‘Being Innovative about Food Innovation’ Conference
Innovation, new ideas and emerging technologies in the world of food are constantly being explored and developed across a wide array of fields, disciplines, topics and specialities. However, engagement between the wide range of different subjects in which food features is often limited.
This conference will open up inter-disciplinary boundaries and blind-spots, focussing in particular on what innovation looks like and means across different areas of study involving food.
In inviting all those interested in and engaged with food to discuss what's considered new, progressive and important from different perspectives, the conference seeks to inspire fresh thinking and improve our understanding of how food works not just in different sectors, but in the world as a whole.
Please note registration for this conference closes at Midday on Wednesday 5th June 2024
‘Join us at our Food Innovation Conference’
The 'Being Innovative About Food Innovation' Conference promises to be an exciting and informative event that will provide a platform for networking, collaboration, and knowledge exchange. Whether you are a seasoned expert or just starting your journey in the world of food, this conference offers a chance to engage, discuss and diversify your knowledge.
We look forward to welcoming you to our innovative food conference, where new ideas and new ways of thinking await!
Please note registration for this conference closes on at midday on Wednesday 5th June 2024.
- Overview
- Keynote Speakers and Committee
- Programme
- Accommodation
A new product might be cutting-edge for a food scientist – but highly alarming to a nutritionist; what's lauded as new wave in cooking trends might be old hat to sociologists or food historians; a breakthrough in dietetics might have significant impacts in how food is packaged and marketed. Innovation is rightly encouraged and championed in most fields of research and study, but with a topic as inherently inter-disciplinary as food, opportunities for advancing knowledge also lie beyond pre-established subject boundaries and traditional ways of thinking. The conference aims to embrace the contradictions and challenges presented by food, based on the belief that a broad-ranging and multi-faceted discussion around progress should be stimulating, useful and, indeed, innovative in itself.
'Being Innovative about Food Innovation' is a two-day event that aims to bring together a diverse community of individuals engaged with researching, studying and working with food. It's not a standard academic conference, in that it seeks to both champion and challenge different ideas about innovation, inviting contributions in a variety of formats as a means to broadening and improving our thinking on one topic. Whether you are an academic, a researcher, nutritionist, dietitian, chef, cook, food provider, food organiser, food scientist, food educator, agronomist, grower, food producer, brewer, fermenter, marketer, communicator, government official or student, this conference offers a unique opportunity to connect, share knowledge and gain insights not just into the latest trends and breakthroughs in the food sector, but to consider different concepts of what innovation and progress mean.
Keynote Speakers:
Scott Fraser
thefoodpeople
Scott Fraser, from thefoodpeople, is a chef, trend spotter and gastronomist. As a chef, he has cooked in some of the world’s best restaurants, from the Three chimneys on the Isle of Skye, to Vue de Monde in Melbourne - as well as being in charge of the culinary teams at 5 star hotels, a contract catering company and in new product development. As a development chef he has worked with all the UK national retailers as well building branded goods. He championed innovation and blue-sky product development as an award winning Innovation Manager at a Scottish seafood company.
He is also a QMU alumni, studying the MSc Gastronomy programme, a holistic look at all of food and drink. He has also guest lectured on the program – specialising in food trends, cooking science and kitchen technology.
Currently, he is a Business Development Manager at thefoodpeople, working with a team that researches and spots global food trends for the food industry. thefoodpeople’s content inspires and informs innovation and development teams across the globe. In his spare time Scott enjoys cooking in his homebuilt woodburning oven, trying not to make a fool of himself on the cricket pitch and nurturing his, small, but growing miso collection.
Abstract:
The content of his talk at the QMU Food Innovation Conference in June 2024 will be based on how innovation can take many guises. He will demonstrate this by talking through the top trends for food in 2024/25 as identified by thefoodpeople. These cover topics as diverse as harnessing Ai to Umami 3.0 and from smart plants to retro throwbacks.
