Research

Professor Mitchell’s research program investigates the basic chemical reactions and changes in composition that occur in fruits and vegetables as a result of breeding, pre- and post-harvest processes and developing mass spectral approaches for identifying and quantifying target and nontarget secondary plant metabolites for authentication, safety and biological relevance. Her research team helps identify strategies and processing innovations for retaining and optimizing levels of beneficial compounds in finished food products, and for decreasing the formation of toxic compounds (e.g. acrylamide, advanced lipid oxidation products, etc.,) in finished foods. Additional investigations include characterizing the food-matrix interaction and how this influences and bioavailability and metabolism of bioactives.