iFOOD 2019: Advancing food security, safety, and sustainability in Singapore

18 January 2019, NTU, Singapore

Organized by NTU (NAFTEC-NTU Food Technology Centre),

SMART (Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology) and

AVA (Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore)

Scope: Following the success of iFood 2017 conference on “Food for the Future", our iFood 2019 will

focus on “Advancing food security, safety, and sustainability in Singapore”. We will bring industry

leaders to this workshop to discuss the innovation challenges and customer demands they are

facing so that academic researchers can more adequately address these needs with their

research.

Global food security can be threatened by many interrelated factors, which includes food safety,

food fraud and sustainability of the food production system. Food is unsafe for consumption when

it is contaminated by disease-causing bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemicals during production,

processing, distribution, storage or preparation. It is estimated that the consumption of unsafe

food caused 600 million and 420,000 deaths in 2010 globally. Similar to food safety, food fraud

is also a widespread global problem and it is costing the global food industry $49 billion annually.

The incidence of food fraud has grown over the last years, which includes a number of widely

reported food scandals that have led to reduced consumer confidence in the food industry. At the

same time, some are voicing the concern of our capacity to produce enough food for the world in

the future. The real problem is not if we will be able to produce enough food, the problem is if we

will be able to produce this food in a sustainable way.

Singapore’s food and beverage industry contributes S$14.4 billion to GDP and employs nearly

300,000 people, larger than industries such as speciality chemicals, petrochemicals, medical

technology and land transport engineering. A total of S$210 million on food R&D was spent in

2013. There is great opportunity to multiply this, by further focusing on high value and answering

the food related challenges that we have in the coming decades, and by this, strengthening

Singapore as a world centre for advanced food.

This 1-day conference aims to discuss food safety and food fraud prevention and innovations

focused on advances in sustainable farming. Prominent plenary speakers from world-renowned

institutions and industries in the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific will be featured, thus

providing a platform for participants to interact and communicate with leading experts in the food

science and engineering fields.

The organizing committee, NTU (NAFTEC-NTU Food Technology Centre), SMART (Singapore-

MIT Alliance for Research and Technology) and AVA (Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of

Singapore) welcome you to Singapore and look forward to your participation in this conference.

PROGRAMME SCHEDULE

18 January 2019, Friday Lecture Theatre 5 (LT5), NTU North Spine Block NS2, NS2-02-07

Theme 1 – Food Safety and Food Fraud Prevention (Chair: Prof Mary Chan)

8:30 - 9:00 Registration 9:00 - 9:10 Opening by Prof Tim White (Associate Vice President-Infrastructure

and Programmes, NTU; Professor, NTU, Singapore) 9:10 - 10:25 Prof Retsef Levi (Professor, MIT, USA)

Title of Presentation: Systemic Risk Management of Food Supply Chains

Prof Joergen Schlundt (Professor, NTU, Singapore) Title of Presentation: Why do We Need Integrated Control Systems for Food Safety and Food Fraud?

Prof Terence Lau (Director, Innovation and Technology Development, HK PolyU, Hong Kong) Title of Presentation: Addressing Emerging Food Safety Challenges through Multidisciplinary Research and Innovation

10:25 - 10:45 Tea break 10:45 -12:25 Prof Michael Strano (Professor, MIT, USA)

Title of Presentation: Nanosensor Technology and Food Security

Prof Anders Dalsgaard (Professor, University of Copenhagen, Denmark) Title of Presentation: Antimicrobial Use in Asian Aquaculture: Food Safety Aspects and Challenges Faced at Export Markets

Dr Peiying Chuan (Deputy Director, Innovations in Food & Chemical Safety Programme, ASTAR, Singapore) Title of Presentation: Non-animal Alternative Methods: Their Development and Potential Applications in Food Safety

Prof Philip Demokritou (A/Professor, Harvard University, USA) Title of Presentation: Engineered Water Nanostructures: A Nanotechnology Based Antimicrobial Platform for Food Safety and Beyond

