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The first half of 2019 has been exciting and challenging for ISO-FOOD with two major announcements. One is that after much hard work, we are delighted to announce the Isotope laboratory of the Department of Environmental Sciences finally received accreditation for two new isotopic methods (read on for details). Accreditation represents over two years of preparation, something we could not have achieved without the dedication and efforts of members of the department. The other important news is that we held our first International Symposium on Isotopic and Other Techniques in Food Safety and Quality on the 1st-3rd of April in Portorož. I want to thank everyone involved including speakers, poster presenters, delegates, exhibitors, sponsors and members of the organising committee for contributing to a truly successful meeting. All the details are in the newsletter. Looking forward, July will bring new challenges for ISO-FOOD as the official period of EU funding ends after five years. A look back at all of the progress we’ve made over this period and what the future holds for ISO-FOOD will be the topic of our 10th newsletter. In the meantime, you can download and read our previous newsletters from the ISO-FOOD website, where you can also catch up on the latest news and happenings.
Dr David Heath,
ERA Chair holder
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First ISO-FOOD Symposium on Isotopic and Other Techniques in Food
Arguably, the main news events for ISO-FOOD during the spring was our first International Symposium held at the Grand Hotel Bernardin Congress Centre, which is situated between Portorož and the historic town of Piran on Slovenia’s Northern Adriatic coast. The idea was to bring together experts, stakeholders, researchers, scientists as well as graduate and postgraduate students from across the world to share knowledge and experiences, and to present the latest advances in isotopic and other techniques in food safety and quality. For this reason, we divided the scientific programme in the following fields, namely, 1) food authenticity and traceability, 2) food safety and quality, 3) foodomics, 4) nanomaterials and nanotechnology, 5) metrology in food, and 6) food databases and semantics. The three-day programme consisted of fifteen invited speakers, thirty-one oral presenters and fifty-nine poster presentations. In total, one hundred and twenty delegates from around the world came to the event. The delegates originated from twenty countries including Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Japan, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and the United States, and represented academia, governmental bodies, industry, SMEs, and NGOs.
In our modern complex and increasingly global food supply chains, the issue of brand reputation and protecting producers and consumers has been in focus more than ever as food producers/retailers struggle to maintain healthy food and stay ahead of the fraudsters. In this regard, the Symposium provided an opportunity for the many different stakeholders attending to raise and discuss a wide range of matters relating to food quality and safety. Participants of the symposium were able to ask questions the leading experts and network with peers. It highlighted the advances made in isotopic and elemental methods and what we can achieve using such methods to determine food safety, food origin and uncover fraud.
 
Images from the ISOFOOD2019, Left: Delegates enjoying the conference dinner, and Right: Delegates wearing their ISO-FOOD aprons.
As well as the scientific programme, we also included a social agenda into the event as an opportunity for strengthening existing relationships and fostering future collaborations. The networking event consisted of a trip to the Sečovlje Saltpans. This included a guided tour of the still working salt pans followed by a scientific overview of the salt making process presented by Prof Nives Kovač form the Slovenian National Institute of Biology.
A view across the Sečovlje Saltpans.
The day was concluded with a dinner and festivities at the nearby family Mahnič ecological farm and vineyard, where delegates were greeted with a traditional welcome of salt and bread and followed by an evening of traditional local cuisine, fine wine and folk music
 
Traditional local welcome of bread and salt, followed by old-style music with home produced traditional food and wine.
From the feedback we received, it was by all accounts a very successful meeting, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank the ISO-FOOD team for the tremendous effort in organising the Symposium. We would also like to give a big thank you to all those delegates who attended and present their research, and to our sponsors, Albatros kongresno-turistična agencija d.o.o. and to the staff of the Grand Hotel Bernardin for making us so welcome.
