5th International Dietary Fibre Conference (7-9 May 2012, Rome, Italy): a great Success!
The 5th International Dietary Fibre Conference (DF12), organized by the Italian National Research Institute on Food and Nutrition (INRAN) with the support of the International Association for Cereal Science and Technology (ICC) and held at the Centro Congressi Fontana di Trevi in Roma, Italy, brought together more than 250 participants from 38 countries from around the six continents, and provided opportunities for both young and senior scientists and industry representatives for networking and exchanging knowledge about dietary fibre.
The Conference followed up on the highly successful formula of the earlier Dietary Fibre Conferences in Vienna (2009), Helsinki (2006), Noordwijkerhout (2003) and Dublin (2000). The meeting was held in an attractive location linking the modern with the traditional, Rome being the cradle of progress and civilization of the Ancient in a fertile cultural forum where information and ideas could be shared and innovation developed. It offered participants an outstanding scientific programme with nine scientific sessions and almost 55 speeches by speakers from all corners of the globe, as well as about 120 posters.
It addressed and attracted the global scientific community, as well as international stakeholders from food industry to discuss new products and consumer preferences in the dietary fibre area. It enabled a meeting between science and research and innovation and marketing, thanks to the twelve sponsors and exhibitors that actively interacted with scientists and, moreover, contributed to the event, with their table top exhibitions of products, equipments and scientific tools, by giving an in-depth insight into the state of the art of product innovation and development of the dietary fibre area.
A distinctive feature of the DF12 was the global approach of handled topics, as well as the boost by the Chair of the Scientific Committee, Dr. Marina Carcea, and the other 20 Members of the Scientific Committee, for an extensive coverage of dietary fibre from both a traditional and an innovative perspective. Particular emphasis was, in fact, placed on submitted outstanding lectures that conveyed to the DF12 programme the shape of an international open forum on the latest key topics in the dietary fibre field.
In details, the nine Sessions drew participants’ attention to recent dietary fibre definitions, to the most updated methods of analysis, to regulatory and labelling matters, to the close relationship between fibre consumption and health, to the benefits of dietary fibres and their co-passengers, as well as to the consumers’ acceptance of fibre-rich products. Representatives from industry on dietary fibre elaborated on food processing and encountered challenges in formulating fibre-rich foods.
A comparison of DF12 with its predecessor DF09 indicated that significant progress has been obtained in technologies for producing, isolating and concentrating dietary fibres and in the role and mode of action of various fibres as prebiotics. However, the potential roles of the intestinal flora and prebiotic fibres in brain functions, indicated in DF09 got no further follow-up in DF12.
Besides setting out the state of the art of dietary fibre research and innovation, the DF12 products and innovative ingredients challenged the future perspective of dietary fibre from the scientists and industry positions: where do we go from here? Scientists and industry representatives debated the issue and answered in perfect unison that in a highly political and confused world, consorted actions are needed to make a change in the field of the use of dietary fibre and an intended increased consumption of dietary fibre. Joint activities, shared expertise and shared facilities are desirable.
In particular, a strong call and need for research to start with assessing consumer needs and to not be focused only on feasibility and economy drivers. As consumption takes place at the end of the food production chain, only a sufficient consumer pull would justify innovation investments at all individual steps of the chain; therefore, the innovation efforts may be leveraged only through intradisciplinary insights from AGRI sciences, food science and technology, health and life sciences, and consumer sciences.
In addition to the main Conference, two satellite workshops added value to the DF12: the Healthgrain Forum Workshop and the interactive workshop “Analysis of Dietary Fibre”. The latter workshop, co- organised by Megazyme International and Medallion Laboratories/General Mills, provided insight into the development of an integrated method for measurement of total dietary fibre. The lively discussions indicated that the new AOAC methods may need some further fine tuning and adjustments before having got their final form. As pointed out in the Keynote Opening Address by Dr. Ruth Charrondière (FAO), food databases will wait with introduction of results of these new methods until a large number of results have been generated.
An award ceremony, chaired by the ICC President, Dr. Marina Carcea (INRAN), the ICC President Elect, Dr. Joel Abecassis (INRA), and the ICC Secretary General, Dr. Roland Poms, preceded the official closing session of the DF12, and was supported by three of the eleven companies that sponsored the event: General Mills, Kraft Foods and Wiley-Blackwell. Four prizes were awarded to the presentations that achieved the highest scientific and technical standard, and also displayed innovation and originality, selected from among the 120 posters and the 55 oral presentations.
The General Mills Award for Health Innovation was received by Elin Johansson et al., from Lund University, Sweden (Applied Nutrition and Food Chemistry Antidiabetic Food Centre), for the poster on ”Intake of a barley evening meal stimulates GLP-1 release, improves glucose tolerance and appetite regulation, and decreases the voluntary energy intake”. Her multidisciplinary research was ranked as one of the research projects where the most innovative and novel association between consumption of fibre or whole grains and health improvements was demonstrated.
