Junshi Chen

Dr. Junshi Chen graduated from the Beijing Medical College and has engaged in nutrition and food safety research for more than 50 years at the Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (the former Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine), Beijing. Since 2011, he took the position of Senior Research Professor at the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment. He has conducted large epidemiologic studies on diet, nutrition and chronic diseases, in collaboration with Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Cornell University and Prof. Richard Peto, University of Oxford since 1983. From late 1980’s, he conducted a series of studies on the protective effects of tea on cancer, including laboratory study and human intervention trials. He is the member of the expert panel who wrote the WCRF/AICR report “Food, Nutrition and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective” (1997). Recently, he was appointed as the Chair of the Chinese National Expert Committee for Food Safety Risk Assessment and the Vice-Chair of the National Food Safety Standard Reviewing Committee. Internationally, he serves as the chairperson of the Codex Committee on Food Additives (CCFA), member of the WHO Food Safety Expert Panel.

Ruth Khasaya Oniang’o

Ruth Khasaya Oniang’o is a Kenyan Professor of Nutrition and a former member of Parliament. She created Rural Outreach Africa (ROA) to empower smallholder farmers to reduce malnutrition and she oversaw her country’s nutrition policy.

She served in the 9th Kenyan Parliament from 2003 to 2007 and she was the first ever Shadow Minister for Education, Science and Technology.

Prof Oniang’o established Rural Outreach Africa (ROA) in 1993 to improve rural poor people’s livelihoods. Through ROA, Ruth Oniang’o has ltransformed the lives of many rural poor families in the Butere-Mumias district of western Kenya and the environs. Her innovative and top-notch leveraged interventions that cut across the board have addressed a variety of issues including: nutrition and food security, wealth creation, women economic engagement, environment, health and sanitation including HIV/AIDS, housing, education, and poverty.

ROA’s work has been recognized by the Kenya Government by winning a certificate of recognition and by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, through Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Oniang’o has won many awards for her work in agriculture and food policy, including the Distinguished Service Medal and Silver Star. In 2014, she was awarded the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA) Lifetime Award. She also won the Africa Food Prize in 2017 for her work with the Rural Outreach Program. Oniang’o also was cited as one of the Top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine in 2017. In 2018, Oniang’o was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from University of Aberdeen in recognition of her contributions to her field. Ruth Oniang’o was the IUFoST Lifetime Achievment Award winner in 2022. Prof. Oniang’o is the Founder and Editor in Chief of  the African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND).

Stefan Palzer

The UN Sustainable Development Goals include Zero Hunger, Good Health, Responsible Consumption and Climate Action. To achieve all these goals, the food system needs to go through a major transformation. This will include adaptation of agricultural practices, increasing local sourcing of raw materials, change of product composition and design, implementation of highly efficient and flexible manufacturing technologies, scaling of sustainable packaging solutions, development of new ways to prepare and consume products including nutritional coaching. This revolution which represents a redesign of the entire food value chain will be boosted by the rapidly evolving digital capabilities and the new generation of sensor technologies. By leveraging these technologies, we will have the opportunity to improve product quality and consistency, limit food waste, decrease energy consumption, minimize environmental impact, and reduce costs.

Furthermore, data science and artificial intelligence enable us to redesign the entire innovation process from the scientific discovery to the industrialisation of new products and technologies. As a result, we have the potential to make impactful new discoveries by leveraging existing data, accelerate product recipe and design, while considering multiple constraints, and rapidly industrialize new solutions.

During the presentation, various state of the art and emerging digital technologies and their potential for the food industry will be discussed. This includes analysis of big data, analytical and generative artificial intelligence, quantum computing, virtual and mixed reality and also the latest generation of remote sensors.