Vincenzo will serve as President of the EFFoST board alongside his current responsibilities as Professor of Food Quality & Design at Wageningen University and R&D Director at Arterra Bioscience.

Can you share your journey with EFFoST and how your professional path led you to become its President?

During the first part of my career in Italy, I seldomly participated to the EFFoST meetings, because in Italy (as in many countries) there is a career separation among the different subdomains of food science. When I moved to the NL in 2013, I realized that Food Technology, Food Chemistry, Food Microbiology, Food Physics, Food Design, as well all the subjects around food science, would only benefit from a common platform to exchange ideas and objectives. In the last years, the EFFoST conferences provided me with the perfect landscape to fulfill my desire to understand the broad food system and its challenges.

What motivated you to take on the role of President, and what are your key aspirations for EFFoST during your tenure?

I served on the EFFoST board for two years before becoming President, and I found a team with a lot of experience and clear goals to achieve. With the arrival of the new EFFoST Director, Gabriela Versteeg, we have the opportunity to vigorously pursue strategies to increase the value of the EFFoST activities, leveraging on our main asset, which will remain the annual EFFoST conference

What do you see as the main challenges facing the food sector today, and how can EFFoST address these in the coming years?

The food scientists have a very simple two-point agenda.  1) Feed the world; 2) Improve food quality. Regarding feeding the world, all the postharvest steps are traditionally EFFoST’s cup of tea and our challenge is to make them efficient and sustainable. A further challenge is to propose new, sustainable sources that can be used as ingredients to produce human foods, especially looking at the protein shortage.

Regarding improving the quality of food, we should provide solutions to design foods that are equally appealing but with better characteristics. Nutritional composition is relevant, but the link between texture and satiety, the digestibility, and the design of food to properly feed our microbiota are all aspects of great interest that belong to the EFFoST domain. Only broadening the vision our research can have a huge impact on the food sector.

How do you view the strength of EFFoST’s network, and what steps will you take to continue building this community, especially in terms of education and supporting new talent?

In these first weeks of my presidentship term, we are discussing within the EFFoST board several aspects regarding the community. We are looking how to engage with individual scientists, food research institutions and food companies. The EFFoST community can have a role in educating the future professionals of the food sector, in the positioning and communication of the food science research. I think that we should leverage on our large community to achieve these objectives.

How do you envision the future of food science and technology, and what role should EFFoST play in shaping it?

Food science is a very interdisciplinary domain, and several innovations are quickly changing many aspects of our work. Data science and AI are a revolution that will change the way we do research. EFFoST should stay as a forefront runner and facilitate this transition to ensure that there is a fast transfer of knowledge among our community.

What are your long-term goals for EFFoST, and how would you like your leadership and the organization's impact to be remembered in the years to come?

The EFFost conference is now considered as the place to be for all European food scientists. This is a great starting point. My goal is to take the opportunity to build a strong EFFoST community also looking at European countries and scientific areas we are not yet very strong. The long-term goal for EFFoST is contributing to increasing the reputation of food science research in the whole Life Science domain. A strong and resilient food system needs the right combination of tradition and innovation and  we are well equipped to help European Society in this respect.