EGEA conference “One health: what contribution of fruit and vegetables?”

20-22 September 2023, Barcelona

EGEA conference is organized by APRIFEL, the Agency for Research & Information on Fruit and Vegetables. APRIFEL is an association under the law of 1901, founded in 1981. It acts as an interface between scientists, health professionals, civil society, educational experts and fruit and vegetables professionals. APRIFEL works for the dissemination of scientific information on fruit and vegetables, health, food safety and sustainability.

EGEA conference will be a unique opportunity to bring together scientists on a current and future theme: the contribution of fruit and veg to the “One Health” approach. EGEA conference, running since 2003, brings together scientists from different backgrounds and aims to propose realistic and achievable actions in relation to the topic under discussion. For this edition, more than 200 speakers and institutions (OECD, WHO, FAO, European Commission) are expected to attend the 3-day conference to share, debate and conclude.

A call for oral communications and poster is open. The deadline for abstract submission is 30 May 2023.

The abstract could be based on recently published (2022-2023) or unpublished documents: https://www.egeaconference.com/en/programme/call-for-abstract/

Register: https://www.egeaconference.com/en/registration/

Venue: Sava Center, Belgrade.

Abstract Deadline Extended – FENS 2023

14th European Nutrition Conference of FENS, 14 – 17 November 2023 in Belgrade, Serbia.

The deadline for abstract submissions has been extended until 10 June 2023.

Visit https://fens2023.org/ to submit and to read more about the exciting program you can be involved in at the 14th European Nutrition Conference in Belgrade, Serbia, in November 2023.

Last chance to register for the IUFoST Scientific Roundtable Discussion focusing on Millets for Enhancing Agri-economy, Nutrition, Environmental, and Sustainable Development Goals and  set for Friday, 31 March 2023.

The focus of this IUFoST – SRD would be to understand how Food Science and Technology can take the Challenges in the Millet Chain (MC) to deliver the needed end product to the consumer and the raw material for the food industries to make potentially nutritious, healthy and safe food products. The global experts will address the relevant issues in food science and technology applicable to millets and their role to enhance the global and regional awareness of dietary patterns with better nutrition and improved health through regular consumption of millets-based products. – Vish Prakash

Expert Speakers include Ismahane Elouafi, PhD – Role of Millets in a Dynamic Agroecosystem, FAO Chief Scientist; Ruth Oniang’o, PhD – Agricultural Diversity of African Millets, Founder and Director of Rural Outreach Africa, Kenya; CV Ratnavathi, PhD – Global Perspective on History of Production, Use & Agri-economics of Millet: Indian Institute of Millets Research, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, India;   Anoma Chandrasekara, PhD – Bioactives and Health Implications of Millet: Wayamba University of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka;  Peter Pressman, MD – Millet – Demystifying Health Claims: Peter Pressman, University of Maine, USA.

The Council of Early Career Scientists of IUFoST is presenting its position on Millets, represented by Jay Yadav Kant, during the Roundtable. More on this and how IUFoST members and associates can use these expert Scientific Roundtable Discussion outcomes coming soon.

Register here
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rqyd8ozPTMyTEafAIf7kMQ

FENS2023 Conference is taking shape

The Federation of European Nutrition Societies (FENS) is hosting its next conference in Belgrade, Serbia from 14 to 17 November 2023. The previous FENS Conference, hosted by The Nutrition Society in Dublin in October 2019, set a new benchmark for nutrition conferences in Europe. The current signs are that Belgrade will match Dublin for the quality of the programme, the standard of the conference centre and the networking opportunities offered. FENS2023 will include plenary lectures, scientific symposia, industry symposia, oral communications sessions, poster sessions, and an educational programme as well as an opening lecture and an award lecture. There will be an opening party and a gala dinner. Plenary speakers are Walter Willett (The search for veritas: enhancing dietary trials and observational studies), Corinna Hawkes (Facilitating food system transformation), Joao Breda (The role of diet and nutrition to ensure high-quality health systems for all), Ellen Blaak (Can nutrition interventions be personalised according to metabolic phenotypes?) and Dirk Haller (Unravelling the complexity of the gut microbiota). FENS itself has organised 20 symposia around 10 tracks:

  • Nutrition across the life course;
  • Nutrition, metabolism, and chronic diseases;
  • Dietary studies, guidelines, and recommendations;
  • New technologies in nutrition research;
  • Personalized nutrition;
  • Nutrition and the environment, sustainability, and biodiversity;
  • Food science;
  • Dietary bioactives;
  • Nutrition education, consumers, and practitioners;
  • Cultural, societal, and behavioural aspects of diet and nutrition.