Two ICC-Awards for cereal fibre research, sponsored by Kraft Foods, reserved for young researchers, went to Mette Kristensen et al. from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark (Department of Human Nutrition, Faculty of Life Sciences) for her poster on ”Oat and barley β-glucans induce satiety and reduce energy intake – a study on acute and short-term effects” and to Rosa Montella et al. from the Oriental Piedmont University, Italy, for her poster on “Determination of dietary fibre, antioxidant activity and contaminants in pearled wheat fractions as novel functional food ingredients”. These two posters showed to be innovative at the interface of cereal fibre chemistry, technology and nutrition, and proved an outstanding originality, scientific merit and outcomes of the research.
The Wiley-Blackwell Award for Dietary Fibre Research was received by Damien Belobrajdic, from CSIRO, Australia, for his poster on “Dietary resistant starch dose-dependently reduces adiposity in obesity- prone and -resistant male rats”. INRAN and ICC congratulated all award winners and thanked them for their valuable contribution to the success of the 5th International Dietary Fibre Conference 2012, and for making it an outstanding scientific event!
The Gala dinner left unforgettable memories of the Conference and the hosting city of Rome. At the “Terrace Restaurant” of the Boscolo Exedra-Roma Hotel, on the top of one of the twin neoclassical palaces, in the heart of the Eternal City, between the Baths of Diocletian and the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli designed by Michelangelo, DF12 participants enjoyed the Roman night with plentiful delicious Italian dishes. To get a flavour of the warm and pleasant atmosphere participants enjoyed at the DF12 and in Rome, a photo gallery is kindly offered by ICC.
The DF12 Organizing Committee is offering the possibility to view the pdfs of presentations and posters, for which permissions of the presenting authors were received, in a protected area on the DF12 website, reserved to participants of DF12 only.
The Organizers of the DF12 wish to further thank the speakers and poster presenters for their valuable contribution to the 5th International Dietary Fibre Conference 2012, and for making it an outstanding scientific event! They also wish to thank Sponsors and Exhibitors for their support and for helping to make DF12 such a successful event!
ICC and INRA wish to announce that the 6th Dietary Fibre Conference is already in the planning stage, and will be organised in Paris, France, on 1-3 June 2015.
We do hope to meet you in Paris in 2015!
Dr. Marina Carcea, INRAN, and Dr. Roland Poms, ICC On behalf of the Organizing Committee of the DF12 Rome, Italy, in May 2012
The 5th International Dietary Fibre Conference (DF12), organized by the Italian National Research Institute on Food and Nutrition (INRAN) with the support of the International Association for Cereal Science and Technology (ICC) and held at the Centro Congressi Fontana di Trevi in Roma, Italy, brought together more than 250 participants from 38 countries from around the six continents, and provided opportunities for both young and senior scientists and industry representatives for networking and exchanging knowledge about dietary fibre.
The Conference followed up on the highly successful formula of the earlier Dietary Fibre Conferences in Vienna (2009), Helsinki (2006), Noordwijkerhout (2003) and Dublin (2000). The meeting was held in an attractive location linking the modern with the traditional, Rome being the cradle of progress and civilization of the Ancient in a fertile cultural forum where information and ideas could be shared and innovation developed. It offered participants an outstanding scientific programme with nine scientific sessions and almost 55 speeches by speakers from all corners of the globe, as well as about 120 posters.
It addressed and attracted the global scientific community, as well as international stakeholders from food industry to discuss new products and consumer preferences in the dietary fibre area. It enabled a meeting between science and research and innovation and marketing, thanks to the twelve sponsors and exhibitors that actively interacted with scientists and, moreover, contributed to the event, with their table top exhibitions of products, equipments and scientific tools, by giving an in-depth insight into the state of the art of product innovation and development of the dietary fibre area.
A distinctive feature of the DF12 was the global approach of handled topics, as well as the boost by the Chair of the Scientific Committee, Dr. Marina Carcea, and the other 20 Members of the Scientific Committee, for an extensive coverage of dietary fibre from both a traditional and an innovative perspective. Particular emphasis was, in fact, placed on submitted outstanding lectures that conveyed to the DF12 programme the shape of an international open forum on the latest key topics in the dietary fibre field.
In details, the nine Sessions drew participants’ attention to recent dietary fibre definitions, to the most updated methods of analysis, to regulatory and labelling matters, to the close relationship between fibre consumption and health, to the benefits of dietary fibres and their co-passengers, as well as to the consumers’ acceptance of fibre-rich products. Representatives from industry on dietary fibre elaborated on food processing and encountered challenges in formulating fibre-rich foods.
A comparison of DF12 with its predecessor DF09 indicated that significant progress has been obtained in technologies for producing, isolating and concentrating dietary fibres and in the role and mode of action of various fibres as prebiotics. However, the potential roles of the intestinal flora and prebiotic fibres in brain functions, indicated in DF09 got no further follow-up in DF12.
