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Announcement from EFFoST President:

Dear Colleague,

As you may know the first European PhD Conference in Food Science and Technology (BerlinFOOD2010) which was intended to further increase European Research Quality in Food Science was most successful (www.berlinfood2010.de).

The 2010 event was made possible due to a dissemination activity of the integrated Project Novel Q and its Training & Career Development activities. We had 360 applications for 80 spaces and the event was mainly run by the PhD students themselves.

The European Federation of Food Science & Technology (EFFoST) ‘Young Scientist Group’ agreed to organize and execute future events (ideally in a two year sequence). September 2012 would be an appropriate time for the next conference.

To ensure the sustainability of the PhD conference we have approached the EC and received most supportive response from Mrs. MaiveRute and Mr.

Jürgen Lucas.

During your EC project negotions some of you were asked to reserve some money for dissemination activities like the PhD conference (total cost for BerlinFOOD2010 was € 25,000 including 30 travel stipends). After discussing with the EFFoST Young Scientist Group we propose to organize the 2012 event in the same manner as BerlinFOOD2012 and would be willing to take care of the organization.

What we need from you is your interest to send PhD students, your willingness to possibly participate and be actively involved in the discussion after each PhD presentation AND to collectively contribute parts of your dissemination funds to this event.

At this point I would appreciate your feedbacks and your expression of interest in participation in an activity which will not only contribute to increase the research quality in food science within Europe even further but also provides an excellent opportunity for young scientists and their advisors to build networks for the future.

I really look forward to your response.

Sincerely

Dietrich Knorr

Dear Colleagues,

After completing my first year as president of EFFoST, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for being involved in EFFoST and for contributing to the field of Food Science and Technology to provide better, healthier and safer foods to the European and international consumers.

EFFoST, through its national organizations, consists of more than 100,000 food science professionals like you and our field has a key impact on national economies as well as on that of the European Community. EFFoST has been highly active during the past year. We had successful scientific annual conferences in Dublin in 2010 and in Berlin in 2011. Our newly established Young Scientists Special Interest Group – the future of our profession – is very active. We recently got the support of the European Commission to hopefully be able to continue the most successful European PhD Conference in Food Science and Technology (BerlinFOOD2010), through funding from European research projects.

EFFoST is recognizing the importance of SME’s in the field and our Industry Platform is actively developing concepts to transfer food science and technology knowledge to SME’s. One current approach is the creation of a “Food SME” journal in cooperation with Elsevier Science the worldwide largest publisher of food related journals and books.

We are also negotiating with Elsevier student subscriptions with access to food science journals through individual memberships.

It is my hope that these few examples of our activities give you a glimpse of the importance of EFFoST, the largest independent European stakeholder group and knowledge base related to food science and technology. Your active participation in EFFoST is highly appreciated and any suggestion to improve our activities (www.effost.org) are most welcome.

Sincerely

Dietrich Knorr

Department of Food Biotechnology and Food Process Engineering of the Technische Universität Berlin

President EFFoST

Announcement from Food Factory 2012

6th International Conference on the Food Factory for the Future, held 4 – 6 July 2012 in Laval /France
The conference will focus on four themes:

1. Process design: From equipment to cleaning and decontamination techniques,
2. Microbial and chemical food safety: From biofilms to food contact materials,
3. Minimal processing: From optimization of conventional methods to innovative soft technologies,
4. Smart process control and automation: From sensors to robotic solutions.

Food Factory 2012 will be an opportunity to share and transfer knowledge amongst food industry and the scientific community, as well as to take part in an active and creative forum for the development of new ideas and potential innovations. Researchers from academic and industrial research centres are invited to submit their communication proposal before January 16th 2012.
You will find information on the conference website. For further questions please contact Mr Nicolas Chomel of Laval Mayenne Technopole

Announcement from EFFoST : European Federation of Food Science and Technology

Hello to everyone on the EFFoST Linkedin Site.

Over the past few months we have received many new requests to join our site. Of course, we approve anyone who has a connection with food science and technology.

You may be interested to know, that in addition to becoming a member of EFFoST by joining an affiliated national society for food science and technology, EFFoST also offers individual membership for individuals, companies, universities and research institutes. The only requirement is that you have a connection to food science and technology.Full details regarding benefits and costs are available at http://www.effost.org/pages/join-effost.php and I would urge you all to consider joining us.

With best regards,
Brian McKenna

Emeritus Professor of Food Science, University College Dublin
Scientific Coordinator, European Technology Platform - Food for Life
Immediate Past-President, EFFoST

MoniQa FST "Authenticating and tracing particular food categories"

BOKU, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna

Muthgasse 18

1190 Vienna

Austria

Food Fraud is a growing problem all over the world. Consumers can not only choose from an ever increasing number of goods, the can also choose where the desired food comes from, how it was produced and within one single product category they can select from an astonishing number of products due to variations in the food formulas.

Thus, verifying food autenticity means to uncover:

the misdescription of foods not meeting the requirements for a legal name
the substitution by cheaper ingredients
undeclared processes (e.g. irradation, freezing) and/or extension of food using adulterant (water, starch)
incorrect origin, e.g. geografic, species or method of production

This one day MoniQa Food Scientist Training offers talks on the authenticity of wine, fats, oils, dairy and soy products. Further, participants will be informed about current food traceability issues and an expert in food law will provide up to date information on the legal background regarding traceability and designation of origin.

MoniQa FST "Appropriate controls and their use in molecular diagnostics for microbial contaminants"

BOKU

Muthgasse 18

1190 Vienna

Austria

This workshop will give a detailed overview of the choice, construction and use of the controls essential for applying molecular diagnostics to monitoring of foods for microorganisms, with presentations giving practical examples of the principles, operation and interpretation of the key controls. The workshop will be of interest to both method developers and analysts.