It is our great pleasure to welcome you in Bragança, Portugal, for the 11th International Conference of Predictive Modelling in Food (ICPMF11). Since 1992, ten ICPMF editions have taken place, providing a forum for the exchange of ideas, identification of research needs and novel approaches for the advancement of predictive modelling towards ensuring safety and quality of foods.
Bragança is a typically-Portuguese old town (Romanic origin dates back to the 10th century), located by the Natural Park of Montesinho – one of the wildest forest zones of Europe – and the Douro Valley – the third oldest protected wine region in the world; and surrounded by traditional villages of a distinctive rustic beauty. Bragança houses several traditional industries producing a myriad of local foods, such as cheese, fermented meats, wine, chestnuts and honey, which provide substantial economic sustainability to the region.
ICPMF11 reunites food researchers, stakeholders, risk assessors and users of predictive models to present recent developments and trends in modelling approaches for food quality, safety and sustainability. We succeeded to gather a significant number of delegates from over the world to participate in a comprehensive scientific programme that includes keynote lectures, oral communications and posters, allocated in sessions focusing on:
. Advances in predictive microbiology modelling
. Predictive modelling in innovative food processing and preservation technologies
. Advances in microbial dynamics and interactions
. Advances in software and database tools
. Meta-analysis protocols and applications
. Advances in risk assessment methods and integration of omics techniques
. Advances in predictive modelling in food quality and safety
. Predictive mycology
. Individual cell and whole-cell modelling
Apart from those, ICPMF11 features for the first time a special session dedicated to “Innovative approaches for ensuring safety of traditional foods” and the Round Table: “Assuring the Safety of Traditional Foods: A Scientific Contribution to Protecting our Cultural Heritage”. We, as food researchers based in a Mediterranean mountain region, are aware that the production of traditional foods plays a key role in the development of rural regions, since the agricultural commodities used as raw materials are generally produced locally, allowing and stimulating local commercialisation, thus contributing to a sustainable environment, and employment in rural populations. It was inspiring for us to have received many submissions from both developed and developing countries on the valorisation of traditional foods through the application of up-to-date modelling research.
Besides that, one morning workshop and three afternoon tutorials were programmed during the day before the scientific programme. The workshop “How to benefit from the Risk Assessment Modelling and Knowledge Integration Platform (RAKIP)” was organised by Matthias Filter. The parallel tutorials “Towards an integrated predictive software map: Practical examples of use of predictive microbiology software tools for food safety and quality”; “Advanced methods in predictive microbiology” and “Topics in quantitative microbial risk assessment using R” were organised by Fernando Pérez-Rodríguez, Pablo Fernández, Alberto Garre and Mariem Ellouze; by Lihan Huang, Cheng-An Hwang and Vasco Cadavez; and by Patrick Njage and Ana Sofia Ribeiro Duarte, respectively. We thank these organisers for their proposals.
Abstracts, reviewed by the ICPMF11 Scientific Committee, are published in the present Book of Abstracts while peer-reviewed original research articles will be invited to be published in ICPMF11 Special Issues in the International Journal of Food Microbiology and Microbial Risk Analysis. To stimulate the participation of postgraduate students and young researchers, two kinds of awards were arranged: the Young Researcher Best Oral Presentation prizes, sponsored by Elsevier; and the Developing Scientist Best Poster prizes, sponsored by the International Committee on Food Microbiology and Hygiene (ICFMH) of the International Union of Microbiological Societies (IUMS). For the first time, this ICPMF edition gives out two awards for the Senior Researcher Best Oral Presentation, sponsored by the open-access journal Foods – MDPI.
In addition to the scientific programme, we prepared an exciting social programme for delegates to appreciate the rich culture, gastronomy and traditions of Bragança, w includes welcome reception, live music, tasting of regional food and a gala dinner in the Castle of Bragança.
We look forward to lively discussions, and hope that this meeting will give you the opportunity to strengthen friendship and cooperation, and build new contacts for future research endeavours.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
