HealthFerm at the EFFoST conference 2023 in Valencia, Spain
From 6th – 8th of November 2023, HealthFerm was represented by several consortium partners at the EFFoST Conference 2023 in Valencia, Spain. Consortium members actively participated in presentations, poster sessions, and roundtable discussions.
In addition, HealthFerm was part of two special sessions organised by the Microbes4SustainableFoods cluster, which is a collaboration of five EU-funded projects with an overlapping interest in the use of microbes in foods: HealthFerm, Domino, PIMENTO, WHEATBIOME, and MASTER. During these sessions, the participating projects presented a diverse and insightful programme about the design of future fermented foods.
The 1st session started with a general introduction to fermented foods in the context of the different projects given by Yamina De Bondt (KU Leuven). Thereafter, coordinators of the projects that are part of Microbes4SustainableFoods presented their respective projects and shared preliminary and final results. Christophe Courtin (KU Leuven) gave an introduction to the HealthFerm project, Marta Laranjo (Universidade de Évora) presented the PIMENTO project, Stéphane Chaillou (Université Paris-Saclay) gave an overview of the DOMINO project, and Rosa Perez-Gregorio (University of Vigo) outlined the WHEATBIOME project.
In the 2nd session, Paul Cotter (Teagasc Food Research Centre) presented the main results of the recently completed EU-funded project MASTER. This was followed by initial results of the DOMINO project and first results from the HealthFerm project on a plant-based dairy alternative, presented by Abelardo Margolles (IPLA-CSIC) and Kati Katina (University of Helsinki), respectively. A roundtable discussion wrapped up the two sessions. It was organised and chaired by Jan de Vries (HealthGrain Forum), focusing on improving a sustainable science network for food fermentation technology across Europe.
In addition to the Microbes4SustainableFoods sessions, HealthFerm was actively represented in another special session organised by the HealthGrain Forum: From innovation to product development gaining consumer acceptabilitiy – building sustainabilitiy in food system chaired by consortium partner Jan de Vries. During this sessions, Fabio Tuccillo (University of Helsinki) presented part of his PhD on Sensory profiling and flavor analysis of faba bean ingredients and extrudates.
Overall, the EFFoST 2023 conference was a great success! We are all very much looking forward to further activities and events, in which we are thrilled to share more insights. In addition, we are excited to welcome the Tribiome EU-funded project in next activities of the Microbes4SustainableFoods cluster.
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