12:25 - 13:00 Panel discussion (Chair: Prof Patricia Conway) 1. Prof Retsef Levi (Professor, MIT, USA) 2. Prof Joergen Schlundt (Professor, NTU, Singapore) 3. Prof Terence Lau (Director, Innovation and Technology Development,

HK PolyU, Hong Kong) 4. Prof Michael Strano (Professor, MIT, USA) 5. Prof Anders Dalsgaard (Professor, University of Copenhagen,

Denmark) 6. Dr Benjamin Smith (Director, Innovations in Food & Chemical Safety

Programme, ASTAR, Singapore) 7. Prof Philip Demokritou (A/Professor, Harvard University, USA) 8. Ms Nicola Kerslake (Founder, Newbean Capital & Contain Inc and Co-

Founder Contain Inc, USA) 9. Prof Trevor C. Charles (Professor, Department of Biology, University of

Waterloo, Canada) 13:00 - 14:00 Lunch

PROGRAMME SCHEDULE – continued

18 January 2019, Friday Lecture Theatre 5 (LT5), NTU North Spine Block NS2, NS2-02-07

Theme 2 – Advances in Sustainable Farming (Chair: Dr Charles Swofford)

14:00 - 15:15 Dr David Appleton (Vice President, Sime Darby Plantation R&D, Malaysia) Title of Presentation: Sustainable Palm Oil Production: How can Science Help?

Ms Sonia Lo (CEO, Crop One Holdings, Inc, USA) Title of Presentation: Digital Distributed Agriculture - the Future of Food

Dr Oliver May (Corporate Scientist, DSM Innovation Center, The Netherlands) Title of Presentation: Enabling Better Food for Everyone

15:15 - 15:35 Tea break

15:35 - 17:15 Mr Joep Klein Staarman (CEO, Barramundi Asia, Singapore) Title of Presentation: Barramundi Farming in a Changing Environment

Dr Deepak Raghothaman (Science Manager, Ferrero Asia Pacific, Singapore) Title of Presentation: Improving Traceability and Sustainable Sourcing of Key Raw Materials

Prof Dan Li (Assistant Professor, NUS, Singapore) Title of Presentation: Microbial Safety of Urban Farming

Prof Mary Chan (Professor, NTU; Director, NAFTEC, Singapore) Title of Presentation: Disinfection and Bacterial Treatments with Cationic Safe Agents

17:15 - 17:45 Panel discussion (Chair: Prof Anthony J Sinskey) 1. Ms Sonia Lo (CEO, Crop One Holdings, Inc, USA) 2. Dr Deepak Raghothaman (Science Manager, Ferrero Asia Pacific,

Singapore) 3. Mr Joep Klein Staarman (CEO, Barramundi Asia, Singapore)--TBC 4. Prof Dan Li (Assistant Professor, NUS, Singapore) 5. Prof Mary Chan (Professor, NTU; Director, NAFTEC, Singapore)

17:45 - 18:00 Closing Remark

End of Programme

Retsef Levi

Professor, MIT, USA

Retsef Levi is the J. Spencer Standish (1945) Professor of

Operations Management at the MIT Sloan School of

Management. He is a member of the Operations Management

Group at MIT Sloan and affiliated with the MIT Operations

Research Center. Levi also serves as the Faculty Co-Director of

the MIT Leaders for Global Operations (LGO).

Before coming to MIT, he spent a year in the Department of

Mathematical Sciences at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

as the holder of the Goldstine Postdoctoral Fellowship. He

received a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from Tel-Aviv

University (Israel) in 2001, and a PhD in Operations Research

from Cornell University in 2005. Levi spent almost 12 years in the

Israeli Defense Forces as an officer in the Intelligence Wing and

was designated as an Extra Merit Officer. After leaving the

Military, Levi joined and emerging new Israeli hi-tech company

as a Business Development Consultant.

Systemic Risk Management of Food Supply Chains

In this talk, we will discuss how food supply chain analysis and analytics could be leveraged to

obtain fundamental insights and develop predictive risk analytics models that inform the

management of economically motivated adulteration (EMA) risks. In particular, we will discuss

how transparency into various risk drivers of the corresponding food supply chains (e.g., supply

chain structure, product characteristics, socio-economic & environmental conditions, etc.) can

be leveraged to develop predictive models and decision support tools, allowing proactive

identification and prioritization of risks.

