We are delighted to have here in Parma many representatives of funding bodies, food retailers, processing food industries, quality brands, public administration, control laboratories, authorities, NGOs and the research community who work in the food authentication area, to attend the FoodIntegrity Conference 2017.
This conference, integrated within the activities of the European Funded FoodIntegrity project (www.foodintegrity.eu), will focus on the latest research outputs on developments and strategies in the field of food integrity – safety, quality, authenticity and traceability, from the project and beyond.
Italy and, of course, Parma, has a huge agricultural heritage to be preserved at world level, with the excellence of “Made in Italy” characterized by precise quality and safety but also strong authenticity connotations: all this makes FoodIntegrity a highly strategic project for our country.
Therefore, it is an honor to host here this fourth International Conference FoodIntegrity. In particular, in this 2017 edition we will give emphasis to direct and indirect impacts on the industrial sector: that is why the event’s subtitle is “Turning science into solutions”!
The conference is organized with keynote lectures, oral and poster sessions, workshops, awards, tasting/instrumental demo sessions, commercial exhibition and companies user meetings, social program (including a social dinner in an exclusive place, which recalls the tradition of music and the figure of the great Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi).
My best wishes to all the participants for the coming years: work together to make more concrete and applicable the “European/Worldwide toolbox” against food frauds and adulterations.
In these next few days, the immediate wish is rather to exchange knowledge-science and friendship, get new ideas and establish new collaborations, enjoying Parma and its wonderful cultural and gastronomy aspects!
Michele Suman (FoodIntegrity 2017 Chair) and the Scientific/Organizing Committee