Additives and enzymes in food: past, present and future from a global and consumer perspective

The 2016 Bertebos Conference is dedicated to Professor Jan Delcour and Professor Youling Xiong, who received the Bertebos Prize in 2015. This year’s topic is in line with their research on additives and enzymes in food.

Food additives are substances that are added to food for the purpose of improving keeping quality and freshness, enhancing nutritional value, facilitating processing, and enhancing the product overall organoleptic properties. As a special group of food additive, exogenous enzymes are also widely used to aid in food processing and producing desirable functionality and food product quality. But what are the pros and cons of food additives?

In this conference, we will bring together distinguished Swedish and international researchers, businesses from many disciplines, as well as prominent stakeholders to discuss different aspects and challenges facing food chain regarding additives and enzymes in food.

The conference program consists of three scientific sections: Consumer aspects, functionalities in cereal based foods, and functionalities in muscle based foods as well as information on regulatory aspects, field trips to food industries and a general discussion on enzymes and additives in food.

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Lectures etc. on YouTube

Introduction & welcome I – Regional Director GunMarie Stenström

Introduction  & welcome II – KSLA President Lisa Sennerby Forsse

Session 1: Consumer Aspects

1 Attitudes and consumer perception towards the risks and benefits of additives to food – Professor Lynn Frewer, United Kingdom

2 Hypes, fears, facts, and hopes: possible futures of food – Professor Dr. Joachim Scholderer, Switzerland

3 Enzymes as a tool to provide clead label solutions in food systems – Dr. Charlotte Horsmans Poulsen, Denmark

Session 2: (Pseudo-)cereal based food systems

4 Bertebos Laureate Lecture: Tailoring structure and properties of wheat constituents for improving the quality of cereal based products – Professor Jan Delcour, Belgium

5 Advances in gluten free cereal research – Professor Elke Arendt, Ireland

6 Dietary fiber polysaccharides as potential prebiotics – Professor Bruce Hamaker, USA

7 The role of cereal grain related additives and ingredients in human health – Ass. Professor Rikard Landberg, Sweden

Session 3: Muscle foods – In Memoriam of Professor Kerstin Lundström

8 Bertebos Laureate Lecture: Functionality of ingredients and additives in muscle foods; A technological perspective – Professor Youling L. Xiong, USA

9 Additives in meat products; for good or for bad? – Professor Eva Tornberg, Sweden

10 Sensory evaluation and shelf-life analyses of muscle food products – Professor Wes Schilling, USA

Session 4: Regulatory and legislative aspects

11 EU framework for the scientific assessment of food additives and enzymes – Dr. Hubert Deluyker, EFSA

12 How the Swedish Food Agency works with additives and enzymes in food – Dr. Leif Busk, Sweden

13 Regulatory and legislative aspects; an industry perspective – Professor Peter van Bladeren, Switzerland

Session 5: Industrial aspects – parallel excursions

The Excursions (”Utflykterna”)

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For more information and program, please read PDF-invitation

A background to the Bertebos prize Conference

The Bertebos Prize was instituted in 1996 by Brita and Olof Stenström as a means of promoting education and research in the food chain. The prize consists of two parts, a diploma and 300,000 Swedish kronor, which are awarded in January every second year, followed by a two-day conference in Falkenberg in the following year. The award-winner plans the conference in collaboration with the Academy and opens the conference with a plenary lecture. The 2015 Bertebos Prize was awarded to Professor Jan Delcour and Professor Youling Xiong.

Professor Jan Delcour’s unique research on food additives has found a variety of applications in the cereal-based food industry. Jan Delcour works at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. His research can generally be related to the grain field and covers both basic and more applied research that has resulted in many scientific applications and a series of patents. Important areas of Jan Delcour’s groundbreaking and comprehensive research are: 1) Grain components and fractions and their functional properties in food systems; 2) Enzymes as additives in bread making and 3) Methods for the industrial production of oligosaccharides from arabinoxylan in the by-products of the grain industry and mapping of their functional and health properties.

Professor Youling L. Xiong started his academic career at Jiangnan University, China, then moved to the United States and received his Master’s at Oregon State University, PhD at Washington State University, and postdoctoral training at Cornell University. He has served as a professor at the University of Kentucky since 1990. Professor Xiong’s research over the 30 years has focused on the chemical, physical and biochemical mechanisms that regulate how proteins and peptides work in food especially in processed products with meat or fish. His research focus has primarily been on the interaction between natural food ingredients and chemical additives to enhance the quality and nutritional value of food.

Previous winners of the Bertebos Prize

2013 Professor Philip Lowe  the Duke of Northumberland Chair of Rural Economy, UK, for his highly reputed work in rural studies with significant contributions in sustainable rural development and land use management.

2011 Professor Karen Beauchemin, Alberta, Canada, for her pioneering research into reducing the environmental impact of ruminant animals without having a negative impact on productivity and animal husbandry

2009 Dr. Joachim von Braun, Washington DC, USA, for his outstanding work in development economics and as effective head of several development research institutions focusing on food, agriculture and rural poverty.

2007 Professor Ingo Potrykus, Magden, Switzerland, who has been a leading scientist in the development of methods for DNA transformation in plants.

2005 Professor Piotr Kowalik, Gdánsk, Poland, for outstanding multidisciplinary research in water dynamics in agriculture and forestry.

2003 Professor Erik Steen Jensen, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University (KVL) Denmark, for his research on plant production, soil biology and environment, especially in organic farming systems and

Professor John R. Porter, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University (KVL), Denmark, for his research for better understanding of the relationship between crops and their Environment.

2001 Professor Donald Grierson, University of Nottingham, England, for his groundbreaking research to better understand the plants’ maturity course.

1999 Professor Wolfgang Witte, Robert Koch Institut, Wernigerode, Germany, for pioneering, scientific tracing of risks for animal and human health as well as for the environment associated with the use of antibiotic feed additives.

1997 Professor Christopher Polge, Cambridge, England, for his exceptional scientific contribution to the methods within animal reproduction.