9th Euro Fed Lipid Congress: Health and sustainability

Abstract

On behalf of the scientific and organization committees we would like to thank the participants for their contribution to the success of the 9th Euro Fed Lipid congress in Rotterdam, we hope you have enjoyed it. The congress was held in “De Doelen” in the city center and almost opposite the central station. Visiting the congress was also an opportunity to learn about the Port of Rotterdam as the “capital” of the European oils and fats trade and the main location of the oils and fats processing industry. The scientific committee assembled an exciting top quality programme around the main themes of health and sustainability. Rotterdam attracted many high quality presentations in all 11 divisions of the congress. The full programme is available at the congress webpage (www.eurofedlipid.org/meetings/rotterdam). The plenary keynote lecture on the opening day was given by M. R. Chandran from Malaysia, one of the founders of the Round table Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). This presentation provided a start for many more presentations on sustainable oils and fats production. Euro Fed Lipid has the objective to develop the science of oils and fats sustainability as a sustainable item at future congresses. The European Science Award winner O. G. Mouritsen from Denmark opened the congress lectures on Sunday afternoon with a presentation on “Lipids, curvature and nano-medicine”. He was followed on Monday morning by the Norman Medal lecture winner G. Daum from Austria with a lecture on “Lipid storage: Yeast we can!”. The SFEL Chevreul Medal winner Ph. Guesnet from France presented his lecture “Omega-3 fatty acids, neurotransmission and energy metabolism in the brain – A possible role in maintaining brain functions during aging?” on Tuesday morning. Just before closing the congress Wednesday noon, the winner of the European Lipid Technology Award, R. Verhé from Belgium, presented a lecture on “Integral valorization of lipids as renewable resources for food and non-food products”. The health and disease sessions on Tuesday afternoon were fully dedicated to the health effects of different saturated fatty acids. A panel discussion at the end of these sessions summarized and concluded the main findings of this important subject. The Rotterdam congress was a good opportunity to meet colleagues and to visit the Port of Rotterdam. A fantastic occasion to combine these two activities was the boat trip through the harbor with a dinner on Monday evening. This boat trip was sponsored and organized by the Dutch Product Board for Margarine, Fats and Oils (MVO). Also the congress dinner had a link with the harbor activities. The dinner was served at the Cruise Terminal Rotterdam, the arrival point for many passengers of large cruise ships. A further link was the kind sponsoring of this dinner by the Port of Rotterdam office. We are convinced that we have successfully combined an exciting scientific programme with superb social events, which will leave positive memories in the heads of the more than 600 participants. We hope that next year's congress in Cracow will continue to combine scientific contribution, interest for the industry, and social networking in the successful Euro Fed Lipid style.