International Symposium in June

An international symposium on ‘Innovations in Food Science and Technology and Health care for social well - being’ will be held from June 12 to 14 at the BMICH, Colombo

Food and Health are areas of great interest to the consumers and it is of interest to the Industry, Scientists, Medical Officers, Engineers, Policy Makers and to both the Government and to the private sector organis ations in meeting the challenges on food and healthcare for building a healthy nation.

Diet related non-communicable diseases such as Diabetes, Cardio-vascular- diseases, Cancer, Obesity etc are diseases that affect the social well-being of people. Innovations in chemical sciences in the management of food supply chain, post harvest handling,, food science and technology, food safety, herbal medicines, functional foods, pharmaceuticals etc will be presented and discussed during this programme.

The ‘International Symposium 2008’ is organized by the Institute of Chemistry to coincide with its 37th Annual Sessions on the theme ‘Innovations in Chemical Sciences for Social Well-being’ and the International Symposium which will be held from June 12th to 14th is focusing on food and healthcare on a the theme ‘Innovations in Food Science and Technology and Healthcare for Social Well being’ The Symposium provides a learning opportunity to participants, provides a platform for interaction to share knowledge and experience with the world experts and develops and foster research opportunities contributing towards the Country’s social well being.

It has attracted many world renowned expert Scientists to participate as resource persons to make presentations on scientific achievements and applications and to share their knowledge and experience with the participants.

The keynote address will be delivered by an eminent- scientist from Japan, Professor Akinori Noguchi, Professor of Food Science at the Ishikawa Prefectural University, Japan. Professor Noguchi holds a Doctor of Science Degree from Tokyo Institute of Technology and has held several key positions at the National Food Research Institute and International Research Centre for Agricultural Sciences in Japan.

The keynote address will be on ‘The role of food science and technology in an aging society with the progress of globalization’

The symposium will be inaugurated on the 12th June 2008 and the Minister of Science and Technology, Professor Tissa Vitarana will be the chief guest. The technical sessions on the 13th and 14th will focus on two sub-themes ‘ Food Science and Technology for Social Wellbeing’ and ‘Chemical Sciences for Healthcare’.

The sub-theme on Food Science and Technology focuses on post-harvest management of food commodities, food science and technology and food safety.

There will be nine resource papers by Professor Linus Opara, a Consultant on Post-Harvest Technology to many organizations from Sultan Qaboos University will speak on “recent advances and technological innovations in post harvest management of fruits and vegetables’, Dr Takeo Shiina, Head of Distribution Engineering Laboratory from the National Food Research Institute, Japan will make a presentation on ‘ Development of quality tracing system for fresh produce based on ‘Time Environment Tolerance (TET), Engineer Jayantha Sellahewa, Deputy Director Innovative Food Centre, Science Executive and Science Group Manager (Food Processing), CSIRO, Australia will be delivering his presentation on ‘ Consumer health and well-being, etc.