Teagasc is holding a Food Innovation Gateways event at the Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Co. Cork, today (Wednesday, November 21).
The theme for the event is ‘Food Structure – Formation, Functionality and the Future’ and it aims to highlight the opportunities available to the Irish food industry.
The programme includes presentations from international food experts outlining the role of the food structure in the production, oral breakdown, digestion and bioavailability of foods.
- Professor Stephan Drusch of the Technical University of Berlin, an academic in the area of structure-function relationships in food processing;
- Dr. Christoph Hartmann, of Nestle Research and Development, an authority on biophysical mechanisms in food oral breakdown;
- Professor Sylvie Turgeon of the Universite Laval, Quebec, a leader in the control of food product stability and the influence of structure on nutritional properties;
- Professor Sally Gras of the University of Melbourne, who has a background in chemical engineering and is a microscopist and protein biophysicist;
- Dr. Allessandro Ferragina – formerly of the University of Padova – now of Teagasc and an animal scientist with expertise in biostatistics and chemometric processes;
- Dr. Tamara Manuellian, of ‘arivis AG’, who is a regional sales manager and applications specialist for tailored image analysis solutions in the life sciences.
The event will demonstrate Teagasc’s capabilities for the design, control and analysis of food structures and offers an opportunity for interaction between researchers and leading food industry representatives.
Delegates at the Teagasc Food Innovation Gateways event. Image source: O’Gorman Photography
Speaking at the Teagasc Food Gateways event, Declan Troy, assistant director of research at Teagasc said: “This event is one of our many channels of engagement with the food sector.
“The ability to characterise highly complex food structures, from the molecular right up to bulk food products, is essential in order to maintain quality and competitiveness in the Irish food production sector’.’