Despite numerous developed solutions, the problems associated with the excessive use of natural resources for food production and food waste are not solved yet and there is a pressing need to transform existing food systems to address economic, social, environmental and health-related issues. This session will set the scene in pillar #3 (Sustainability, food chain & decarbonisation).  It will present scientific works that address the shortcomings of long (a) and short (b) food value chains and capitalise on their advantages : (a) presence of several intermediaries, larger production volumes, improved logistics and distribution and (b)relocation and proximity between operators, shared social values and search for social cohesion, higher quality products. Holistic approaches combining novel processing technologies with real time sustainability assessment and further data integration into National Food Systems will also be welcome.
 
2- Session “Plant proteins based foods” (Dr Pablo Juliano, CSIRO Werribee ; Pr Rémi Saurel, Institut Agro Dijon)

           Plant protein foods are part of the answer to the protein transition stake . In addition, there is a growing interest in the processing of plant based foods including pulses (peas, lentils, beans, etc.) because of their high protein content and amino acid profile, complementary to that of cereals. This session, which is pivotal between pillars #3 (Sustainability, food chain & decarbonisation) and #5 (Food performances, properties, digestibility & functionalities),  will present the last scientific advances on this topic. It will also encompass a snapshot of the engineering research and innovative commercial activities in Australia and New Zealand aiming at developing local plant-based protein ingredients and products.
 
3-Session «Digital Foods» (Pr. Laura Piazza, Universita di Milano ;  Dr Kamal Kansou, INRAE Nantes ; Dr Cyril Toublanc, ONIRIS - GEPEA Nantes)

         Digital resources are fast spreading in the food value chain for many aspects : traceability, retail, processes managing, knowledge transfer etc. An outstanding example from manufacturing industries is the concept of « digital twins ». To illustrate this trend and report about the last advances in this domain, this session, which is pivotal between pillars #4 (Process modelling up/down scaling) and #6 (Food future, innovation in teaching and learning, innovation and management), will present various scientific examples of digitalization deploying in industry for food processing and product developments.
 
4- Session “HPTP – state of the art and its future in the food industry” (Dr Kai Knoerzer, CSIRO, Werribee): to be sponsored

        High pressure thermal processing has been investigated at universities and research organisations for several decades; however, due to the lack of industrial scale systems with the capabilities of combining high pressures with elevated temperatures, the technology has not been commercialised to date. This will change over the next year due to a breakthrough in implementing a drop-in innovation in conventional, cold high-pressure systems, enabling high pressure thermal processing. This session, in the frame of the pillar #2 (Emerging processes & hurdles technologies) will involve scientific talks and industry contributions to illustrate the technical readiness level of HPTP.

5- Session “Thermal processing: from conventional to novel approaches - sustainability with computational process design and optimization” (Pr Ferruh Erdogdu, Univ Ankara Turkey ; Pr Olivier Rouaud, ONIRIS - GEPEA Nantes) 
   
        Thermal processing has been applied to provide safety and increase the shelf life of food products. Canning and aseptic processing are the conventional approaches while innovative technologies are introduced to increase the sustainability of food processing. Therefore, this session, linking pillars #2 (Emerging processes & hurdles technologies) and #4 (Process modelling up/down scaling) with #1 (Conventional processes), is planned to present a comparison of the conventional and innovative approaches in the view of process-design with optimization using virtual tools and to introduce the detailed background of the innovative approaches with comprehensive literature review. The main objective is to demonstrate a comprehensive background of the thermal processing approaches for sustainable food processing and industrial scale up with design and optimization approaches.  
 
6- Session “Fermentation-enabled alternative protein processing”  (Pr. Roman Buckow, CSIRO and Dr Nic Lindley, CNRS)

        This session deals of course with yeast strain engineering and fermentation processes to produce milk proteins (casein etc), where many start-ups and now also big companies world-wide work on. The same technology (typically called precision fermentation) is used to make specific ingredients for their plant-protein ranges (eg flavours/colourants). The scope could also include cellular meat and cellular biomass, with many companies active in this space. Clearly this technology offers both alternatives to conventional production systems but also a number of challenges to achieve the necessary production levels. While the engineering part of the strains is relatively advanced with sometimes extraordinary sophistication, the part more dedicated to the process engineering itself is not always very developed. So this session aligned with pillars #2 and #5 and possibly #3, is expected to address exciting scientific challenges for food engineering.
 
7- Session “Fouling and cleaning of Food-Contact Surfaces” (Pr Dennis R. Heldman , Ohio St. Univ. ; Pr Peter J. Fryer, U. Birmingham ; Dr Guillaume Delaplace, INRAE, Lille )
   
       The fouling and cleaning of food-contact surfaces has become the focus of many research programs. In addition to the traditional concerns about safety and shelf-life of food products, more recent attention has been on reducing energy and water for cleaning operations. The overall goal of this session is to encourage exchange and discussion among the latest researchers on fouling and cleaning. The proposed scientific session, linking pillars # 1 and 2, will include latest reviews on the topic, on fouling of surfaces, and on cleaning or removal of the foulant. Also expected are papers on nanoscale investigations of fouling, while others would explore the potential for scale-up of fouling and cleaning parameters to commercial-scale operations. The removal of foulant from food-contact surfaces as occurring during UHT processes for protein-based beverages is also of interest.