PAN Sweden Represented at Global Summit on Food Colloids
From 22–27 March, around 200 researchers from all over the world gathered in Granada, Spain, to participate in the Food Colloids Conference – one of the leading international meeting places for research on colloidal food systems.
This year marked the 20th edition of the conference, with a particular focus on sustainable food colloids and the technological developments shaping the future of food.
This year’s programme highlighted several emerging areas, including plant-based and microbial systems, and how these materials can be characterised and used in future food applications. The conference also broadened its scope by integrating AI methods and digital technologies, opening up opportunities for faster development, deeper understanding, and more efficient screening of new ingredients within the food sector.
PAN Sweden in the Spotlight
Sweden was represented by Professor Anna Ström from Chalmers University of Technology and Vice Director of PAN Sweden, together with Giovanni Tizzanini and Patricia Lopez-Sanchez, who are also affiliated with PAN.
Anna delivered one of the conference’s plenary lectures, presenting her research on how interactions between proteins and polysaccharides affect both food technology and nutrition.
“It was very rewarding and intensive days in Granada,” says Anna.
What I take with me is that within PAN Sweden we are perfectly aligned with the ingredients – pea, fava bean and oat – and the methods that the industry is demanding and using. At the same time, both we and the industry face a challenge in reaching even deeper and more innovative research.
A Conference with a Long Tradition
The Food Colloids Conference has a long and well-established history, dating back to its start in Leeds in 1986. Since then, it has brought together researchers from a wide range of disciplines, united by a common goal: to deepen the understanding of the physical chemistry behind food colloids and their importance for the foods of the future.
The 20th edition in Granada both looked back and looked ahead – summarising the research frontier, highlighting key advances, and identifying the challenges that lie ahead in the development of sustainable and competitive food systems.