Theme: The International Food and Health Innovation Conference in Malmö

The IFHIC Conference is over for this year, great speakers, a lot of mingling, well tasting food and interesting research has filled three days in Malmö. Food scientists and innovators from over 50 countries met in Malmö.

Voices from the conference:

Mehmood Khan, Global leader, Innovation and Development at Unilever, commented the conference in the following words: Perfect! This conference has been full of energy. The conference has been a great success; it is fantastic that people from all parts of the innovation process meet under the same roof. The researchers at Lund University have by this conference shown that the academic knowledge can and must be tightly linked with industry. It is great to see the involvement of regional actors in the innovating process.

I have during these days in Malmö been insipred by the excellence in the interaction of the food value chain. I have also noticed the great energy that all the actors show in this region. This region has a really positive development force. The scientist has also managed to present studies that can be used in real life. I believe that the Skåne Region is the most developed food cluster in the world. The cluster here in the Öresund Region has a great potential to be the Food Excellence Centre of the World!

Dr Alison Blay-Palmer, Assistant Professor at Queen´s University, commented the conference in the following words: I was really positively surprised! I have read and heard about the food cluster here in Skåne but I did not know that the cluster was so well developed and rooted in the region. The conference has been a great opportunity for networking. I have met so many interesting researchers here in Malmö. This region really is dynamic!

When I compare the work within your food cluster and the work back home (in Canada) I notice that you have developed an even tighter cluster here. In North America, the industry is very profit driven; therefore it is harder for us to develop new and healthy products. I have during the days here in Malmö learned that it really is possible to build links between industry, researchers and the society, the triple helix works here!

Hanna Bellner, PhD student at the School of Economics, Lund University, commented the conference: Interesting and very international! It was interesting for me as a PhD student to see all the researchers from all over the world. I knew quite much about the food research in Europe, but it was really fruitful to see what they do in the rest of the world. This is of course a great opportunity for me to network and find interesting contacts.

At our institution we really focus on the EU regulations, it has been a great value for me to understand other regulations around the world. When I listened and spoke to persons at the conference I got a very rich picture of how research within the food area around the world think and work.      

Source: ÖFE

News from "Events"

• 11 July 2005
  International Food & Health Innovation Conference 2006