Amanda Brown
Scotland Food and Drink
Amanda is Programme Director at Scotland Food & Drink in July 2023 with responsibility for the delivery of Scotland Food & Drink’s wide-ranging programme of projects and which emanate from ‘Sustaining Scotland, Supplying the World . . .’, the updated industry strategy which was launched in June 2023.
Prior to this role Amanda led the creation and implementation of The Knowledge Bank, a service launched by the Scotland Food & Drink Partnership in September 2021 to identify and develop new market opportunities using, research, insight, market data and knowledge to deliver sustainable growth for the businesses involved in the Scottish food and drink industry.
With a career spanning almost 30 years working in the food and drink industry in Scotland, Amanda’s experience includes marketing and selling beer at Scottish & Newcastle, marketing whisky at Glenmorangie, economic development at Scottish Enterprise and in market research as Strategic Insight Director for Kantar Worldpanel in Scotland. Amanda was latterly working at SAOS involved helping develop some of Scotland’s key food supply chains including venison, dairy, premium cheese, apples and flowers.
Amanda was also involved in setting up Scotland Food & Drink and spent 9 years working in Marketing and Communications roles as well as Industry Development Director where she was responsible for driving the first Scottish food and drink industry strategy for growth involving many stakeholders.
Outside work, Amanda’s key role is as a taxi driver, banker and touch-line fan to her two sons, chief dog walker for Cory and head chef for the Brown household. She also plays a bit of tennis in her spare time.
Abstract:
Scotland has a world-renowned reputation for our food and drink as well as the broad basket of great products that are produced here by passionate producers. The industry strategy launched in the summer of 2023 titled ‘Sustaining Scotland, Supplying the World’ highlights the opportunities for Scottish food and drink businesses to grow in markets not only across the world, but here in the UK and close to home in Scotland.
The Scotland Food & Drink Partnership has put in place a delivery plan that focuses on 8 Programmes that will help achieve our missions of Resilience, Growth and Sustainability, one of these being Innovation. This keynote will explore what we mean by innovation, what barriers to innovation exist for businesses and what plans we have to ensure that innovation continues to play a central role in driving growth but also the reputation of Scotland’s food and drink industry.
Professor Stephen R. Euston
Institute of Biological Chemistry, Biophysics and Bioengineering at Heriot-Watt University
Steve Euston is a food chemist and Professor of Food and Beverage Science and Technology in the Institute of Biological Chemistry, Biophysics and Bioengineering at Heriot-Watt University, and Adjunct Professor in the Dept. of Physics, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada. Steve has research interests in the functionality of food biomolecules (proteins, lipids and polysaccharides), and in particular how proteins behave as emulsifying, foaming and gelling agents. He has worked extensively on project related to the extraction and functional properties of proteins from agri-food co-products (fungal fermentation waste streams; collagen processing by-products; oil seed processing by-products) and their re-use in food systems as functional proteins or fat replacers. His recent work as focused on the use of oleogelation technologies to replace saturated fat in dairy analogs. Steve is also interested in the application of biosurfactants glycolipids such as rhamnolipids and sophorolipids in foods to replace synthetic surfactants (www.marisurf.eu; https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101082049).
Abstract:
The relationship between humans and food is complex. We must eat to provide energy and essential nutrients to maintain a healthy body, but overconsumption leads to obesity and a reduced health status. The responsibility for maintaining a heathy body weight ultimately lies with the individual. However, the availability of energy dense, relatively cheap convenience foods has exacerbated the current “obesity epidemic” in many countries. Thus, part of the responsibility for alleviating the problem must lie with the food manufacturer. To tackle this, there has been an increase in reformulated foods with reduced fat, carbohydrate, salt etc., ingredients regarded as energy dense or unhealthy. However, simply removing or reducing these in foods creates other difficulties as they also contribute to other quality attributes in food, such as texture and flavour. A successful reformulation requires both an understanding of the role specific ingredient play in food structure, texture etc. and the identification and scientific understanding of suitable replacements for these.
