FCH went North (2014)

From 26th October until the 9th of November 2014, the PhD students from the Laboratory of Food Chemistry went on a study trip to Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Together with Prof Harry Gruppen and Dr.Ir. Mirjam Kabel, the PhDs visited food companies, research institutes and universities to gain insight in how food science is done in these Northern countries. The group visited a total of 6 universities, 3 research institutes, 10 companies, and the Food Tech Fair 2014. All visits had an excellent scientific programme that sparked many discussions. A typical visit consisted of scientific presentations by the hosts and the visiting group from Wageningen, as well as lab tours, food tasting and poster sessions.

The PhD trip 2014 started in Wageningen on Sunday 26th of October. The first stop was Hamburg, where the group visited the PepsiCo Juice and Fruit Innovation Centre and the specialty starch company Ingredion. The next day the group travelled North to visit the University of Kiel, where a symposium and poster session were held. In Neumunster the group visited KIN, a food technology education institute. The first stop in Denmark was the city of Aarhus. Here, the group visited one of the main R&D locations of the dairy company Arla, as well as the Nutrition and Health department of DuPont. The Animal Science department of the University of Aarhus welcomed the group with an interesting visit to the pig and rat farms, where their animal studies are performed. After Aarhus, the group drove to Herning to visit the annual Food Tech Fair. During five days, Copenhagen became the next base camp of the PhD trip. The group visited the Danish Technological University and Copenhagen University, which are the main universities. Furthermore, programmes were shared with the Carlsberg Research Centre and the companies Novozymes and CpKelco. To close the first week of PhD trip, the group had a tour through the old city of Roskilde, with its famous exhibition of Viking ships.

In the second week, the group made a daytrip to Sweden to visit the University of Lund and Tetra Pack. Later on, the entire group packed their things and took the plane to Helsinki, where they spent the last days of the trip. In Finland, the group shared a programme with the University of Helsinki, including a Mexican dinner with their students and researchers. The food companies Valio (dairy) and Fazer (confectionary) were also part of the visits in this Scandinavian country, as well as the VTT Research Institute.

In the end, Prof. Gruppen spoke in high terms of the programme organized and the great team spirit among the group. For sure, this was not the last PhD trip of the students of the Laboratory of Food Chemistry.

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Food Chemistry as a guest of the Danish dairy company Arla Foods in Aarhus, Denmark.