VLAG FLASH - June 2010, Edition 29
On the 10th of April, finally the day arrived. The PhD students from the Food Physics group went to Japan for a PhD trip, accompanied by the staff members.
This trip was intended as an experience with scientific, cultural and social aspects. It was an opportunity for PhD students to get in contact with colleagues from another part of the world and exchange experiences. Also we increased and exchanged knowledge, established new contacts and explored future collaborations.
On Monday, April 12th, we visited Prof. Mitsutoshi Nakajima at Tsukuba University, who had been so kind to organise a mini-symposium and welcome party for us, together with Dr. Isao Kobayashi, from National Food Research Institute (NFRI). Topics included food nanotechnology, rice based microstructures, reversible electroporation and microfluidics.
Tuesday, 13th of April, we visited several NFRI labs, such as the food physics lab, where we saw a demonstration on mastication studies, the instrumentation and information engineering lab, where they had a tool to determine the ripeness of fruits and the advanced food technology lab with multiple micro-emulsification devices.
Wednesday, 14th of April, we went to Morinaga Milk, where we gave some presentations and listened to a few presentations by them about probiotics and whipping of cream.
Thursday, 15th of April, we went to Tokyo University of Agriculture where the main topic of the day was cereals.
Friday, 16th of April, we visited Sapporo Breweries, where we learned that research in a beer company can go much further than beer. They are working on the development of hop water extract which can be used to reduce pollen allergies and also on microencapsulation. After that we had a factory tour and we ended the day with a dinner party.
After a relaxing weekend which was spent in the area of Mt. Fuji by some and in Kyoto by others we were ready for the second week.
On Monday 19th of April, we visited Gifu University who organised a mini-symposium. Topics included the preparation of microcapsules using micro-channel emulsification and thermodynamically-based evaluation method of whipped cream texture. After the presentations we had a lab tour.
We spent Tuesday, 20th of April sightseeing and shopping for souvenirs in Kyoto.
Wednesday, 21st of April we visited Kyoto University, where we enjoyed a mini-symposium. We listened to a talk about destabilization of protein-based emulsions and another one about aromachology of lavender volatiles. After the presentations, we had a poster session, lab tour and party. We finished the day in a karaoke bar with Japanese students.
Thursday, 22nd of April, we travelled to Osaka to visit the food ingredient company, San-Ei-Gen where we had some presentations about mastication and swallowing, rare sugars and flavor release.
We can look back to an interesting trip, where we learned a lot about science and culture. We are very grateful to our hosts for all the effort in organising the program and also to our sponsors to make it possible to go to Japan.
Best regards,
On behalf of the group,
Elisabete Silva, Jerome Paques and Silvia van Kempen
