EFFoST2020 - Invitation from Associate Prof. Uri Lesmes

September 30, 2020

This year the scientific programme of the 34th EFFoST International Conference will be hosted by Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, and held online. As conference chair, Associate Prof. Uri Lesmes would like to invite you all to come share new insights at EFFoST2020!

Dear colleagues and friends,

On behalf of the organizing committee, it is a great pleasure to invite you all to join us at the 34th EFFoST International Conference: Bridging high-tech, food-tech and health: Consumer-oriented innovations. Facing the challenges of the 21st century, we, as food professionals, have the responsibility to push the food sector towards the robust and sustainable production of plentiful, affordable and tasty foods that facilitates a modern lifestyle and uplifts society. For this reason, EFFoST and the Technion decided to move this year’s conference to a bespoke online platform. This will offer the opportunity to bring us all together to exchange knowledge and ideas to boost the capacity of the food sector to face the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Together with the scientific committee and the EFFoST Board, we have chosen to focus on food processing properties and health as well as to identify opportunities and pitfalls of processing to reinforce food sector safety, diversity, sustainability, robustness and resilience. Therefore, we have carefully compiled a top-notch online programme that will focus on four central themes:

  1. Engineering consumer-oriented foods
  2. Shaping the sustainability of the food chain
  3. Boosting the resilience and diversity of the food chain
  4. Pioneering food science and technology

The unique programme will commence with a one-day live event with highly recognized and inspiring plenary speakers followed by two days of parallel sessions with oral and poster contributions selected by careful peer-review of the submitted abstracts by the diligent scientific committee members. These presentations will highlight e.g. the use of fundamental insights, computational tools and sophisticated processing technologies, creative paradigms, and interdisciplinary collaborations; all aiming to facilitate the rationalized production of foods with pre-defined properties and even the potential to personalize foods and nutrition schemes. 

As this year’s conference chair, I have done my best to create a conference programme that will stimulate you to continue your efforts to enhance the capacity of the food sector to manufacture healthier food choices under the notion that all people have the right to right foods. Remember that it is our professional responsibility to harness our energies to ensure the food sector’s resilience and aptitude to continue nourishing humans in this ever-changing world.

Enjoy what is sure to be a unique, and first of it’s kind, EFFoST conference!

Best wishes,
Assoc. Prof. Uri Lesmes

Uri Lesmes was born in Bogota, Colombia in 1977 is married, the proud father of three and a passionate food scientist. He was a visiting scholar at the University of Reading (UK) and held appointments as postdoctoral research fellow and lecturer in food technology in the Department of Food Science at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst. Currently, he works at the Department of Biotechnology and Food Engineering at Technion, where he established the research group Lab of Food chemistry and Bioactives in 2010. His team focuses on rational design of foods and processes to meet individual needs and promote human health and wellness, based on diverse use and development of in vitro human digestion models. Prof. Lesmes has an ISI h-index of 28, over 3000 citations and various awards for outstanding academic teaching and research.

For more information on the 34th EFFoST International Conference please visit our conference website.

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