The 4th International Dietary Fibre Conference DF09, 1-3 July 2009 in Vienna, Austria – A Great Success!

More than 300 delegates from 38 countries from Europe, the Americas, Asia, Australia and Africa participated at the 4th International Dietary Fibre Conference DF09 in Vienna, 1-3 July 2009. Participants appreciated the high quality scientific programme and the warm conference atmosphere in the Schoenbrunn Palace. Special thanks go to Jan Willem van der Kamp, TNO (the Netherlands), as chair of the scientific programme, and the ICC Headquarters’ team for organising and managing the conference. ICC would like to thank all speakers and exhibitors for actively contributing to the success of the conference. ICC would also like to extend sincere thanks and appreciation to all sponsors for their support, mainly to TNO, Kellogg, General Mills, and Kraft Foods as Platinum sponsors, and Cosucra and Tate&Lyle as Gold Sponsors (to view all the sponsors, please go to http://www.icc.or.at/events/df09/sponsors.php ).

The additional satellite workshops 1) Symposium Grain fibres and health – organised by HEALTHGRAIN and 2) Fibre analysis – co-organised by Megazyme and Medaillon Labs, and the social events in the Vienna City Hall were appreciated as added value to the main conference. Various Distinction Awards were given at DF09: ICC’s Friedrich Schweitzer Medal was awarded to Concha Collar from IATA-CSIC (Spain) and Meinolf Lindhauer from MRI (Germany); the title of ICC Honorary President was awarded to Jan Willem van der Kamp from TNO (the Netherlands) and to Stanley Cauvain from BakeTran (United Kingdom); ICC Academy Awards were given to Kaisa Poutanen from VTT (Finland), Jan Delcour from the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium), and Peter Shewry from Rothamsted Research (United Kingdom); Kraft Food’s Best Poster Awards were received by Laura Hanske from the University of Glasgow (United Kingdom) and Valerie Van Craeyveld from the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium); General Mill’s Special Research Award was received by Mette Kristensen from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark). ICC congratulates all award winners.

To get a flavour of the atmosphere of DF09, please go and view the photo galleries at http://www.icc.or.at/galleries/df09/. For participants of DF09 only, ICC is offering a special feedback website and free download opportunities for all conference materials in pdf format, and the possibility to view the pdfs of the DF09 presentations (listed in the password protected area as permissions of the speakers are received.

The 5th Dietary Fibre Conference is already in the planning stage and will be organised in Rome, Italy, in late spring 2012. We all hope to meet again in 2012!

The DF09 Organising Committee

 

DF09 – the place to be for...

• meeting leading scientists in this dynamic field from all over the world
• getting an up-to-date overview of the latest research findings
• learning about new (bio-)analytical techniques

In an era with...

• growing consumer awareness of the importance of fibre
• wide agreement on the definition of dietary fibre
• growing interest in dietary fibre R&D in industry and academia

Dietary Fibre 2009 - new insights and challenges

Dietary fibre related research is rapidly evolving, with new insights in the impact of fibre on heart health, satiety, the metabolic symdrome and the immune system. Consumers all over the world are increasingly interested in products high in dietary fibre. In the new definitions of dietary fibre, as agreed in 2008 in Europe and by Codex, added fibre can only be labelled as such when generally accepted scientific evidence is available for a beneficial effect on health. The DF09 Conference is the place to be to get an overview of the evidence available now, and the challenges for generating new evidence.

We invite scientists, regulators and industry to discuss these challenges, as well as emerging health benefits, new (bio-)analytical methods, technology, and marketing strategies.

Topics

Nutrition and health

• Prebiotics - new trends and developments
• Dietary fibre, obesity and appetite control
• Fibres - relationships health effects - type and structure of fibre
• Glycemic control, impact of high- and low viscous fibres

Definition, analysis, and consumer communication

• Definition – implementation of new, Codex-based, definitions
• Analytical tools, development and validation
• Legislation, labelling and consumer communication

Structure/Function relationships - the performance of different types of DF

• Optimising nutritional and technology performance
• Roles of dietary fibres in reducing sugar- and fat levels
• Dietary fibre in matrices - health impact of fibres and co-passengers