Tackling Tomorrow Today

Convention at a glance

What: AIFST Convention

Where: Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour, Sydney

When: Sunday 10 July - Tuesday 12 July 2011, additional workshops Wednesday 13 July

Registration and more information: www.aifst.com.au

The Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology will be holding its annual convention alongside foodpro. The convention theme is Tackling Tomorrow Today - what can we be doing today, that will help solve some of the problems we foresee for the future?

In line with the theme, delegates will be shown practical solutions for the big problems heading our way. The convention themes will encourage ideas and plans that scientists and technologists can work on now; and solutions that they can take away from the convention that will assist in their jobs and their business.

What’s in the program?

• Environment and sustainability
• Health, safety and risk
• Food choices, nutrition and fashion

Sessions under these main headings will look at issues such as: nutrition hot topics, food processing and health outcomes, food production and rising population, business and carbon footprint, new and innovative retail trends, process optimisation - focus on efficiency, protecting the food supply, and packaging and sustainability.

Hands-on workshops

There will be a number of focused workshops that convention delegates and visitors to foodpro can attend, providing they are pre-booked. These include workshops on such topics as dairy chilled dessert systems, product development, shelf-life determination, sensory evaluation techniques for small companies and doing food business with and developing food products for the Chinese and Indian markets.

An interactive marketing workshop session on 13 July will focus on the education of consumers about healthy foods and healthy products and how food industry professionals can market and sell their products, from retailers through to various other sections of the industry.

Keynote address by Julian Cribb

An action-provoking keynote address by Julian Cribb headlines the convention.

Cribb will speak about the major risks to global food security over the coming half century, the implications for food, science, technology and society, and of the effects of a 30 year lack of local investment in agricultural and food science and technology.

Cribb believes the world faces the probability of extreme regional food insecurity by the mid century unless we take action now on land, water, nutrients, energy, fish, technology and climate instability.

He returns to the stage later to present a proposal for a national nutrient plan, prompting the design of systems that recapture the current phenomenal waste of nutrients by agriculture, processing, retail, foodservice and consumers. He will also speak on the need to totally redesign the Australian diet.

Top-line speakers

Other speakers at the Food Production Security session include David Barling (City University, London, UK) addressing ‘impact of food policy on food security’, and Alison Bowman (Industry & Investment NSW, Wagga Wagga) on ‘The value of investing in R&D to secure the food supply’.

Valuable insights addressing burgeoning consumer trends and vital advice to assist food products to gain positive traction in retail will be of high interest at the convention.

Jenny Mowatt, general manager health and wellbeing, Woolworths, will be chairing the Retail Trends session. Jenny says groundswell change in consumer awareness is requiring fundamental changes in product development, marketing and provision.

“Health-oriented foods are no longer for just a niche market - mainstream shoppers are demanding them. The big volume trend is for healthy, edible, price-competitive foods,” Jenny claims.

Addressing the implications of this issue from a food technologist/manufacturer’s perspective will be Michael Liddell, who is Unilever’s category development manager and acting technical management director.

Jeff Schultheiss, general manager at Birch & Waite (food products producer for retail and foodservice) will discuss the topic from a manufacturing business-development perspective.

Rounding up with supplier implications from a regulations perspective is the Australian Food & Grocery Council’s policy and regulations director Kim Leighton.

The Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology Incorporated (AIFST) is a national, not-for-profit, professional association representing individuals from all sectors of the food and allied industries. It is a membership-based organisation offering a range of services to its members that enables them to keep at the forefront of their careers.

To find out more about AIFST and to register your interest in the convention visit www.aifst.com.au.