Joergen Schlundt

Professor, NTU, Singapore

Joergen Schlundt has a DVM and Ph.D. from Copenhagen

University in Denmark. He has worked nationally and

internationally on food safety and security, including 11 years as

Director Department for Food Safety and Zoonoses at the World

Health Organization, and 4 years as Director National Food

Institute in Denmark. He has initiated the WHO/FAO International

Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN) and the first global

assessment of the foodborne disease burden, and participated in

the international development of food safety Risk analysis

principles, as well as international evaluations of the importance

of antibiotic use in agriculture. He chairs the Global Microbial

Identifier, an international initiative suggesting a global database

of DNA-sequences of all microorganisms.

Why do we need integrated control systems for food safety and food fraud?

Two of the biggest (global) food fraud scandals have occurred within the last 10 years. The

melamine scandal in China in 2008, resulted in the hospitalisation of more than 300,000

children, and the death of at least six infants. The horse-meat scandal in Europe in 2013

resulted in the eradication of certain brands (e.g. FINDUS) in some regions. This scandal was

not really about safety (although a specific veterinary drug used for horses is not acceptable in

food).

At a Meeting in Singapore in 2016, the INFOSAN (WHO/FAO International Food Safety

Authorities Network) suggested that food fraud issues be dealt with within existing food safety

systems. This is crucial because some fraud cases clearly link to safety (melamine), but also

because it is not always possible to immediately decide whether a contamination has a

random/natural cause or is in effect a case of fraud. There are examples (e.g. EU Food Fraud

Network) of the creation of separate reporting systems for food fraud incidents, but most

international developments are towards an integration of food safety and food fraud prevention

systems.

Terence Lau

Director, Innovation and

Technology Development,

HK PolyU, Hong Kong

Dr Terence Lau is the Director of Innovation and Technology

Development of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU).

He also serves as Adjunct Professor at the PolyU’s Department

of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, Convener of the

Food Safety Consortium, Founding Chair and currenlty Board

Member of the DISH Global Centre for Food Safety and Quality,

as well as Vice President of Hong Kong Food Safety Association.

Terence has 20 years of experience on development and

commercialization of innovative technological products

especially in the area of molecular diagnostics. He has been

serving a number of Governmental and organizational

committees such as Expert Committee on Antimicrobial

Resistance, Small and Medium Enterprise Committee,

Enterprise Support Scheme of HKSAR Government and also

National Committee on Biometrology of China. He is appointed

Senior Advisor of a food safety project in China led by the United

Nations Office for Project Services, Advisor of Infectious Disease

Centre of Peking University, Adjunct Investigator of Jilin

Academy of Agricultural Science. Terence has co‐authored a

number of peer‐reviewed scientific articles and is the co‐inventor

of over 60 patents. He has also co‐developed 5 Chinese National

Standards. Dr Lau is the recipient of Beijing Municipal

Technology Award and Chinese Medical and Technological

Award.

Addressing Emerging Food Safety Challenges through Multidisciplinary Research and

Innovation

Academia and research institutes often house the most cutting-edge research and is often

where innovative ideas are ignited. In identifying breakthroughs to address emerging food

safety challenges, a holistic mindset and an environment conducive to the integration of global

trends and needs, domain knowledge, innovative technologies such as genomics, IoT, big data,

block chain, artificial intelligence, etc., regulatory considerations, enhanced consumer trust and

other factors are indispensable to enhance food safety and quality for the global community.

For the academia to cope with shifting research landscapes in food safety, more collaborative

projects encompassing different technology areas are in place, and universities are

establishing central facilities which support research in various disciplines, thus changing from

the traditionally more vertical to integrated approach in facilitating academic research to suit

societal needs. This is especially important in dealing with food safety and food fraud issues

owing to the scale and complexity of our food supply chain, and the immense social and

economic cost arising from these issues. Ensuring comprehensive considerations, effective

integration of the most cutting edge technologies from relevant fields will contribute towards

safe and authentic food.