When considering proteins in food, a further consideration must be made. Over the past few years, the sustainability of animal proteins (principally milk, egg) in formulated foods has been questioned. This has led to moves to replace these in formulated foods. Again, this is not a simple process, as proteins have a multitude of functions other than nutrition (including emulsification, foaming, gelation). Simply replacing these with alternative plant or other non-animal sources does not always work without changing the food properties. A final consideration concerns replacement of proteins for health reasons. Improved understanding of health conditions related to gluten intolerance has led to an explosion of gluten free products in the past few years. Finding a satisfactory replacer for gluten is very difficult as the proteins that make up gluten have very specific properties in dough formation that must be mimicked.
In this presentation I will look at various strategies we have used to reproduce the properties of fats and animal proteins in food systems. This includes highly fundamental studies of olegelation as a way to reduced saturated fat in foods, through protein modification to generate fat replacers that modify viscosity, and including the use of agri-food processing co-product (or waste) streams as fat and gluten replacers.
The Organising Committee:
Kim Stuart
Katie Thomas
Caroline Timmins
As at 11.06.24
12:30-13:00 - Registration - Location: QMU Reception (Tea & Coffee outside Halle)
13:00-13:15
Welcome: Dr Ana Tominc (on behalf of the Organising Committee) and Sir Paul Grice, Principal & Vice-Chancellor, QMU
Location: Halle Lecture Theatre
13:15-14:00 Plenary Session 1
Scott Fraser (thefoodpeople) How Trends Can Lead Innovation
Location: Halle Lecture Theatre
14:15-15:45 Parallel Sessions
Session 1A - Location: Room 3164
Howell Davies (Interface Food & Drink) How do you define Innovation for the Food & Drink Sector?
Joanne Burns (Food and Drink Federation Scotland) Improving the health of Scotland’s products and people– how we can help you to meet mandatory and legislative drivers for reformulation.
Dr Gordon J McDougall (The James Hutton Institute) Food Innovation at The Hutton
Session 1B - Location: Room 3165
Frank Vreisekoop (Harper Adams University) Consumer acceptance of grass ingredients in human diets and its influencing factors
Dr Joseph Palmer, and Dr Hector Mora Gallego (ScotBio) Valorisation of novel and high-value food ingredients from Spirulina microalgae
James Ambler and Kate Lefroy (Ulrick and Short) Clean Label Ingredients: A Path to Innovation
Session 1C
Location (Kitchen 3157), email events@qmu.ac.uk to book onto this session in advance as places will be limited.
Chair: Bahareh Mansoorian
Present at 14:15-14:55
Sue O’Neill-Berest (Cyrenians) Healthy eating on a low budget workshop
15:45-16:15 Coffee & Networking
Location: In front of Halle Lecture Theatre
STAND PRESENTERS: Healy Group, IFST, SCAF, SCFDI (PALM-ALT cakes), Ulrick & Short, Taylors Snacks, Baxterstorey, Brose Oats
16:15-17:45 Parallel Sessions
Session 2A - Location: 3164
Dr Maureen Costura (Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park) Archaeology and ancient food cultures in innovation
Kevin Geddes (Edinburgh Napier University) ‘See how they rise!’ an exploration of presenter-led innovation in the development of early food and cooking television programmes in Britain.
Lesley Ann Gray (Kantar) Innovation Ahead of the Curve
Session 2B - Location: 3165
Rhonda Archibald (NHS Forth Valley) Enjoy Life Locally: How community involvement, goal setting and financial incentives can enhance community health and wellbeing
Bahareh Mansooriah & Christos Theodrakopoulos (QMU) Discussion: Prehabilitation: Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Omics
Paul Kadetz (QMU) Redressing Malnutrition with the Assets-Based Approach of Positive Deviance
Session 2C
Location (Kitchen 3157), email events@qmu.ac.uk to book onto this session in advance as places will be limited.
