30 Apr 2013
On 22 April 2013 the UK Universities' Food and Flavour Research Symposium was launched in memory of Prof Harry Nursten, a pioneer of Flavour Chemistry in the UK. The inaugural symposium consisted of talks from eminent academics and budding young researchers. The event was attended by over 100 people, including 20 students from the universities of Nottingham, Northumbria and Reading.
Inspired by Harry's gift of encouraging all students individually in their work, we introduced student prizes for the best post-graduate student oral presentation and for the best poster presentation. The prizes were jointly award by the SCI Food Group and the Royal Society of Chemistry Food Group. The best oral presentation was judged jointly by the academic speakers at the symposium and the best poster was judged by Dr Rachel Edwards-Stuart from SCI and Dr Rachel Burch from the RSC.
Irene Peinado Pardo (Northumbria University) took the prize for the poster presentation with her work entitled 'Physicochemical composition and sensory evaluation of five different species of brown edible seaweeds'.
The winners were given cash prizes and free membership of SCI for a year. They have also been invited to join the Young Ambassador programme run by the SCI Food Group.
The academic talks were from Prof Bronek Wedzicha, University of Leeds (From Maillard Reaction Mechanisms to Models), Prof David Thomson, MMR Research (Sensory Evaluation - from Soft Science to Hard Sell), Dr Linda Farmer, Agri-Food and Bioscences Institute, Belfast (Meat flavour - Consumer, Sensory and Chemical Analyses), Prof Thomas Hofmann, Technical University of Munich (Translational Taste Research: Discovery of Molecular Targets for Flavour Innovations), Dr Jane Parker, University of Reading (The Role of the Flavour Scientist in Maintaining a Sustainable Supply of Food for the Future) and Prof Andy Taylor, Mars Petcare (Effect of physical properties of food matrices on the Maillard reaction). Prof Hofmann had to present via Skype due to airline strikes, but clarity and enthusiasm remained loud and clear!
Overall the event was a great success, and we look forward to continuing the UK Universities' Food and Flavour Symposium next year, hosted by Dr Ian Fisk at the University of Nottingham.
Lisa Methven
Food Group
Visit Blog