What is the future of food? Stephen Hall on LINXS’ involvement in Northern Lights on Food
The conference Northern Lights on Food takes place 26-27th March. It will gather some of Sweden and Denmark’s biggest food companies for a discussion on how to improve the taste and texture of food, increase its health benefits and lower its climate impacts – all with the help of neutron and x-ray science. They are invited by MAX IV, LINXS and RISE.
– This conference is part of our outreach work: to link academic and industry researchers, as well as to identify, connect and develop the communities who can engage with the research and the use of x-rays and neutrons, eventually leading to new users and research at MAX IV and ESS. Here we are building on good existing connections with the food industry, which already has a good research base, but currently without extensive use of x-rays and neutrons, says Stephen Hall, Director of LINXS.
LINXS will bring researchers and academia to the conference. It will be a good opportunity, according to Stephen Hall, for researchers to mix with people working at both large and small food companies, with or without any previous experience of MAX IV and ESS, or the neutron and x-ray fields.
– The networking is the really important bit. Apart from the talks and the workshops. We need to discuss how we can work together to push research in food and the food industry forward. In a nutshell, we need to bridge the gap between industry and academia.
Gathered at the conference are companies such as Orkla, Oatley, Carlsberg and Tetra Pak, as well as companies such as Kiviks musteri and Lyckebo Starch AB plus researchers from RISE, MAXIV, ESS, LINXS and a number of universities.
– Overall it’s a great opportunity to develop this relationship and see where it goes, he concludes.