The FENS Presidential Symposium will summarise the achievements of the FENS activity around “Ensuring trust in the science of nutrition”. Alongside the FENS-organised symposia, member societies, other organisations and universities have organised symposia (22 so far confirmed with others promised). Full details of confirmed symposia can be found on the conference website (https://fens2023.org) under the “Scientific information” tab. This shows the amazing selection of topics on offer and the impressive line-up of invited speakers from right across Europe and beyond. The Nutrition Society is organising a symposium on “School food programmes and impact on future health and well-being: global perspectives” and is co-organising a symposium with the French Nutrition Society on “The role of diet and nutrition before, during and after cancer treatment”.

FENS2023 will be hosted in the newly refurbished Sava Centre with several hotels nearby. For more information on FENS2023 see https://fens2023.org. Important dates to look out for are 30 April, the deadline for abstract submission, and 10 July the deadline for early bird registration. I think FENS2023 will be THE nutrition conference of 2023 – don’t miss out on being there!

Philip Calder

President FENS  

8th Annual Agriculture, Nutrition & Health (ANH) Academy Week

ANH2023 is the 8th annual ANH Academy Week, bringing together the community of researchers, practitioners and policymakers working at the intersection of agriculture, food systems, nutrition and health. The objective of the ANH Academy Week is to foster knowledge exchange, innovation, learning and uptake of interdisciplinary research.

ANH2023 will take place through a combination of online, in person and fully hybrid formats in Lilongwe, Malawi. It will feature Learning Labs; a series of training sessions and workshops in interdisciplinary agriculture, nutrition and health research and practice; and a Research Conference; an abstract-driven symposium featuring oral and poster sessions, special plenaries and keynote speeches, as well as side events, community discussions and socials. Explore more about ANH2023 here.

The ANH2023 preliminary programme is now live and consists of:

  • 19 – 21 June 2023: Learning Labs (Online only)
  • 26 June 2023: Learning Labs (In-person only in Lilongwe)
  • 27 – 30 June 2023: Research Conference (Hybrid: in-person in Lilongwe and online)

The event kicks off with an exciting programme of Learning Labs: a series of interactive training sessions in interdisciplinary agriculture, nutrition and health research and practice. These are followed by an international Research Conference with thematic abstract-driven sessions, special plenary discussions and keynote speeches, as well as side events and socials.

If you register for the Learning Labs – online, in person, or both – you will receive a follow-up email in the future to request your preferred sessions. To get a flavour of what to expect you can explore all Learning Labs from 2016-2022 here.

Tenth NAV Public lecture about Nutrition in crisis

On 23 January 2023 at Antropia in Driebergen-Zeist (the Netherlands) Dutch Academy of Nutritional Sciences (NAV) will hold the tenth public lecture in English. This year, the executive director of the Micronutrient forum, an international expert organisation, Saskia Osendrap, PhD will talk about the challenges of global food and nutrition security. 

The event is held also virtually which is free of cost. 

For those who attending physically in Driebergen-Zeist (NL) is free of charge if members of NAV and €15 for non-members.

The public lecture of Saskia Osendarp is entitled:

Nutrition in crisis:

Since 2020, crises have threatened global food and nutrition security. COVID-19, climate change, and conflicts. The iceberg is much bigger. Less visible is the rise in people who can’t afford a healthy diet with micronutrient-rich foods. Inflation makes nutritious foods unaffordable for many low-income consumers even in high-income countries. Preschoolers and pregnant women are vulnerable to micronutrient deficiencies because of this. Even in high-income countries, 56% of preschool children and 69% of women of reproductive age are micronutrient deficient. Billion women and children are affected. Early micronutrient deficiencies harm health and development for life. We have a strong evidence base on a suite of cost-effective interventions across food, health, and social protection systems, unlike other health or nutrition challenges. We need to learn more about interactions and trade-offs between these interventions, micronutrient status, and interrelated crises: climate change, pandemics, conflicts, and food price inflation. Some micronutrient interventions, like increasing animal food consumption, may improve micronutrient status but harm the climate. Climate change and extreme weather threaten micronutrient content of nutritious foods, reduce yields, and increase the risk of infectious diseases, increasing people’s need for micronutrients. These interactions show the need for more integrated solutions that put nutrition, specifically micronutrient nutrition, at the centre of our efforts to build resilience in a world of overlapping shocks and crises.

Nutrition at the 27th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27)

The UN-Nutrition has announced the holding of 27th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27)in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt from 6 to 18 November. 

More than 45,000 persons representing Parties, UN and regional organisations, companies, civil society, the scientific community, indigenous and local communities enrolled to enhance and accelerate climate action and follow through on collective commitments and pledges.