Michael Strano

Professor, MIT, USA

Professor Michael S. Strano is currently the Carbon P. Dubbs

Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received is B.S from

Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, NY and Ph.D. from the

University of Delaware both in Chemical Engineering. He was a

post doctoral research fellow at Rice University in the

departments of Chemistry and Physics under the guidance of

Nobel Laureate Richard E. Smalley. From 2003 to 2007, Michael

was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and

Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-

Champaign before moving to MIT. His research focuses on

biomolecule/nanoparticle interactions and the surface chemistry

of low dimensional systems, nano-electronics, nanoparticle

separations, and applications of vibrational spectroscopy to

nanotechnology.

Michael is the recipient of numerous awards for his work,

including a 2005 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists

and Engineers, a 2006 Beckman Young Investigator Award, the

2006 Coblentz Award for Molecular Spectroscopy, the Unilever

Award from the American Chemical Society in 2007 for

excellence in colloidal science, and the 2008 Young Investigator

Award from the Materials Research Society and the 2008 Allen

P. Colburn Award from the American Institute of Chemical

Engineers. From 2014 to 2015 he served as member of the

Defense Science Study Group, and is currently an editor for the

journals Carbon and Protocols in Chemical Biology. Michael was

elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2017.

Nanosensor Technology and Food Security

To be provided.

Anders Dalsgaard

Professor, University of

Copenhagen, Denmark

Anders Dalsgaard is a Professor in Veterinary Public Health at the

Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of

Copenhagen. He studied foodborne bacterial pathogens in

shrimp culture in southern Thailand in the early 1990’ies for his

PhD and has since then conducted a number of food safety

studies in Asian countries with a particular focus on aquaculture,

e.g. in Vietnam and China. He has been a member of several

FAO-WHO expert groups on food safety hazards. He is the author

of more than 225 articles published in international peer-reviewed

journals and has supervised 15 Asian PhD students.

Antimicrobial Use in Asian Aquaculture: Food Safety Aspects and Challenges Faced at

Export Markets

Global seafood provides almost 20% of all animal protein in diets, and aquaculture is the fastest

growing food sector worldwide with Asian countries being main producers, consumers and

exporters. The rapid expansion of Asian aquaculture has been achieved through intensification

of existing farming systems with high disease risks. Thus antimicrobials often of inferior quality

are widely used (AMU). This may compromise treatment of bacterial diseases, cause

antimicrobial residues in consumed products and human health risks, e.g. allergic reactions.

Reported incidences of antimicrobial residues in imported aquaculture products show that

some countries, e.g. Vietnam, experience more cases of residue findings as compared to more

mature and innovative aquaculture countries, e.g. Thailand. AMU may also increase risks of

transferring resistant zoonotic bacterial pathogens and resistance (AMR) genes to humans. In

contrast to other meat products however, fish and shrimp products are repeatedly exposed to

water during processing with a likely major change in the original bacterial flora. Thus, AMR in

such products is unlikely to originate from aquaculture environments and it is unknown to what

extent aquaculture may contribute to the human health AMR problems. Suitable routine

indicators and measurements of AMR in seafood are needed as traditional indicators of AMR,

i.e. E. coli and enterococci, are not part of the normal bacterial flora in aquaculture.

Comprehensive databases, knowledge and mitigation of drivers of AMU and AMR in Asian

aquaculture are needed as are genomic approaches to assess transfer and contribution of

AMR from aquaculture to humans. There are signs that AMU has damaged the brand and

reputation of Asian aquaculture and immediate actions are needed.

Peiying Chuan

Deputy Director,

Innovations in Food &

Chemical Safety

Programme, ASTAR,

Singapore

Dr Chuan Peiying is Deputy Director of the Innovations in Food

and Chemical Safety (IFCS) Programme at Singapore’s Agency

for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). The

Programme’s remit is to develop novel methods and approaches

to assess the safety and toxicity of chemicals, particularly those

to be introduced to market. Particular emphasis is given to

building 21st century risk assessment strategies which both

minimise the use of animals and increase human relevance and

accuracy of risk predictions, as well as their acceptance and

application by industry and competent authorities.

