Research that Resonates- 17th World Congress of Food Science & Technology

research-that-resonates-17th-world-congress-of-food-science-technology

Understanding how the successful commercialisation of innovation is more important today than ever before has become crucial. It is aptly reflected in ‘Research that Resonates’, the theme of the 17th World Congress of Food Science & Technology.

The 17th World Congress of Food Science and Technology and Expo, co-hosted by International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) and Canadian Institute for Food Science and Technology (CIFST), will be held at Montreal, Canada, from August 17 to 21, 2014. It aims to strengthen food science and technology’s role in helping secure world’s food supply and eliminate world hunger.

During the week of the congress, all involved in food business and activity in varied ways, will join together to learn advances in food science and technology, gain insights into key industry drivers such as: food safety, regulatory, consumers and some of the challenges facing the industry today. How can all the sectors work together in a more collaborative way to ensure on-going innovation that resonates with consumers, safety of our food, sustainability and ultimately, feeding the world!

The congress can help science, academia, government and industry to learn how they can execute more successfully in areas like collaboration, education and innovation – in an effort to provide quality food & beverage products that resonate with consumers.

Globally, research challenges are becoming increasingly complex. Expertise from several disciplines and organisations is frequently required to effectively address the issues. As a result, private and public sector research organisations are increasingly turning to collaboration and partnerships to leverage their own expertise and resources optimizing the impact of available human and financial resources and bringing to bear the best expertise from a variety of sources.

In addition to a strong scientific programme, the congress will hold an exhibition with 100 companies in participation. The exhibitors will be suppliers of food ingredients, consultants, service providers, packaging suppliers, laboratory equipment and testing services, hygiene and sanitation vendors, suppliers of food and beverage processing equipment and process control instrumentation, publishers, research companies, relevant associations, food industry lawyers, and many more.

Over 2,000 delegates are expected to participate in the congress and about half of them would be from North America, while 20% from Europe, 10% each from Asia, Latin America and the rest of the world. Thus, this is the best platform available for Indian companies to meet the world.

9th Nutra India Summit (NIS) held at Bangalore from March 12 to 14 saw a strong presence of IUFoST officials with its President, Dr Pingfan Rao, President-elect Dr Ricky Yada, Secretary General Dr Judith Meech and governing council members Anne Goldman, Dr Mary K Schmidl and Nigel Sunley actively participating. Dr V Prakash, a governing council member of IUFoST, was chairman of the 9th NIS.

Dr Yada made a detailed presentation at NIS about the congress. He appealed to the Indian fraternity from the nutraceuticals and food sector to be part of Indian delegation planned for the congress. Dr Prakash observed that the Indian nutra industry and scientific community is dynamic and expressed confidence that it would surely use this opportunity to participate. He recalled that India-Canada relations date back to Indo-Canadian Hunger Project since 1964.

India Partnering Opportunities (IPO), an initiative of MM Activ Sci-Tech Communications, which was the organiser of NIS, is setting up India pavilion at and taking a delegation of Indian business and science fraternity to the congress.

The congress would be a good networking platform. Indian companies would be benefitted as they would be able to showcase their products and plan B2B meetings. The programme would be covering areas like potential regulatory issues, consumer behaviour and sensory evaluation, innovation through collaboration, industrially-relevant products and issues, food nanotechnology, food processing and convergence innovation for affordable food etc.

Industry leader summit will also be part of the congress in which Guy Wollaert, Senior Vice-President and Chief Technical Officer, The Coca Cola Company, USA, Philip Donne, President, Campbell Company of Canada, Canada and Johanne Baensch, Global Head of Research and Development, Nestlé, Switzerland, will participate. Other key speakers who would participate in the congress include Robert Fisher, Chief Technical Officer, Molson Coors Brewing Company, USA, Lekh Juneja, Excecutive Vice-President, Taiyo Kagaku, Japan, Marcel Paques, Principal Scientist, Friesland Campina, The Netherlands, Riette de Kock, University of Pretoria, South Africa, Peter Jones, University of Manitoba, Canada, Brian Keating, CSIRO, Australia, Hosahalli S Ramaswamy (Swamy), McGill University, Canada.

IUFoST connects more than 3,00,000 food scientists and technologists from 65 countries. It recently entered into a multi-year agreement with the World Bank to take lead in the development of undergraduate food safety curricula worldwide and to establish a new ‘IUFoST branded’ masters in food safety leadership globally.

Founded in 1951, CIFST is the national association for food industry professionals in Canada. Its membership of more than 1,200 is comprised of scientists and technologists in industry, government and academia who are committed to advancing food science and technology. Together they have been organising congress for food safety and technology since 1962.

Detail information for participation in the India pavilion at the congress in Montreal, Canada, from August 17 to 21, 2014 can be obtained at the www.mmactiv.in/ipo or by sending an email to ipo@mmactiv.in

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