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Latest Update
Detailed Technical Programme posted (31 May 08)
Onsite registration can still be done on the following dates/time:
- Sunday, 15 June 08, from 17:00 to 20:00 hrs
- Monday, 16 June 08, from 08:00 to 15:00 hrs
- Tuesday, 17 June 08, from 08:00 to 12:00 hrs
- Wednesday, 18 June 08, from 08:00 to 12:00 hrs
Welcome Message
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On behalf of the Local Organizing Committee, I am delighted to welcome you all from the four corners of the earth to Singapore and to its National University (NUS). Singapore, I hear you ask: Where in heaven is it? Well, it is a little island in the sun, 90 miles north of the Equator in South Eastern Asia. A gateway city where nature, culture, technology, arts and fun blend together into a cosmopolitan, multifaceted home.
In the last twenty years or so, Singapore has been showing signs of exciting development in the food and pharmaceutical industries owing to foreign investment that finds the place an attractive proposition for business. The food and pharmaceutical sectors are today’s growth areas supported by the increasingly affluent middle-class populace in the Region. Besides the international leaders in ingredient supply and product manufacturing, there is burgeoning activity in the small and medium enterprises among which the local players of flavour industry constitute a prominent example. Critically, companies recognise that in order to stay ahead of competition in this part of the world, they have to establish more than just trading stations in Singapore. Thus, they actively pursue the creation of local headquarters and R & D centers undertaking activities as diverse as from flavour and fragrance manufacturing to processing, and product development.
The theme of this year’s conference is “Theoretical and Applied Aspects of Hydrocolloid Structure and Interactions with Natural Food Ingredients and Pharmaceuticals”. It constitutes an attempt to address the needs of a vibrant and “full of character” industry of the Orient by bringing together traditional and new approaches in hydrocolloid research. Thus the programme includes the following:
- Chemical, biochemical and physicochemical characterisation of hydrocolloids
- Conformational structures, solutions and gel behaviour in low and high solid hydrocolloid mixtures
- Novel crosslinking methods and spherulite formation in hydrocolloid gelation
- Starch: Value addition by modification and applications
- Role of hydrocolloids on the interfacial behaviour and stability of emulsions / dispersions
- Food commodity applications, quality control and sensory evaluation
- Encapsulation, interactions and controlled release of active compounds (flavour, antioxidants, etc.) in the hydrocolloid matrix, and implications on aroma perception / bioactivity
- Application of high pressure and nanotechnology to food processing
- Hydrocolloids as functional ingredients in pharmaceuticals and health / personal care items
- Hydrocolloids as dietary fibre and prebiotics: from structural functionality to nutrition and health
We do hope that the tropical paradise of Singapore will become an ideal environment of work and play over this week baring testimony to the changing attitudes of contemporary life style towards the use of hydrocolloids and providing answers to these challenges.
See you soon,
Stefan Kasapis
Chairman, Organizing Committee
National University of Singapore
