47th Annual Food Science and Technology Conference provides food for thought!
The 47th Annual Food Science and Technology Conference was co-hosted by IFSTI and the School of Food and Nutritional Science, in University College Cork on Thursday 6th and Friday 7th December 2018. Postgraduate research students delivered a stimulating range of oral and poster presentations covering a range of research topics, with over 160 delegates in attendance over the two days.
Prof. Paul McSweeney, UCC Vice President for Learning and Teaching opened the conference with a welcome address on Thursday morning. In addition to the student presentations a number of invited speakers delivered addresses on a range of topics. Prof Hans Steinhart from the Institute of Food Chemistry in Hamburg University was the first invited keynote speaker to address the delegates with a presentation entitled ‘How food chemistry underpins sustainable food production’. This presentation was followed by other keynote speakers throughout the programme and included Mr. Jim Corbett, Director of Food Institute, UCC who presented ‘Are researchers prepared for addressing societal changes?’; Dr. Henry Lyons, Scientific Director, NutraMara Ltd. ‘From research bench to commercialisation’ and Dr. Kaye Burgess, Senior Research Officer, Teagasc Food Research Centre Ashtown in Dublin concluded the presentations on Thursday with a talk entitled ‘Antimicrobial resistance in the food chain’. On Friday, Mr. Seamus Clancy, Chief Executive, REPAK Ireland Ltd. presented ‘Sustainability and food manufacture, helping the food industry to rise to environmental challenges’ and Dr. Grainne Redmond, Food Safety Authority of Ireland delivered a presentation entitled ‘European Food Safety (EFSA) funding opportunities’.
Prizes were awarded to the students over a number of categories:
Emer Garvey, Teagasc Moorepark/UCC was awarded the prize for Best Oral Presentation for her presentation entitled ‘Application of Response Surface Methodology to optimissolid-phase microextraction for volatile analysis of baked confectionary products’.
Highly commended oral presentations were presented to Paraskevi Tsermoula, Teagasc, Ashtown/UCC entitled ‘Recovery of protein-rich extracts from bovine and porcine hearts with techno-functional properties’ and Natasha Leeuwendaal, Teagasc Moorepark/UCC for her talk on ‘The potential of Cheddar cheese Lactobacillus isolates to impact the gut’.
The Best Poster prize was awarded to Kim Millar Teagasc Ashtown/DIT for her poster entitled ‘Raw, germinated and tasted pea flour as a novel ingredient in bread-baking: The effect on dough rheology and bread quality’.
Highly commended poster prizes were presented by: Laura Hinds, Teagasc, Ashtown/UCD for ‘Non-thermal technologies for decontamination of dried food ingredients’ and Peter Myintzaw, Cork Institute of Technology/UCC for ‘Effects of dietary supplementation of antioxidant-rich, organic acids to broiler diets and impact upon growth performance and oxidative meat stability’.
The closing address for the conference was delivered by Mr. Declan Troy, IFSTI President.
