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DOI: 10.1039/D0FO90033H (Editorial) Food Funct., 2020, 11, 9316-9316

8th International symposium on delivery of functionality in complex food systems (DOF 2019)

António A. Vicente *a, Mike Boland *b and Yoav D. Livney *c
aCentre of Biological Engineering, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal. E-mail: avicente@deb.uminho.pt
bRiddet Institute, Massey University, Private Bag 11222, Palmerston North, New Zealand. E-mail: M.Boland@massey.ac.nz
cLab. of Biopolymers for Food and Health, Faculty of Biotechnology & Food Engineering, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, 3200003, Israel. E-mail: livney@technion.ac.il

The timeless statement “tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are”, written by Brillat-Savarin in 1825 in one of the most important early books on digestion, The Physiology of Taste, these days addresses new and exciting perspectives. Accumulating research makes us realize that in order to be healthy, we must ensure our food delivers health-promoting nutrients and bioactive components that are ideally tailored to our individual needs.

Functional foods, recognized now for several decades, are those that deliver health benefits beyond our basic nutritional needs. The numerous challenges facing food scientists and technologists include identifying effective nutraceuticals, extracting them, protecting them against damage during processing, shelf life and digestion, and enhancing their bioavailability and bioefficacy, without adversely affecting the food product’s safety and sensory properties.

A rising number of publications in the field describe innovative ways to deliver the benefits of natural bioactives in foods, and particularly in processed foods, making these benefits much more widely available. Presenting and discussing this progress has been the purpose of the “delivery of functionality in complex food systems” (DOF) series of symposia.

The DOF symposia have brought together, throughout the years, an interdisciplinary array of scientists from different research areas (food science and engineering, biophysics, applied soft matter physics, food technology, applied human nutrition), young and established researchers from academia, and professionals from the industry and regulatory agencies. They have gathered from various places around the world to discuss and learn about the most recent findings in the field, and to advance the development of functional foods.

The 8th international symposium on “delivery of functionality in complex food systems”, held in Porto, Portugal, from 7th to 10th July 2019, featured three main themes:

- Food structures for delivery of functionality;

- Safety and efficacy of delivery systems;

- Healthy food design: is multi-functionality the right way forward?

Topics such as the personalized nutrition approach, natural and biomimetic food systems and food synergy to deliver functionality were addressed during the sessions. This collection brings together some of the work presented in the 49 talks and over 100 posters (representing a total of 30 countries) during the event.

We thank the authors for their contributions, and the RSC for coordinating publication.

This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2020
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