupole-linear ion trap (SCIEX) coupled with Acquity UPLC (Waters);
- 6500+ QTRAP – quadrupole-linear ion trap (SCIEX) coupled with 1290 Infinity II UHPLC (Agilent Technologies); QExactive Plus™ – Hybrid Quadrupole-Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific) coupled with UltiMate 3000 RS UHPLC (Dionex);
- Exactive – a benchtop OrbitrapMS, (Thermo Fisher Scientific) coupled with Acquity UPLC (Waters);
- SYNAPT G2-Si High Definition MS System – QTOFMS with ion mobility coupled with Acquity UPC2 System (Waters);
- SYNAPT G2 HDMS – QTOFMS with ion mobility coupled withAcquity UPLC (Waters);
- Xevo TQ-S – triple quadrupole coupled with Acquity UPLC (Waters);
- Quattro Premier XE – triple quadrupole/ACQUITY QDa Mass Detector coupled with Acquity UPLC (Waters);
- LC-QTOF Bruker IMPACT II
GC/MS systems
- GC/MS system: 7010 GC/MS Triple Quad coupled with 7890B GC (Agilent Technologies);
- 7200B GC/QTOF – high-resolution QTOFMS coupled with 7890B GC and automated SPME unit (Agilent Technologies);
- 3x 7000B GC/MS Triple Quad coupled with 7890A GC (Agilent Technologies);
- Pegasus GC–HRT – high-resolution TOFMS (LECO) coupled with 7890A GC (Agilent Technologies) and automated SPME unit (Gerstel);
- Pegasus 4D – high-speed TOFMS Pegasus III (LECO)c oupled with 6890 GC×GC system (Agilent Technologies) and automated SPME unit (Gerstel)
- Ambient MS system: Direct Analysis in Real Time – DART (Ion Sence) connected to ExactiveMS (Thermo Scientific);
- GC-QTOF Agilent 7200,
Testing laboratory ISO 17025
Scope of accreditation – complete list
- Determination of pesticide residues and their metabolites
- Determination of chlorinated alkanes
- Determination of mycotoxins and their metabolites
- Determination of POP, PAH and HFR and their derivatives and metabolites
- Determination of acrylamide
- Determination of furan and its methyl-derivatives
- Screening, identification and determination of volatile and semivolatile compounds including aromatic components
- Metabolomic ´fingerprinting´ /profiling
- Determination of MCPD esters and glycidylesters
- Determination of fatty acids, ethanol, methanol
- Determination of coca alkaloids
- Detection, identification and determination of cannabinoids
- Determination of anabolic steroids
- Determination of plant alkaloids
- Determination of metabolites of organic contaminants
- Determination of food additives, food colours and folic acid
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CS