EFFoST annual meeting

2013 Annual Meeting, Bio-Based Technologies in the context of European Food Innovation Systems,

12-15 November 2013, Savoia Hotel Regenct, Bologna, Italy

Dear Researchers, Students and Colleagues,
Food  innovation represents an ongoing challenge for researchers, industry, policy  makers, suppliers and food chain managers.
Consumers  want good quality and tasty foods but are increasingly demanding nutritional  and bio-functional properties for these foods, as more advanced research  discoveries and facts are publicized.
Within  this framework the ongoing research programmes carried out at European level,  mainly supported by EU research funding or by national/regional research funds  or by the food industry, are continuing at the highest scientific level by  industrial and academic researchers. These activities include research on  characterization, quality evaluation, and functionality of food and ingredients  from both traditional and novel sources. Advanced and innovative technologies  to improve food safety, maintaining food quality to prolong shelf-life,  biotechnologies to increase nutrition and functional properties, highly  efficient new analytical methods, new approaches to bio-packaging and food  processing sustainability are all topics in which the main European research  groups are actively involved, and having their research referred to.
Owing  to the strong and increasing interest in the relationship between food  consumption, public health, well-being, healthy ageing and more general aspects  as sustainability and resource efficiency, developments in these food research  areas have been included as a bio-based technology component of the Priority “Societal  Challenges” platform within the EU’s Horizon 2020 vision documents.
In fact, an expectation of this  future EU research programme is that substantive advancement will be needed for the  achievement of the challenges and policy relevant indicators to “improving the lifelong health and wellbeing  of all and to secure sufficient supplies of safe and high quality food and  other bio-based products, by developing productive and resource-efficient  primary production systems, fostering ecosystem services, alongside competitive  and low carbon supply chains.”

Furthermore, the omics approach will  allow food and nutrition to be considered as a whole, rather than as separate  domains, to achieve the main objective, the optimization of human health and  well-being.

The exchange of viewpoints and  experiences between industrial and academic researchers and students will play  a key role in creating the synergies needed to kick-start the development and  innovation in the food science and food industry sectors following the  recommendation to integrate organizations from universities, business and research in the “knowledge  triangle” promoted by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.

All the above topics  will be the subject of plenary lectures, research papers and discussions at the  next EFFoST Annual Meeting to be  held in Bologna, Italy, from 12th-15th November, 2013.

The conference programme  will be focused on two topic streams, one addressing bio-based scientific  approaches for food-human wellbeing interaction, and the other relating more  specifically to bio-based technologies for industry competitiveness.

On behalf of the  Organizing and the Scientific Committee I’m very glad to invite all of you to  participate in this conference since it will certainly be one of the key events  for the European community of food scientists this year.

I sincerely hope you  will be able to join us in Bologna to make your contribution to the progress of  our multidisciplinary science by presenting your research as a poster or oral  presentation.
Looking forward to welcoming you in Bologna.

Very best regards,

Marco Dalla Rosa – Conference Chair Full Professor of Food Technology Head of the  Interdepartmental Centre for Agri-Food Industrial Research Alma Mater Studiorum – University of  Bologna