International Conference on Food Waste to Food Sustainability (FWFS 2022) successfully held

A two-day International Conference on Food Waste to Food Sustainability (FWFS 2022), hosted by the Research Institute for Future Food (RiFood) of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), was held successfully on 24-25 August 2022. Thirty-nine world-renowned academics were invited as keynote speakers to present their recent research findings on a diverse range of topics related to the conference theme. The Conference attracted over 500 online participants from 25 countries and regions.

At the Opening Ceremony, Prof. Christopher Chao, Vice President (Research and Innovation) of PolyU, shared how the COVID-19 has been driving the transformation in different aspects of the global food system, from food waste management, food security, nutrition, public health to food policy. Prof. Chao pointed out that need for an interdisciplinary research platform to fulfil the food demand of the entire population and highlighted some of the remarkable achievements of and contributions from RiFood.

Prof. Qingyan Chen, Director of PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research (PAIR), introduced the Academy and RiFood to the audience. He used the product development of traditional tonic food as an example, to elucidate how interdisciplinary research integrates chemical analysis, nutrition, Chinese medicine, and food processing to achieve our goal of accessible and highly nutritious food. Interdisciplinary research is critical to bring impact to the development of Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area and the World.

The Conference received very positive feedback. On the first day, eight speakers from the US and Canada shared their research findings on food waste upcycling. On the second day, twenty-one speakers from Australia, China, Germany, Greece, Japan, Korea, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Swiss, the US and the UK presented on topics such as sustainable food production, food security to respond to emerging climate and pandemic situation, bio-safety, and food policy and green finance.

Dr Kahing Wong, Director of RiFood gave closing remarks and thanked all the online participants for their support in making the Conference a huge success.