Bridge builders – Building sustainable nutritional bridges between research and health and wellbeing services for elderly
Bridge Builders consists of expertise in food and nutrition research (healthy food, alternative proteins, mealtime interventions, aging) as well as in service applications and good practices (dietary habits and environments, training of social and health professionals). Participants represent Denmark (University College Copenhagen), Finland (South-Eastern University of Applied Sciences), Norway (University of Stavanger) and Sweden (Linnaeus University).
The 12th International Conference on Culinary Arts and Sciences (ICCAS 2022) was held in Lyon, France, on June 1st-3rd. Lyon, which is the capital of French gastronomy, besides serving great food also provided a wide variety of interesting topics and findings to support health and well-being and enhance the development of the food science, food industry and food services. ICCAS has initially been found as a forum for culinary artists, food scientists and food industry to have an international conference where all sides can get to know each other’s’ work, share ideas and built networks. This concept has shown to be beneficial and successful.
The conference was hosted by the Institute Paul Bocuse, which is a leading higher education school in culinary arts, food service and hospitality. The program included a visit to the Institute’s culinary school, research center and living labs where a culinary demo and tasting as well as a reception were held.
The theme of this conference was sustainable meal systems worldwide: Challenges for culinary arts and sciences. Topics included sustainability, meal systems, food culture, foodservice and hospitality, food systems and politics, the resilience of the food and food service sector in a crisis context, food marketing, food habits and consumer behavior, food science and safety and nutrition and wellbeing. All this was packed in seven sessions of oral presentations and 28 posters filled with interesting settings, methods and findings. Since the “menu” was so versatile and full of choices, everyone was able to find special scientific treats to please one´s needs.
Our network’s aim was to present the activities of the Bridge Builders network in order to discuss how a multidisciplinary approach can contribute with new knowledge to promote sustainable healthy aging in relation to food, nutrition, health and well-being services. We also wanted to invite researchers and practitioners who participate in the congress to join the network and also our webinar on the 14th of June. Both presentation and the invitation rose interest and opened opportunities to get to know new colleagues and to strengthen our co-work in ongoing and future research areas related to healthy eating and aging from a holistic perspective.
The project is funded by Nordic Joint Committee for Agricultural and Food Research.
Text: Sari Ranta, Xamk
Picture: ICCAS team