World Food Day and IUFoST
- Remembering scientist and visionary, Professor M. S. Swaminathan
- Making the SDGs reachable through Food Science and Technology - Thoughts on World Food Day
- Winning ideas for innovation in Food Science and Technology
Professor M S Swaminathan, FRS - a world-famous scientist, plant geneticist, visionary administrator and principal architect of the Green Revolution in India, passed away peacefully on September 28, 2023, at his Chennai residence in India.
He was the first recipient of the World Food Prize and subsequently established the MSSRF Center at Chennai, India. Earlier he was the Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and played an important role in the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) at Manila, Philippines in bringing about many varieties of flood resistant rice, drought resistant hybrids and also high yielding varieties.
For IUFoST his association was a very close and a long one. Professor Swaminathan, along with Dr Joseph Hulse of IDRC Canada and later President of IUFoST, together with CFTRI, Mysore, India under Dr V Prakash, established the mushroom processing centres and other value added agri business at village levels with utmost priority of food safety at Pondicherry and other centres with many women self- help groups. It was a great success and promoted women’s entrepreneurship extensively.
He was the Distinguished lecturer at IUFoST 2008 Congress at Beijing, China where he was elected as a Fellow of IAFoST. He also delivered the Keynote address at IUFoST 2018 Congress at Mumbai, India.
His loss to the food science world, the agricultural world and the nutrition world is immense. He made a difference in self sustainability in a changing eco environment in food systems with village centric approaches and simple, sustainable livelihoods for marginal farmers that continue to work even today.
It is important that we remember him especially today, on World Food Day.
Safe Water and Food for Sustainable Health and Wellness
The world’s pangs of hunger, poverty and health issues have been witnessed on every World Food Day with different themes over the last 40 plus years. This year the theme is 'Water is Life, Water is Food. Leave No One Behind'. In this context, a clear focus is needed to address the various issues that need prioritization through innovation and attaining goals for sustainable health and wellbeing. We are reminded of the 17 SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) that the UN has declared and we are all committed to these goals for actions. These need to be addressed in the context of science-based approaches, especially in adaptable, affordable food technologies with low cost and high science built into them. The scientific basis for action on climate change related to food and water insecurity mitigation and sustainable solutions needs immediate attention worldwide. In these issues Safe Water and Safe Food must not be left behind on issues ranging from from micro plastic to nano toxic chemicals in the water and food chain.
These are important to IUFoST in its Charter for research approaches in Food Safety, Food and Nutrition Security, Food Systems resiliency and Capacity Building. These require an integrated approach for mitigating problems of human and animal health and welfare. This is particularly so with how Food Systems and the global environment impact each other. The tradition, wisdom, practices and food culture in many older civilizations stemming from more than 6,000 years of documentation need to be understood through modern Food Science tools and new windows on this treasure of big data. IUFoST, through its networking globally, can homogenize these approaches and harmonise the latest Food Science knowledge for appropriate technologies in both high and low income countries to bring about water and energy conservation, and to minimise air pollution. Food cultures across various countries need to be revisited to find local solutions to addressing global problems.
V Prakash, Ph.D,FRSC
Immediate Past President of IUFoST and
Distinguished Scientist of CSIR India.
Winning Ideas for Innovation in Food Science and technology
The Council of Early Career Scientists presented the 2nd International Symposium with the theme Food Innovations in a Post-Pandemic World on September 28, 2023. This year's symposium focused on new opportunities in food product and process development as a result of the global pandemic. Important discussions by renowned food scientists - Dr. Ian Noble, Dr. Delia Rodriguez-Amaya, Dr. Ruth Oniang'o and Dr. John McDermott, highlighted the role of innovation to ensure a healthy and safe food supply as well as to attain a more sustainable and food secure environment.
Part of this event was a photovoice competition that raised the voices of young scientists to advocate for food innovative ideas that will shape the post-pandemic world.
WINNERS
1st Place
Name: Mariah Aqilah Mohd Affandy
University: Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia
Title of entry: Vegetal Smart Packaging: RipeWrap
Scope of innovation: Development of ‘RipeWrap' - a nano-composite smart packaging to extend the shelf life of fresh fruits and vegetables.
2nd Place
Name: Cynthia Andriani
University: University of Auckland, New Zealand
Title of entry: YO-GUT: a shelf-stable synbiotic yoghurt candy
Scope of innovation: Development of a shelf-stable bite-size symbiotic yoghurt candy for improved gut and immune health.
3rd place
Name: Jenifer Amanda Puente Moreno
University: Miguel Hernandez University, Spain
Title of entry: Effect of pre-harvest treatments with polyamides on the quality of orange, pomegranate and cherry
Scope of innovation: Use of polyamine treatment to control the quality of anthocyanin-containing fruits such as blood oranges, pomegranates, and cherries.
Click here to visit our dedicated website page for this online symposium and see the winners videos.
Congratulations to all of you for finding innovative ways towards sustainable and resilient food systems and to the winners, we recognize your excellence on this World Food Day 2023!
