Welcome to FDM MyConnect page, where you will be able to link up with other professionals or find opportunities which might be of special interest to your field – academic research, memberships, Conferences and Webinars. FDM will cover topics on food and drink from farm to fork and any other supporting services. Feel free to leave any comments for any other further information for the content or if you would like to be connected to any of these organisations.
Food and Drink
The sector is really facing the pressure to grow in new product development, innovation, and sustainable production. There are a number of organisation which can be helpful in getting mor insights.
Food manufacturing – great engineering and innovation learn more from the product and services section for GEA (beverage, chemical, dairy, dairy farming, environment, food, heating and refrigeration, home and personal care, marine, new food, oil & gas and energy and pharma & healthcare). New technologies are emerging to support the food systems throughout the supply chain. Cellular agriculture is our new and upcoming innovation to alliviate the challenges of global food insecurity.
Another fairly new and upcoming new technology include 3D printing of food. This is at the back of alliviating food insecurity from a growing population, global warming and public health issues. The 3D printer types include extrusion base (soft foods), inkjet based (low viscosity foods), binder jetting (powdered materials) and selective laser sintering (powdered materials). The raw ingredients which are used includes polymers, hydrogels, biogels, ink, fruit concentrated and fruit juice, sugar, starch mixtures, and non-sticky powdered materials. The challenges of the products include palatability, consumer acceptibility, product knowledge, product safety, and sustainability. The 3D printing has been used as an agro-processing of waste (valorisation of food waste) for example grape pomace. Some of these foods have been food hydrocolloids for dysphagia patients but they still need to be improved for palatability and also improving nutrient profile so that the industry can help to tackle malnutrition in hospital patients. More is still to be done on food safety, legislations and improving palatability, consumer preference, and acceptability.
Due to all these innovations there are a lot of job opportunities in the Food and Drink manufacturing sector to include the agriculture sector, manufacturing (ingredients, equipment design, software, packaging including sustainable and edible), total management systems and quality assurance, consumer science and product marketing.
Research and Development
There is a lot of support to develop food and drinks sector at a global scale. If you have any innovative ideas on product development, improving food systems there are opportunities of research funding support and expression of interest check some of the closing dates in our events calendar. Create connections with the rightful organisations to grow your career and nurture your innovative skills.
If interested in join collaborative global research organisations such as Global Consortium of ChemoSensory Research or Global Harmonisation Initiative contact us for more details. Sensory Science connections are growing as a strong wing of quality control and assurance discipline in food and drink sector. Consumer Science and Perception has really played an important role in new product development – plant-based meat analogs, protein alternatives, and cellular agriculture.
Professional Collaborations and Affiliations
Global Consortium of ChemoSensory Research
If you are a sensory scientists and would like to work with other sensory scientists join the Global Consortium of ChemoSensory Research by emailing me. This is a global community of sensory scientists looking at research and data from COVID-19 and another other sensory related challenges which will affect nutrient intake through food preferences or aversions.
Global Harmonisation Initiative
A community of global scientist interested in international collaboration and sharing ideas on topics of common interest. Membership is free and you can explore the community website here. There are several working groups you can also join from Consumer Perception to Nomenclacture of Food Safety and Quality. GHI runs a number of events which will be in our events page.
Publications
Books
GHI library
Institute of Food Science and Technology
Our Food, Our Heritage, Our Future (traditional African cooking) – African Food Revolution
Nutrition Society
Journals
Internation Journal of Food Science and Technology
Journal of Food Processing and Preservation
Nutrition Society
Standards
British Standards Institution (BSI) – There are a variety of standards available for the consumers and industry focusing on food quality, food safety, food management systems to improve food security, and others. The BSI covers a wide range of sectors and also these standards can be accessed through the BSI online library. The standards on BSOL cover Britain, Europe and international some standards might be accessible through organisation membership or individual purchases. American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) offers complimentary services to BSI. ASTM is an international standards organisation which develops and publishes technical standards for materials, products, systems and services. ASTM has almost 13 000 standards on products from toys through jet fuel to improve consumer confidence by supporting quality, safety and performance.
Conclusion
In order to be effective in your different roles and/ or disciplines, it pays to interact with other scientists in other disciplines to share and disseminate information to benefit the food sector and academics. I personnally take upon myself to work with different organisations as a responsible global citizen to disseminate information and impact knowledge. I run the website as a go to place on issues and news on food and drink manufacturing, chair a group on GHI on Consumer Perception working group, mentor new nutrition gradutes who would like to practise as nutritionists, run seminars on healthy nutrition and food perception at the workplace, sensory science foundation workshop, research new product development on protein alernatives, consumer science. I also collaborate with Nutrition Society, Association for Nutrition, and Institute for Food Science and Technology in activities which include organising student conferences and working with different working groups such as the Sensory Science working group. There are events shared on our events page so have a look for more information and if you have any questions email isabella@foodanddrinkmanufacturing.com.