Amy Wight & Amanda Robinson (Café recharge) Café ReCharge: Bridging the Gap between Food Waste and Food Poverty
17:50-18:45 Creative Sessions - Meet in Guthrie's
Creative Session A
Foraging Walk
Creative Session B
Food Education Outdoors
Creative Session C
NHS Forth Valley Green Spaces WORKSHOP
Fork Buffet Supper
19:00 - Fork Buffet Supper - Guthrie's @ QMU
After Dinner Session
Beer – Industry Connections (Amy Rankine) with beer tasting, including alcoholic-free option
Friday, 14th June
08:30-09:00 - Tea, Coffee and pastries on arrival - Location: in Front of Halle Lecture Theatre
09:00-10:30 Plenary Session 2 - Halle Lecture Theatre
Professor Steve Euston (Heriot-Watt University) Reformulation of foods for protein and fat replacement
Amanda Brown (Scotland Food and Drink) Building Scotland’s food and drink reputation through our innovative industry
10:30-11:00 - Tea and Coffee - Location: in Front of Halle Lecture Theatre
STAND PRESENTERS: Healy Group, IFST, SCAF, SCFDI (PALM-ALT cakes), Peacock Salt, Taylors Snacks
11:00-12:00 Parallel Sessions
Session 3A
David Thomson (Food and Drink Federation Scotland) Where will innovation be vital for Scotland’s food and drink industry
Dr Paul Sheldrake (Healy Group) Ctrl-Alt-Delete: Formulation Resetting for Healthy Functionality, Optimised Costs & Clean Labelling Solutions
Session 3B
Isabel Fletcher (University of Edinburgh)
Studying food using inter and transdisciplinary research methods
Donald Reid - A decade of Gastronomy at QMU
Session 3C
Laura Wilkinson (Swansea University)
Reconsidering the role of the consumer in the food innovation journey: Kaleidoscope, an academic/ industry collaborative initiative
Dr Marta Wilczek-Watson (Newcastle University) and Dr Katy Brickley (King’s College London) ‘No such thing as 90% vegan’: Multimodal discourse analysis of online responses to the BBC series Veganville
Discussion –
Location: 3164 and 3165
Interdisciplinarity in food teaching, research and industry: Looking at food innovation holistically
Facilitators: Julien Lonchamp, Eluned Michael, Ana Tominc, Bahareh Mansoorian, Katie Thomas, Donald Reid
12:30-13:30 Lunch & Posters
Lunch and Posters: Fidelma Guest, Rhonda Archibald, SCAF
Location: Guthrie’s Kitchen
13:30-15:00 Parallel Sessions
Session 4A - 13:30-15:00 - Location: 3164
Laura Wilson (Food Standards Scotland) Reformulation for public health - an opportunity for innovation
Monica Wilde, Matthew Rooney and Amy Rankine The Wildbiome Project: Innovation based in nature - panel discussion
Nicoletta Moschini The Impact of Food Tradition Storytelling on the Adoption of Plant-Based Sustainable Practices: A Visual Sociology Study in University Campuses
Session 4B - 13:30-15:00 - Location: 3165
Dr John Noon, Prof Steve Euston (Heriot-Watt University) Exploiting oleogelation to improve sustainability and healthiness of vegan cheese
Dr Dzeti Zait (Peacock salt) Reformulation for Sodium Reduction
Catriona Liddle/Julien Lonchamp (QMU) Developing a palm shortening substitute with environmental and health benefits: the PALM-ALT case study
Session 4C - 13:30-15:00 - Location: Canteen sitting Area near Guthrie’s (posters)
SCAF (Scottish Alliance for Food)
Panel discussion about the place of transdisciplinary research in food in the context of health, equity and sustainability
15:00- 15.30 - Location: Halle Lecture Theatre
Critical summary and closing remarks: Dr Ana Tominc and Eluned Michael
For delegates wishing to be a convenient 2 minute walk from the conference venue we would recommend you stay on site at Queen Margaret University where campus accommodation is available.
We have single, en-suite rooms (with shared kitchen and living space) available at a £58 + VAT per person per night. We are able include breakfast if this was required.
Please contact events@qmu.ac.uk if you wish to book and for further information.
Conferences and Events Enquiries
If you have an Event/Conference enquiry, one of our team will contact you as soon as possible.
We aim to respond to all enquiries within one full working day of receipt.
Show Contacts
