Conference Highlights
Please go to the photos page to view a selection of photos
Speakers, Program and Posters
The Conference attracted 597 delegates and speakers, a considerable increase on the attendance at the 42nd Convention in
Brisbane in 2009. The principal sponsors were the Victorian Government and Fonterra. Among the 104 speakers, including
eight from overseas, were Marianne Gillette, President of IFT and Vice-President of Technical Competencies and Platforms for McCormick & Co., MD, USA; Dr Yasmine Motarjemi of Switzerland, formerly with Nestlé and WHO; Dr Stan Bailey, Director of Scientific Affairs for bioMerieux Industry, MI, USA; Dr Martin Cole, recently appointed Chief of the CSIRO Division of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Australia; Ms Suzanne Douglas, Managing Director of HJ Heinz Co. Australia; Dr Bob Antennucci of
Givaudan Flavours, OH, USA; and Ms Barbara Bufe Heidolph of ICL Performance Products, MI, USA.
The Conference was opened by The Hon. Jacinta Allan MP, Victorian Minister for Regional and Rural Development / Industry
and Trade. The opening was followed by the JR Vickery Address, named in honour of the first President of AIFST (1967-69) and
a pioneer researcher at the (then) CSIRO Division of Food Preservation and Transport, and presented by Dr Martin Cole, who
recently returned from a position as Director of the National Center for Food Science and Technology at IIT, Chicago, USA to
join CSIRO again. His talk, ‘Global trends and opportunities in food and nutritional sciences’, covered global food industry
drivers, megatrends (convenience, indulgence and health) and megashocks (populations, food security, and food safety /
biosecurity). He proposed a national food and nutrition agenda to cover food and health, consumers, sustainable manufacture,
and food safety.
There were two Plenary sessions, 21 technical sessions with up to three concurrent on day 2 and up to four concurrent on day
3, and 44 posters.
Seventy delegates took the opportunity to participate in two workshops on day 4, covering ‘The product development process
from ideation through to delivery’, presented by Professor Allan Anderson of Massey University, NZ, and ‘How does formal
sensory testing fit into a company’s overall quality program’.
Exhibition
A technical exhibition is a long standing feature of AIFST Conferences, and this year’s meeting attracted 36 exhibitors, covering laboratory services, ingredient suppliers, food industry organisations, scientific testing equipment, state and national
government agencies, patent and trademark attorneys, book/journal publishers, recruitment agencies, research organisations
and food processors. Morning/afternoon refreshments and lunch were provided in the exhibition area.
2010 Awards
The Institute presented the following annual awards:
· AIFST Keith Farrer Award of Merit: Associate Professor Stuart Andrews, University of South Australia, Award
address titled “Ethical actions and social responsibility of food scientists: how can we demonstrate this?”;
· AIFST Food Industry Innovation Award: Preshafood Ltd, Awardaddress presented by Andrew Gibb;
· Jack Kefford Award for best paper published in the Institute’s Journal in 2009: presented to Dr Ailsa Hockingon behalf
of Y Huang, AD Hocking, N Jensen, KC Richardson and D Miskelly for a paper titled “Microbiological quality of
Australian breadcrumbs” (December, p 527-531);
· Bruce Chandler Book Prize: Fungi and Food Spoilage(3rd edn)by JI Pitt and AD Hocking, 2009, accepted by
Dr Ailsa Hocking;
· President’s Award: Ms Carly Cannon, South Australia Branch;
· Malcolm Bird Award for Young Members: Ms Qian (Sheri) Sui, University of Melbourne, Vic, for a paper titled “Can
whey proteins survive pulsed electric field processing?”
· Student Product Development Competition: Ms Karen Chan, Tanid Nganthavee and Ms Noradalih Hamid, The
University of NSW, for “Ve Bread – Vegetable Bread”;
· AIFST Fellows 2009-10: Bill Porter, Peter Schutz, Jay Sellahewa and Dr Geoffrey Smithers.
Social Events
The Conference commenced, following an all day Council meeting, with a Welcome Reception on Sunday evening at which
Vic Cherikoff explained how you can ‘experience the competitive buyer advantage from adding Australian functional wild (bush) foods to your NPD’. A range of wild food samples was provided for tasting. The traditional wine and cheese evening was held in an art deco hall within a short walk from the convention hotel, as was the Conference dinner at the Powerhouse Function Centre. The Institute is grateful to several companies for their sponsorship of these events over many years.
Invitation to the 44th Annual AIFST Convention 2011
The 44th Annual AIFST Convention will be held in Sydney in conjunction with the FoodPro Exhibition at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre on 10-13 July 2011.