With more than 500 abstract submissions, 372 participants from 53 countries, including 133 PhD students, the conference showed once more its international reach and its importance for young scientists. Furthermore, celebrating the 30th anniversary of EFFoST along with the handover of the EFFoST presidentship from Dietrich Knorr to Lilia Ahrné made it a particular event.
The theme of the conference - Targeted Technologies for Sustainable Food Systems - and the topics reflected the demand for sustainable food systems to address specific consumer needs and preferences. The availability of targeted technologies was seen as one critical bottleneck for product innovations leading to environmentally friendly food processes and the introduction of scalable and flexible food manufacturing techniques.
Within 6 plenary, 20 parallel oral and 2 poster sessions, presenters explored solutions to current and future challenges derived from the targeted application of appropriate food- and bio-processing technologies. A Networking Forum organized to form and strengthen alliances between scientists but also industry delegates was well received by more than 60 participants. The presentation of the recently approved European Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) on Food was another reflection of the importance of leading pan-European partnerships to drive the transformation towards a consumer-centric and resource-efficient food sector. Topics such as 3D-food printing, the application of coloring foods or the tasting of edible insects contributed to informative and entertaining breaks. Thanks to the exhibitors and sponsors for supporting the event.
Special Sessions, co-organized by the Austrian Competence Center for Food and Feed Quality, Safety and Innovation (FFOQSI), the Bioencapsulation Research Group (BRG), the International Association of Cereal Science and Technology (ICC), the Global Harmonization Initiative (GHI), the Food Chemistry Division of the European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences (EuCheMS) as well as the TomFood and the KATANA projects, not only strengthened the exchange of knowledge but helped towards improving the collaboration between associations active in the food science and technology domain.
Besides the scientific programme, the social events such as the Food Pub Quiz during the Welcome Reception or the Conference Dinner in the impressive Festival Hall of the Vienna City Hall made the event an enjoyable and memorable one.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to all participants for attending this year’s conference. A special thanks goes to the members of the scientific committee as well as to all the speakers and poster presenters for their efforts in ensuring a high scientific quality of the event. Congratulations again to the winners of the GNT Young Scientist Award, the EFFoST/Cargill Student of the Year Award as well as the EFFoST Science to Society Award.
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year and I hope to see you in near future again.
Best regards,
Henry Jäger
Conference Chair, 30th EFFoST International Conference