MEETinLEEDS is delighted to announce that Leeds has been chosen to host the 17th Food Colloids Conference, which will take place 8th – 11th April 2018. For this year’s conference, MEETinLEEDS will be collaborating with the School of Food and Nutrition, bringing together the very best conferencing spaces and a host of academic events. The biennial conference will see an estimated 300 delegates from 29 nations across the world attend the University of Leeds to expand and exchange knowledge in Food Colloids.

MEETinLEEDS, the conference facilities of the University of Leeds, will welcome the event, which begins at the iconic Parkinson Building at the University of Leeds on the 8th April and ends with a York sightseeing experience followed by a conference dinner at the National Railway Museum on the 11th April. Food Colloids is a highly interdisciplinary science dealing with the physical chemistry of food. The purpose of the conference is to expand and exchange knowledge of state-of-the-art science and recent research advancements in Food Colloids, with this year’s theme being the “Application of Soft Matter Concepts”.

Founded in 1986 in Leeds, the conference has since been held in many destinations across the globe, including Sweden, France and Spain. It now returns to the UK for the first time in 14 years, last being held in Harrogate in 2004. MEETinLEEDS, alongside the School of Food and Nutrition, successfully won the bid to bring the conference back to Leeds at the 16th Food Colloids conference, which was held in the Netherlands.

This April’s conference will include 5 key themes, led by 5 keynote speakers, which include interfacial design; relating structure to properties (macro-meso-micro-nano); colloidal aspects of eating and digestion; biopolymer interactions and processing of novel structures of functionality. There will also be 43 oral presentations, two technical talks, and exhibitions of scientific equipment. The conference is supported by two leading scientific journals, Colloids and Surface A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects published by Elsevier and Food & Function published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, and a range of well-known brands from Nestle Research to Arla will also be attending.

Leeds’ extreme strength in the Food Colloids sector helped MEETinLEEDS win the bid, with the city being home to the biggest Food Colloids and Processing academic group in Europe. The Food Colloids Group at the University of Leeds is internationally acclaimed for its interdisciplinary research worldwide, ranked first in Europe and third in the World according to field-weighted citation impact in Food Colloids, making it an ideal location for the conference destination.

Dr Anwesha Sarkar, Associate Professor of Food Colloids at the School of Food Science & Nutrition in the University of Leeds, lead organizer of this conference commented: “We are excited to be returning to Leeds for the 17th year of the Food Colloids Conference. We hope to leave a legacy with this conference, to leave delegates not only excited but curious about Food Colloids research moving forwards. The event also offers the ideal environment for networking between a broad range of industrial and academic experts, from students beginning their career to the pioneers in the field. Delegates from across the globe will gather to generate new ideas and aim to provoke scientific advancement.”

Harriet Boatwright, Sales & Marketing Manager at the MEETinLeeds, added: “Attracting such a high profile conference is demonstrative of not only the success of the work in our School of Food and Nutrition but also the conference offer on the University of Leeds’ campus. Working in tandem with our academic colleagues in Food and Nutrition, we very much look forward to showcasing our venues alongside the great things presented by colleagues across the discipline – from Leeds and internationally across the globe.”

Adam Parry
Author: Adam Parry

Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com Adam, a technology evangelist also organises Event Tech Live, Europe’s only show dedicated to event technology and the Event Technology Awards. Both events take place in November, London.