Conference Reports
Shaping the Future of Coffee: Climate Resilience, Liberica’s Rise, and By-Product Innovation—Highlights from the International Coffee Convention 2023 (ICC2023)
Foods 2024, 13(6), 832; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13060832
The International Coffee Convention 2023 comprehensively addressed the contemporary challenges and advancements in the coffee industry, emphasizing sustainability, health, and innovation. This convention gathered experts and stakeholders to explore diverse aspects of coffee, ranging from the potential of underutilized species like Coffea liberica in terms of climate resilience to the innovative use of coffee by-products. The convention featured presentations and discussions, employing both empirical research and analytical reviews to explore various topics, including the health benefits of coffee, the advancements in traceability and authentication methods, and the impact of global regulatory changes on coffee production and trade. The key findings highlighted the importance of biodiversity in coffee production as a response to climate change, the significant health benefits and sustainability potential of coffee by-products, and the evolving landscape of coffee consumption patterns driven by technological innovations. The convention also stressed the need for alignment in global coffee trade regulations, particularly concerning deforestation and traceability. The 2023 convention underscored the complexity and interconnectivity of the coffee industry’s challenges and opportunities. It concluded with a forward-looking perspective, emphasizing the need for continued research, sustainable practices, and collaborative efforts to shape the future of the coffee industry. The community is looking forward to furthering these discussions at the next International Coffee Convention in 2024.
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Food Toxicology and Food Safety: Report of the 3rd International Electronic Conference on Foods: Food, Microbiome, and Health—A Celebration of the 10th Anniversary of Foods’ Impact on Our Wellbeing
Foods 2022, 11(24), 4099; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11244099
The purpose of the conference session summarized in this article was to bring together international experts on food toxicology and food safety and share the current scientific knowledge on these topics. The presentations covered a wide range of interdisciplinary issues, including (i) the impact of diet on body weight and health outcomes including results from animal models of carcinogenesis, (ii) methods for microbial oil extraction, (iii) food processing and its impact on food safety and health, (iv) novel compounds to avoid mycotoxin contamination of agricultural products, and (v) the safety of cannabidiol in food supplements based on Cannabis sativa extracts. Some of the conclusions of the presentations included that correct food choices may impact on the risk of non-communicable diseases such as cancer, that food processing may have an influence on health, by either reducing or increasing risks, and that research regarding novel compounds is important, which may have preventive but also detrimental effects on health.
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Coffee By-Products as Sustainable Novel Foods: Report of the 2nd International Electronic Conference on Foods—“Future Foods and Food Technologies for a Sustainable World”
Foods 2022, 11(1), 3; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11010003
The coffee plant Coffea spp. offers much more than the well-known drink made from the roasted coffee bean. During its cultivation and production, a wide variety of by-products are accrued, most of which are currently unused, thermally recycled, or used as fertilizer or animal feed. Modern, ecologically oriented society attaches great importance to sustainability and waste reduction, so it makes sense to not dispose of the by-products of coffee production but to bring them into the value chain, most prominently as foods for human nutrition. There is certainly huge potential for all of these products, especially on markets not currently accessible due to restrictions, such as the novel food regulation in the European Union. The by-products could help mitigate the socioeconomic burden of coffee farmers caused by globally low coffee prices and increasing challenges due to climate change. The purpose of the conference session summarized in this article was to bring together international experts on coffee by-products and share the current scientific knowledge on all plant parts, including leaf, cherry, parchment and silverskin, covering aspects from food chemistry and technology, nutrition, but also food safety and toxicology. The topic raised a huge interest from the audience and this article also contains a Q&A section with more than 20 answered questions.
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