Peiying graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BSc

in Bioengineering, after which she went on to pursue her PhD in

Biochemistry at Stanford University. She spent 2 years as a

postdoctoral fellow at the Microfluidics Systems Biology

laboratory at A*STAR’s Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology. In

2012, she joined A*STAR Headquarters and has rotated through

divisions including the Biomedical Research Council and the Joint

Council Office. With the Food & Consumer cluster under the

Biomedical Research Council, and was responsible for seeding

and nurturing A*STAR’s efforts in the safety sciences. Peiying has

been Deputy Director with the IFCS Programme since its

establishment in 2018.

Non-animal alternative methods: Their development and potential applications in food

safety

The A*STAR Innovations in Food and Chemical Safety (IFCS) Programme takes a multi-

disciplinary approach to help advance the science of chemical risk assessment with fit-for-

purpose non-animal tools. Working closely with industry and regulators, both local and

international, we look to develop, validate, and accelerate the adoption of novel approaches for

predictive toxicology, and improve food and chemical safety frameworks.

This presentation will discuss current issues and opportunities in food safety assessment, as

well as provide a brief overview of research initiatives that are being undertaken by the A*STAR

IFCS Programme, a number of which are in collaboration with industry and regulatory bodies.

In order to improve health risk assessment of food products, it is important to increase our

knowledge of the mechanisms behind the toxic effects of compounds, as well as of actual

exposure levels. Sensory irritation and protein allergenicity are also of concern, as is the toxicity

of nanomaterials that are increasingly finding their way into the food chain. The in vitro and in

silico models being developed under the A*STAR IFCS Programme offer new opportunities for

us to fill these gaps in our knowledge.

Philip Demokritou

Associate Professor,

Harvard University,

USA

Dr Demokritou is currently the Director of two interdisciplinary

research centers at Harvard University: The NIH/NIEHS-funded

Nanosafety Research Center (www.hsph.harvard.edu/nanosafety)

and the Center for Nanotechnology and Nanotoxicology at

(www.hsph.harvard.edu/nano). He is also currently the co-director of

the Nanyang Technological University – Harvard T.H. Chan School of

Public Health Initiative for Sustainable Nanotechnology. He also

served as a co-PI of the Harvard- EPA PM Health Effect Center (1999-

2010, US EPA star grant) and participated in the development of

graduate level degree programs in the area of environmental health.

He served as PI, co-PI, or co-investigator on several grants funded by

NIH, EPA, NIOSH, NSF, USDA/NIFA, CPSC, and EU research

framework (FP7). He holds eight international/US patents and

inventions. He is a co-author of two books, numerous book chapters,

and more than 125 articles in leading journals in nanoscience, particle

health effect, and aerosol engineering fields. Dr Demokritou’s

innovative research was highlighted in major mainstream media and

online magazines, including articles published in the Economist,

NanoWerk, Chemistry World, The Scientist, ACS C&EN News, MIT

News, Harvard Gazette, and NPR news. Dr Demokritou is currently

an associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and a

founding coeditor in chief of NanoImpact (Elsevier), a journal that

focuses on all aspects of nanosafety research.

Engineered Water Nanostructures: A nanotechnology based antimicrobial platform

for food safety and beyond

The rapid expansion of nanotechnology is a powerful scientific and economic force. However,

how we balance the potential benefits of nanotechnology with the potential environmental

health and safety (EHS) hazards from new and often inadequately characterized materials

and products remains a challenge. Sustainable nanotechnology is an emerging field of

interdisciplinary research that focuses on the development of “green” and “safer-by-design,”

less toxic nanomaterials and technologies that can be used to tackle major societal challenges

in various fields including food safety and security. This seminar will present highlights from

the development of a ‘dry,’ green, nano-carrier platform for targeted and precision delivery of

nature-derived antimicrobials for food safety applications using engineered water

nanostructures (EWNS); (Note: This research was funded by the US National Institutes of

Health [NIH] and United States Department of Agriculture [USDA]).