Besides setting out the state of the art of dietary fibre research and innovation, the DF12 products and innovative ingredients challenged the future perspective of dietary fibre from the scientists and industry positions: where do we go from here? Scientists and industry representatives debated the issue and answered in perfect unison that in a highly political and confused world, consorted actions are needed to make a change in the field of the use of dietary fibre and an intended increased consumption of dietary fibre. Joint activities, shared expertise and shared facilities are desirable.
In particular, a strong call and need for research to start with assessing consumer needs and to not be focused only on feasibility and economy drivers. As consumption takes place at the end of the food production chain, only a sufficient consumer pull would justify innovation investments at all individual steps of the chain; therefore, the innovation efforts may be leveraged only through intradisciplinary insights from AGRI sciences, food science and technology, health and life sciences, and consumer sciences.
In addition to the main Conference, two satellite workshops added value to the DF12: the Healthgrain Forum Workshop and the interactive workshop “Analysis of Dietary Fibre”. The latter workshop, co- organised by Megazyme International and Medallion Laboratories/General Mills, provided insight into the development of an integrated method for measurement of total dietary fibre. The lively discussions indicated that the new AOAC methods may need some further fine tuning and adjustments before having got their final form. As pointed out in the Keynote Opening Address by Dr. Ruth Charrondière (FAO), food databases will wait with introduction of results of these new methods until a large number of results have been generated.
An award ceremony, chaired by the ICC President, Dr. Marina Carcea (INRAN), the ICC President Elect, Dr. Joel Abecassis (INRA), and the ICC Secretary General, Dr. Roland Poms, preceded the official closing session of the DF12, and was supported by three of the eleven companies that sponsored the event: General Mills, Kraft Foods and Wiley-Blackwell. Four prizes were awarded to the presentations that achieved the highest scientific and technical standard, and also displayed innovation and originality, selected from among the 120 posters and the 55 oral presentations.
The General Mills Award for Health Innovation was received by Elin Johansson et al., from Lund University, Sweden (Applied Nutrition and Food Chemistry Antidiabetic Food Centre), for the poster on ”Intake of a barley evening meal stimulates GLP-1 release, improves glucose tolerance and appetite regulation, and decreases the voluntary energy intake”. Her multidisciplinary research was ranked as one of the research projects where the most innovative and novel association between consumption of fibre or whole grains and health improvements was demonstrated.
Two ICC-Awards for cereal fibre research, sponsored by Kraft Foods, reserved for young researchers, went to Mette Kristensen et al. from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark (Department of Human Nutrition, Faculty of Life Sciences) for her poster on ”Oat and barley β-glucans induce satiety and reduce energy intake – a study on acute and short-term effects” and to Rosa Montella et al. from the Oriental Piedmont University, Italy, for her poster on “Determination of dietary fibre, antioxidant activity and contaminants in pearled wheat fractions as novel functional food ingredients”. These two posters showed to be innovative at the interface of cereal fibre chemistry, technology and nutrition, and proved an outstanding originality, scientific merit and outcomes of the research.
The Wiley-Blackwell Award for Dietary Fibre Research was received by Damien Belobrajdic, from CSIRO, Australia, for his poster on “Dietary resistant starch dose-dependently reduces adiposity in obesity- prone and -resistant male rats”. INRAN and ICC congratulated all award winners and thanked them for their valuable contribution to the success of the 5th International Dietary Fibre Conference 2012, and for making it an outstanding scientific event!
The Gala dinner left unforgettable memories of the Conference and the hosting city of Rome. At the “Terrace Restaurant” of the Boscolo Exedra-Roma Hotel, on the top of one of the twin neoclassical palaces, in the heart of the Eternal City, between the Baths of Diocletian and the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli designed by Michelangelo, DF12 participants enjoyed the Roman night with plentiful delicious Italian dishes. To get a flavour of the warm and pleasant atmosphere participants enjoyed at the DF12 and in Rome, a photo gallery is kindly offered by ICC.
The DF12 Organizing Committee is offering the possibility to view the pdfs of presentations and posters, for which permissions of the presenting authors were received, in a protected area on the DF12 website, reserved to participants of DF12 only.
The Organizers of the DF12 wish to further thank the speakers and poster presenters for their valuable contribution to the 5th International Dietary Fibre Conference 2012, and for making it an outstanding scientific event! They also wish to thank Sponsors and Exhibitors for their support and for helping to make DF12 such a successful event!
ICC and INRA wish to announce that the 6th Dietary Fibre Conference is already in the planning stage, and will be organised in Paris, France, on 1-3 June 2015.
We do hope to meet you in Paris in 2015!
Dr. Marina Carcea, INRAN, and Dr. Roland Poms, ICC On behalf of the Organizing Committee of the DF12 Rome, Italy, in May 2012
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