Food systems are on the COP27 agenda this year like never before. UN-Nutrition, the United Nations coordinating mechanism for nutrition, will continue to actively engage in raising awareness about the interconnections between diets, food systems, and climate change, as well as emphasising the importance of addressing nutritional and environmental challenges through collaborative policy options that generate co-benefits for people and the planet. UN agencies play an important role in assisting international, national, and subnational policymakers in developing evidence-based policies and programmes that benefit nutrition and the environment. At COP27, UN-Nutrition will advocate for the inclusion of healthy diets derived from sustainable food systems and improved nutrition in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) (NAPs).

The following are some of the events that will be held that are related to nutrition:

  • For the first time in the history of the UN Conference of Parties, COP27 will have a pavilion dedicated to food and agriculture. Organized by FAOCGIAR and The Rockefeller Foundation, the Food and Agriculture Pavilion will host a rich program of events that will show how agrifood systems are part of the solution to the climate crisis, bringing together government and community leaders, farmers, academics and other experts who are taking decisions on innovative solutions to help countries take effective climate action.

Check out the Food and Agriculture Pavilion program here: https://cop27foodpavilion.cgiar.org/


  • Small-scale farmers produce up to 80 per cent of the food in developing countries but receive less than 1.7 per cent of climate finance. Also this year, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will be at COP27 to amplify the voices of small-scale producers and promote their role in climate change responses and resilient food systems.

Check out the IFAD Pavilion program here: https://www.ifad.org/en/web/events/cop27


  • Climate change is already affecting people’s health and will continue to do so at an accelerating rate unless urgent action is taken. The World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust and partners will host the Health Pavilion that will convene the global health community and its partners to ensure health and equity are placed at the center of the climate negotiations.

Check out the Health Pavilion program here: https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2022/11/06/default-calendar/cop27-health-pavilion


Sleep

NHLBI Workshop: Optimal instruments for measurement of dietary intake, physical activity, and sleep among adults.

Optimal Instruments for Measurement of Dietary Intake, Physical Activity, and Sleep Among Adults Workshop will be held on Sept. 21-20, 2022

The 2022 Optimal Instruments for Measurement of Dietary Intake, Physical Activity, and Sleep Among Adults Workshop will be held virtually on September 21- 22, 2022. The workshop times are 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM EDT on September 21st, and 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM EDT on September 22nd.

The purpose of the workshop is to review the state of the science regarding the validity, reliability, and sensitivity of instruments used to assess dietary intake, physical activity and sleep in large observational studies and clinical trials among adults. Additionally, the workshop will involve evaluating the pros and cons, including the feasibility of instruments to measure dietary intake, physical activity, and sleep in large studies, as well as recommend best practices to harmonize data from differing instruments across studies within each measurement domain to facilitate pooling studies as well as the possible incorporation of a new instrument within each domain into on-going studies while retaining the ability to perform valid longitudinal comparisons from previous instruments. Lastly, the identification of gaps and opportunities for future research to develop improved measurement tools for large studies to assess these key health behaviors including the use of biomarkers (“omics” such as metabolomics), mobile technology, sensors, etc. will be discussed.

The overarching goal of this 2-day (10-hours) workshop is to assemble a multi-disciplinary panel of experts across multiple domains to identify key knowledge gaps in measurements tools used to assess dietary intake, physical activity and sleep. The workshop is intended to guide researchers, NIH staff, and the community on the best methods and instruments for measurement of dietary intake, physical activity and sleep in large observational studies and clinical trials among adults. The workshop is intended to identify possible barriers and opportunities on the different measurement tools used to assess diet, physical activity and sleep in adults. Experts from multiple disciplines will be assembled to examine research gaps on such tools from behavioral, lifestyle, social, and technological perspectives.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/optimal-instruments-for-measurement-diet-activity-sleep-among-adults-tickets-414825483187

Launch of AfriCAN May 25th

Join us under the Baobab tree for a webinar launch of Africa Catalyzing Action for Nutrition (AfriCAN), a new network with a mission to mobilise and harness Africa’s untapped and underutilised resources towards improving nutrition sustainably on the continent.