Benjamin Smith

Director, Innovations in

Food & Chemical Safety

Programme, ASTAR,

Singapore

Ben Smith is the newly appointed Director for the Food and

Chemical Safety Programme at the Agency for Science,

Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore’s lead

government agency for innovation. He joins A*STAR from the

specialty ingredients industry where he was Vice President of the

Toxicology & Scientific Services group for the Swiss flavour and

fragrance company Firmenich S.A. In this role, he acted as

Firmenich’s chief safety scientist and headed a team responsible

for the safety assessment of new ingredients and technologies.

Initially trained as a toxicologist and chemist he started his

studies in environmental toxicology before switching his focus to

applied toxicology. Nowadays his research efforts are focused on

developing and improving safety and risk assessment methods

for chemicals. He is particularly interested in the integration of

non-animal testing methods into the safety assessment approach

for food and consumer product ingredients (both screening and

in silico techniques), better understanding of the role of

thresholds for genotoxic substances in food and the improvement

of flavor and food additive intake models.

Nicola Kerslake

Founder, Newbean Capital

& Contain Inc and Co-

Founder Contain Inc, USA

Nicola is the founder of Newbean Capital, a registered

investment adviser that manages early stage venture capital

mandates, such as, the Battle Born Venture mandate which

invests in early stage Nevadan companies on behalf of the US

Treasury. She has substantial interests in indoor agriculture, as

the founder of Contain Inc., an alternate finance business

dedicated to indoor growers. It works with leading equipment

suppliers to arrange lease finance, and – through leading

regional broker InterWest Insurance - insurance.

Previously, she founded Indoor Ag-Con, the premier event

business in the space, focusing on crop-agnostic technology for

growing hydroponic, aquaponic and aeroponic systems in

warehouses, containers and greenhouses. As part of this

endeavour, she has authored ten white papers on the industry

that have been downloaded more than 10,000 times and have

been quoted in SEC filings. Newbean Capital disposed of Indoor

Ag-Con to three leading event industry professionals in

December 2018, marking one of the few successful exits in the

young indoor agriculture industry.

Nicola has spent more than 20 years in real assets investments

in Europe, Asia and the US. After spending time as a rated equity

analyst at ABN Amro Hoare Govett in London, she led a team of

equity analysts in Asia, achieving top 3 ratings in independent

analyst rankings. In the US, she has managed hedge fund

portfolios at a subsidiary of the Monitor Group and established

and managed private equity and real asset platforms for asset

management major SEI Investments. Her coverage sectors have

included traditional and renewable energy, chemicals, water,

agriculture, farmland, and forestland.

A graduate with honors of Magdalen College, Oxford, where she

studied politics, philosophy and economics, Nicola also holds

Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Alternative

Investment Analyst (CAIA) qualifications. Her work has been

featured in leading financial media, including the Wall Street

Journal and Financial Times.

More info:

Newbean Capital; newbeancapital.com

Indoor Ag-Con; indoor.ag

Contain Inc; contain.ag

Trevor C. Charles

Professor, Department of

Biology, University of

Waterloo, Canada

Trevor Charles, Ph.D., is co-founder and CSO of the company

Metagenom Bio, which applies metagenomic and microbiome

analysis to agricultural and environmental challenges. He is a

bacterial geneticist with a research program in plant-microbe

interactions, functional metagenomics, and bacterial genome

engineering for bioproducts. Following B.Sc. Microbiology at

University of British Columbia, he obtained his Ph.D. in Turlough

Finan’s lab at McMaster University (symbiotic nitrogen fixation)

and did postdoctoral work in Gene Nester’s lab at University of

Washington (Agrobacterium). He held a faculty position at McGill

University before moving to his current position at University of

Waterloo in 1998, where he is director of Waterloo Centre for

Microbial Research.

Joep Klein Staarman

CEO, Barramundi Asia,

Singapore

Joep is co-founder of Barramundi Asia. He has more than 30

years experience in aquaculture, with extensive knowledge of the

Asian Market. He specialises in establishing greenfield farms and

expanding them into new markets. He was the MD of Marine

Harvest Asia Pacific, where he managed the farms in Japan

(yellowtail) and Australia (Barramundi). Under Joep, Marine

Harvest Salmon sales reached 60,000 tons per year across Asia.

