The 8th International Dietary Fibre Conference 2022 (DF22), hosted by the Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Biochemistry of the KU Leuven and co-organised by ICC, took place on 16-18 October 2022 in Leuven, Belgium. DF22, entitled “Towards Unlocking the Full Potential of Fibre for Food, Function and Global Health” presented the latest research on dietary fibre. Important topics such as food DF fermentation and the gut microbiome; mixed DF - plant protein systems and sidestream valorisation and biorefining have been discussed.
The keynote opening speech was held by by Professor Bruce Hamaker, Purdue University (US), on the importance of understanding the structure of DF on the mechanisms of health promoting effects.
On day 2 the audience followed a panel discussion during the Healthgrain Forum Session: "What is needed to improve the availability of high-dietary fibre grain-based foods?" Challenges and key questions for the future were summarized, such as: *What more can we do to convince people to consume more fiber-containing products? *What types of fibre do we want in our diets? *What are the sources of dietary fibre and which modified fibre can be used?
200 participants from more than 30 countries around the globe attended the conference. 57 posters and 38 oral presentations contributed to the attractive scientific programme of DF22, presented in 8 sessions.
ICC’s affiliated journal Journal of Cereal Science kindly sponsored two 'Best Poster Awards' for innovative or exceptional work in the dietary fibre research. Also, the scientific journal 'nutrients' by MDPI sponsored one award for the best oral paper.
The awards were given to:
Anne F. Kleijn, Wageningen University and Research, Netherlands
Poster title: "Unravelling the structure-activity relationship of rhamnogalacturonan-I rich pectin and galectin-3"
Ines Pynket, Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Biochemistry, KU Leuven, Belgium
Poster title: "The impact of kilning, pH and ionic strength on the extractability of oat protein and β-D-glucan"
Wannes de Man, Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Biochemistry, KU Leuven
Lecture title: "Recent advances in the structural characterization of wheat flour arabinoxylan by high-resolution NMR technologies"
Congratulations to the winners!
