John Bassett, IFST’s Policy and Scientific Development Director, and Past President Maureen Edmondson, attended the 31st EFFoST (European Federation of Food Science and Technology) annual conference in Sitges, Spain in November, of behalf of IFST. With 154 oral presentations and 400+ posters with contributors from 60 countries, the 560-odd delegates had plenty to choose from.
Plenary sessions where of broad interest, with Gastronomy and gastrointestinal microbiomics featuring strongly. In particular the conference presented an opportunity to highlight the interactions between chefs and scientists, or indeed chefs as scientists and the launch of a new journal from Elsevier on Gastronomy and Food Science. https://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-gastronomy-and-food-science/.
Parallel sessions covered a range of technical topics encompassing food safety, security & sustainability, novel technologies and food engineering, nutrition and health, as well as information relevant to European food research, from future initiatives (Food 2030) to knowledge transfer and application of current research. EFFoST are involved in communication of many curreent EU research project outcomes and the conference was a vehicle for projects to report; EFFoST keep communication going through their publication ‘Taste of Science’, targeted at small and medium sized businesses - https://www.effost.org/publications/taste+of+science/default.aspx
Full details of the programme and speakers is available at http://www.effostconference.com/conference-history.asp. The 2018 conference will take place in Nantes, France next November, see http://www.effostconference.com/