This event will introduce AfriCAN and feature a panel discussion on sustainable solutions to eliminate hunger and malnutrition. Speakers include:

  • Professor Francis B. Zotor, Professor of Public Health Nutrition and Director AfriCAN (Moderator)

  • Dr Namanga Ngongi, Former Deputy Executive Director WFP; Former Chair, UN Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN) & Board Chair, AfriCAN

  • Ms Isatou Jallow, Executive Director, AfriCAN

  • Ms Julia Tagwireyi, Former Director, Food and Nutrition Council, Zimbabwe and Director, AfriCAN

  • Dr Josue Dione, Former Director, Food Security and Sustainable Development Division, UNECA and Board Member, AfriCAN

  • Dr Charity Binka, Executive Director, Women, Media and Change

  • Dr Habiba Hassan-Wassef, Trustee, African Nutrition Society

  • Sheikh Tijan Tunkara, Youth Representative and Community Activist

  • Dr Lawalley Cole, Executive Director, Coalition on media and education for development, Africa Forum (CAFOR)  

For more info & register

Register Now: Gastronomic Sciences 360º: A Global Outlook on Human Health and Wellness

The symposium, organized by Basque Culinary Center, together with the Cedars Sinai Medical Center of Los Angeles, an international referent in medicine, will bring together great professionals from the field of medicine, nutrition, sustainability, gastronomy, sociology and food of the future, to explore from different points of view the current food and welfare of society.

Among the speakers are Suzanne Dekvota, Director of Microbiome Research at Cedars – Sinai Medical Center, Leon Fine, Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Medicine at Cedars – Sinai Medical Center and the University of California, David Zilber, chef, fermenter, butcher, and photographer who hails from Toronto Canada, Marc Blazer, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Overture Management, an investment group with interests in food & beverage, hospitality, travel and consumer businesses, David Barber, co-owner of Blue Hill–a working farm, restaurant, and consulting company supporting agriculture that positively contributes to the world’s food system, Eneko Axpe, Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University and NASA, and Basque Culinary Center’s and BCC Innovation experts such as Juan Carlos Arboleya, Professor and Researcher at the Basque Culinary Center, Head of the Scientific Area and programme director of the Master (MSc) and PhD in Gastronomic Sciences), Usune Etxeberría, researcher and lead of the Gastronomy and Health area at BCC Innovation, and John Regefalk, researcher chef and coordinator of culinary innovation at BCC Innovation.

DATE: APRIL 27-28
SCHEDULE:  from  9.00am to  3:30pm (CEST) on each day.
WHERE
: ZOOM

Register Now

Program

DAY 1

9:00-9:20  Welcome Remarks

Joxe Mari Aizega, Javier Rodriguez

Intro to Day 1– Juan Carlos Arboleya & Suzanne Devkota

9:25-9:50 The Role of Gastronomy in the Transition to a More Sustainable Food System

Stéfani Novoa- BCC

9:55- 10:20 Growing our own roots

John Regefalk- BCC

10:25-10:50  Moving the game from food security to nutrient security

Eric Archambeau- Astanor Ventures

10:50-11:15 Coffee Break

11:15-11:40  Help me help you: Compensatory actions of the gut microbiome during times of chronic nutritional stress

Suzanne Devkota – CSMC

11:45-12:10 Development of high-quality food protein from submerged fermentation of filamentous fungi

Cipriano Carrero- BCC

12:15-12:40 A symbiotic supper: Entropy and the ecology of fermentation

David Zilber

12:40-2:00PM Lunch

2:00-2:25 Future Foods

Eneko Axpe (NASA)

2:30-3:15 Balancing food security and regenerative agriculture. Panel 1

Moderator: Suzzane Devkota

David Barber, Stefani Novoa, John Regefalk. Eric Archambeau

3:20-3:30 Concluding Comments

Juan Carlos Arboleya- BCC

DAY 2

9:00-9:10 Intro to Day 2

Juan Carlos Arboleya & Suzanne Devkota

9:15-9:40 The first food critic

Leon Fine- CSMC

9:45-10:10 On hearts, history, and sustenance

Michael Nurok- CSMC

10:15-10:40 The present and future of digital gastronomy

Erich Eichstetter – BCC

10:40-11:05 Coffee BREAK

11:05-11:30 The effect of starch-and sucrose-reduced diet accompanied by culinary recommendations on the symptoms of patients with irritable bowel syndrome

Usune Etxeberria- BCC

11:35-12:00  A multi-domain lifestyle intervention study for dementia prevention in the Basque Country

Pablo Martínez Lage -Fundación Cita Alzheimer

12:05-12:30 Understanding the effect of diet on promotion of cancer

Stephen Pandol- CSMC

12:30-2:00PM Lunch

2:00-2:25 A transdisciplinary view on gastronomy

Iñaki Martinez de Albéniz & Juan Carlos Arboleya – BCC

2:30-3:15 Health and lifestyle in post-pandemic world. Panel 2

Moderator: Juan Carlos Arboleya

Panelists: Michael Nurok, David Zilber, Erich Eichstetter Marc Blazer

3:20-3:30 Concluding Comments

Suzanne Devkota- CSMC