Joep was also the MD of Nutreco Japan, which he built from

scratch to become the 3rd largest fish feed player in Japan. Joep

is a graduate of Groningen University (BSc) and Wageningen

University (Msc) in the Netherlands.

Barramundi farming in a changing environment

Our world is going to change dramatically in the coming 3 decades.

Tropical seawater aquaculture is one of the promising routes for our food production in the an

age of global warming and fast increasing population

What R&D is needed to facilitate this?

Deepak Raghothaman

Science Manager, Ferrero

Asia Pacific, Singapore

Deepak Raghothaman is part of Ferrero’s Global Open

Innovation Science team since Jan 2017, leading Biotech and

Agriscience activities in Asia Pacific based out of Singapore

Innovation Centre. Prior to this, he was a Scientist at A*STAR,

working on stem cell bioprocessing and holds a PhD in

regenerative medicine from the School of Medicine, NUS,

Singapore.

Improving traceability and sustainable sourcing of key raw materials

Ferrero is an Italian sweet packaged food company specializing in confectionery with flagship

products such as Nutella, Kinder, Ferrero Rocher, Tic Tac, among others. Product freshness

and high quality, careful selection of raw materials, sustainable agricultural practices and

continuous research and innovation are some of the key elements of Ferrero’s success. Ferrero

Open Innovation Science team has global presence and Singapore hub holds a strategic focus

on APAC to build our partner ecosystem from early stage scientific discovery to scalable

industrial solutions. This talk will highlight Agriculture-related innovation focus and challenges

in developing new technology and supply chain partnerships to improve quality, traceability,

sustainable sourcing of key raw materials.

Dan LI

Assistant Professor, NUS,

Singapore

Dr Li Dan is an Assistant Professor in Food Science and

Technology at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She

obtained her Ph.D. in Applied Biological Science from Ghent

University, Belgium in 2012. Her research interests include

detection and mitigation of foodborne viruses, microbial safety of

urban agriculture systems, rapid detection of foodborne

pathogens and novel antimicrobial strategies

Microbial safety of urban farming

Urban agriculture systems have become more and more popular due to the shortage of farming

lands in many regions around the world including Singapore. Many fresh produce, especially

leafy green vegetables, are highly perishable and therefore local production is highly

appreciated in order to guarantee the freshness.

Fresh produce are known to harbor high microbial loads in general and have been identified

as an important vehicle for the transmission of foodborne pathogens. Traditionally, wildlife,

livestock, human activity, topography and climate, flooding, seed and crop selection, and prior

land use are influencing factors of microbial contamination of fresh produce. With the use of

urban agricultural systems, many factors can be completely or partially avoided such as wildlife,

livestock, flooding, etc. However, new possible microbial risks can be introduced due to, for

instance, closed-loop irrigation systems. Currently, there are still many unknown aspects

regarding the microbial safety of fresh produce, especially with the use of the urban agricultural

production systems.

Mary Chan

Professor, NTU, Singapore

Prof Chan obtained her BEng (Chem) and PhD (polymers) from

the National University of Singapore and MIT in 1986 and 1993

respectively. She is presently a professor at the School of

Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at the Nanyang

Technological University Singapore (NTU Singapore). Her main

research interests are in polymers in nanoscience and

biotechnology. She has published extensively, with more than

180 papers in top-tier journals such as Nature Materials,

Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, JACS,

Small, Biomaterials, etc. She has been the PI and co-PI of several

major projects. From 2008-2013, she was the lead PI of a multi-

PI Competitive Research Program on Manufacturability of

Carbon- Nanotube Printed Electronics ($10M). This research

develops a highly novel method of sorting single-walled carbon

nanotubes that is scalable and produces high purity and yield.

Professor Mary Chan contributes actively to the industry and sits

on a number of committees and boards.

Disinfection and bacterial treatments with cationic safe agents

To be provided.

iFood2019 Abstracts and Bios

iFood2019 website