Prof. Erik van der Linden chaired the first plenary session of the day on the Challenges in Science for Agri-food.

Here Anne-Marie Hermansson spoke of her concern that the role of food science and technology is often not included or hidden in strategic documents such as the IAP  and WRI  e.g. ‘Creating a sustainable food future’ reports. This issue is addressed by the 7 missions defined in the ‘Global challenges and the critical needs of food science and technology’ report.

Vicent Busken discussed the role of social networks in the spreading information, appreciation and trust. Networks look like small worlds, there are many relations within a cluster, but not many between clusters. This affects the diffusion and trust of new technological developments and stresses the importance of influencers.

Prof. Fransisco A. Tomas Barberan talked about whether a pomegranate is a superfood in relation to food phytochemicals and their positive role in human health. He highlighted that future research

needs to consider the fact that there is interindividual variability observed in polyphenols gut microbiota metabolism. Therefore, health effects will differ according to the metabolism type.

An interesting talk focusing on how to reduce CO₂ emission in the food processing industry was covered by Signe Kjelstrup from PoreLab Center of Excellence. She presented three systematic tools to achieve low CO₂ emission for a sustainable food industry:

1) Think exergy instead of energy efficiency,
2) Use coupling to perform separation work, and
3) Minimize entropy production.

After lunch, there was a round table on “Challenges in communication in Agri-Food”. Prof. Mike Gibney opened the session with his statement that processing of foods is essential to achieve the goals of global food access, safety, and nutrition. Aris Christodoulou, CEO of Siga, then took the stage stating that with an increasing degree of processing the health potential decreases. This was the start of a lively discussion,

moderated by Dick Veerman from Foodlog. Interesting remarks from this discussion with the audience is that we need to be careful not to create a negative association among consumer to the term “processing”. As an example, the case of whole grain bread fortified with iodine was named, where processing is used to improve the health potential. It is up to the food science and technology community to properly communicate the benefits of technologies that are used to improve the safety and nutritional benefits of foods and at the same time improving the nutritional composition of our foods.

During the EU project session for OLEUM, the quality and authenticity of olive oil at EU and global level was discussed. In addition, the strategy of the validation process of the analytical methods of OLEUM as well as the interactions towards the targeted and untargeted methods was presented. 

In the parallel session on Bioactive compounds and processing, Bruce R. Hamaker from Whistler Center of Carbohydrate Research (USA) gave an interesting talk on how to tailor fiber-based prebiotics for personalized gut health. To answer  

this, we need to take the point of view of the microbe itself.

Conference dinner
As the conference delegates arrived at the Wereldmuseum, they were greeted by totems from Papua guinea with large personalities. Upstairs food was enjoyed in an elegant ballroom overlooking the Eramusbrigde that crosses the Maas river. Guests were able to move freely around the room to catch up with old friends and meet new people.