VLAG FLASH - January 2007, Edition 6
Last October the PhD-students from the Food Chemistry department made a 2-week trip through Belgium, France and England. With a group of 18 persons we visited companies, institutes and universities. The main objective of this PhD-trip was to get a better idea of the research that is going on close around us and to make contacts for possible research collaborations in the future. During the trip some PhD students were even invited to a personal meeting about their topic, to stress the interest some companies indeed had in some of our presentations and work. Starting off with a visit to Alpro Soya in Wevelgem we learned everything about soy milk production and about the product development track they follow. Alpro Soya gave us a box with their products to take home; soy milk drinks with (for most of them) a surprisingly good taste, especially the forest fruit soy drink (all according to the 1 person sensorial test carried out by the author of this item). At Cargill in Vilvoorde and Roquette in Lille (both starch manufacturing companies) we were guided through their well equipped research and application labs, where everything from chewing gums and gummy bears to bakery products could be produced on a test scale. On Wednesday afternoon we went to Pernod Ricard in Paris for a drink (we thought or maybe hoped), which we only got to take home after the visit (not bad either). We had a nice discussion about our topics and they showed us around their quite extensive research facilities. The last day in France we visited Degussa, a food thickener producing company. We were welcomed with a very interesting presentation on various thickeners with all the examples ready to be tested. In this way we got a very good impression of which one of their products should be used for which applications. On Friday evening we took the boat to England and we stayed for the weekend in Reading. On Saturday we visited London and saw most of the highlights of the city and on Sunday we made a boat trip on the Thames and visited Windsor Castle. In England we visited the universities of Reading and Nottingham and also the Institute of Food Research in Norwich. On all 3 visits a small symposium was organised with a poster session. The poster session gave a good opportunity to meet other PhD students and discuss our research topics with them. On Tuesday afternoon we visited Campden Chorleywood Food Research Association (CCFRA) and were welcomed with a very interesting presentation about the details of checking (breaking) of biscuits and following the bread baking process in the oven during baking. After our presentations a quick run through the labs followed.
After all we can look back at a nice PhD-trip during which we have learned a lot about the food industry and the food research conducted in our neighbouring countries. Besides the fact that we had a nice trip from a scientific and cultural point of view, it was also a good opportunity to get to know each other better. Not all of us work in the same place and lately we have also welcomed a number of new PhD students in the food chemistry department.