From the presentations given at the conference, it was clear that much progress in this field has been made and the abstracts for the symposium contributions are gathered in the book of abstracts, and full papers will form part of a Special Edition in Food Chemistry and Toxicology. However, it is also clear, that there is much work to be done and that many challenges remain. We hope to see everyone at ISOFOOD2021. The book of abstracts from this year’s Symposium is available on the ISO-FOOD website. |
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Winners of ISOFOOD2019 best Posters award
It was also double success for the ISO-FOOD students at the First International Symposium on Isotopic and Other Techniques in Food Safety and Quality (See ISO-FOOD Symposium). An independent awards committee headed by Dr Kelly from the IAEA chose the three best poster winners. The committee evaluated the posters in terms of design and layout, coherence, argumentation and methodology, awareness of previous work, attractiveness, message, the balance of text visuals, and overall impression. The final decision was that the best three posters share the first place. The awards went to:
- Dr Bor Krajnc for his work on the “Characterization of truffles (Tuber sp.) in Slovenia using stable isotope approach and elemental composition”. Co-authors: Marijan Nečemer, Federica Camin, Katarina Vogel-Mikuš, Staša Hamzić Gregorčič, Lidija Strojnik, and Nives Ogrinc. Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia.
- Dr Raghuraj S. Chouhan for his work on the “Development of an efficient passive sampler adsorbent for the detection of mercury in water via stratified nanostructured knitting.” Co-authors: Vesna Fajon, Igor Živković, Majda Pavlin, Sabina Berisha, Ivan Jerman, David Heath, and Milena Horvat. Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia
- Lei Fujiyoshi who presented a poster titled “Trust me? Consumer trust in expert information on food product labels” Co-authors: Christoph Rupprecht, Lei Fujiyoshi, Steven McGreevy, and Ichiro Tayasu.Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Japan
| Winners of the best poster award together with conference Chairs David Heath and Nives Ogrinc, and Simon Kelly Chair of the best poster committee. (From left to right: D. Heath, B. Krajnc, L. Fujiyoshi, R. S. Chouhan, S. Kelly, N. Ogrinc). |
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ISO-FOOD’s Tome Eftimov receives Scientist of the year award
Also in April, we were all thrilled that Dr Tome Eftimov, one of ISO-FOOD’s our three sponsored doctoral students received for his PhD work the Macedonian award of “2018 scientist of the year”. Gjorge Ivanov, the President of Macedonia, presented Dr Eftimov with the award at a special national ceremony. The Best Young Scientist Award was established in 2010 and is awarded by the President of the Republic of Macedonia as an incentive to bolster science and research in the Republic of Macedonia. Dr Eftimov is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Biomedical Data Science, Centre for Population Health Sciences, Stanford Medicine, Stanford University, California, US. His latest paper, titled “A novel statistical approach for comparing meta-heuristic stochastic optimization algorithms, according to the distribution of solutions in the search space in the Journal Information Sciences can be found here.
| Gjorge Ivanov, the President of Macedonia (right), awards Tome Eftimov (left) as the 2018 best young scientist. |
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Prof Barbara Koroušić Seljak receives Scientist of the year award
Also in April Prof Barbara Koroušić Seljak from the Computer Sciences Department of the JSI received the Slovenian Young Academy Mentor of the Year Award 2018. Prof Barbara Koroušić Seljak was a mentor to ISO-FOOD’s doctoral student Tome Eftimov. Dr Koroušič Seljak is a valued member of the ISO-FOOD ERA Chair Team and heads work package 4 “Networking and transfer of Knowledge”.
| Prof Barbara Koroušić Seljak (Centre figure) accepting the award for the best mentor. |
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Television broadcast on vanilla and the use of stable isotopes to determine its origin and frauds
The TV show “UGRIZNIMO ZNANOST” (Let’s bite into science) presented “Vanilla the Queen of the Spices”, its natural and artificial aroma and methods to distinguish between them with the help of the isotopic techniques. Prof. Dr Nives Ogrinc and Lidija Strojnik presented the isotopic research, which is performed at our department. The show was broadcasted on 9th of May 2019 at the national Slovenian TV station: RTV SLO1
Fragrant brown vanilla pods are an indispensable part of every kitchen. Every year more than 1000 new products with vanilla flavouring are sold such that world production of vanilla can no longer meet the demand, to the point that the price of natural vanilla exceeded that of saffron. Nevertheless, the supermarket shelves are full of products with added vanilla. From where does all this vanilla come, if cultivating trees and getting producing the natural pods is so demanding and expensive? Do we even know the natural aroma of vanilla? If it is not natural in the store, how is it produced? How modern analytical and isotopic techniques can help answer these questions is presented in the video. The video is available on the link in the RTV Slovenia archive. |
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