Dr Ambroise Martin will kick of the 3-day programme with a keynote address that will show why the agency remains open to food science despite its mass rejection of much of it to date.
"It is crucial for me to have the opportunity to attend important events in the field such as Vitafoods Europe in order, not only to continue to explain the rationale behind our opinions – there are indeed no magic recipes – but also to gain feedback from all interested parties,” said the head of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA).
“The huge mass of previous generic lists and the rejection of many of the first applications should not mask that the future is still largely open for good science."
The session is sure to prove lively as it is being chaired by Dr Paul Clayton, a nutrition scientist, Royal Society of Medicine fellow and longtime critic of the health claims system and EFSA’s approach to nutrition science.
Other speakers include Joerg Gruenwald, the president of German consultancy analyse&realize, who will show why one or two trials can be enough to win a positive NDA opinion.
Beatrice Moreau from the European office of Registrar Corp wil look at the US FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), while Sandy Lin, director of S&R Consulting in China will compare the EU health claims system with China’s.
Dr Juriaan Maas, senior scientist at the EU FibreBiotics project will share some of the polysaccharide insights the project is uncovering while Adam Ismail, the executive director of the Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s (GOED) will explain why omega-3s are the fastest growing sectr of the global €70bn food supplements industry.
Other sessions include the Japanese functional foods market, I-nutrition, hydrolysed wheat proteins, sarcopenia, beauty foods, salt reduction and brain health.
New in 2013
Vitafoods portfolio director, Chris Lee, told us this year’s edition of the show would also for the first time feature a Nutra Insights Hub with a non-commercial theatre on the main show floor. There the likes of GOED, the International Probiotics Association (IPA), Datamonitor, Leatherhead, Mintel, the European Nutraceutical Association (ENA) and consultancy EAS will provide innovation analysis.
Lee said Nutra Insights Hub was one of many new features at the show including phone-based networking tools, innovation tours, Vitatrends and revamped New Products Zone.
“With the economic times being tough we’ve made a real effort to shake things up this year to boost the value for exhibitors and visitors,” Lee said.
“We are really happy with the response – we achieved last year’s show size at Christmas and are expecting more than 600 exhibitors and 12,000 visitors.”
He said the event that began in Copenhagen in 1997 had no plans to move from Geneva after residing there since 1999.
More information about the show can be found here.