NUTRITIONAL SECURITY
Chairs:
Angelo Santino – CNR – ISPA-Lecce, IT Monika Schreiner – IGZEV, DE, Katia Petroni,- Univ Milano, IT & Theresa Fitzpatrick – Univ. Geneva, CH
This working group includes Plant and Animal research Chairs:
Odd Arne Rognli – NMBU, NO – Iain Donnison & Alison Kingston-Smith – IBER, Univ of Aberystwyth, UK
Activities:
This Working Group will address one of the most important challenges for the next fifty years – to reduce the impact of chronic disease.
The worldwide spread of unhealthy eating practices is increasing alarmingly and experts warn of increased mortality from associated chronic diseases. Diets rich in plant-based foods are strongly associated with reducing these risks. However, as yet, the constituents in plants that promote health have proved difficult to identify with certainty, thereby making the precision of dietary recommendations uncertain.
Scientists want to contribute. It is essential for plant scientists to build multidisciplinary interactions with researchers in nutrition and chronic diseases pathology in order to contribute novel insight into which foods reduce the risk of chronic disease and how these foods work to impact human health and reduce some of the complexity of the diet-health relationship. This was the focus of the EPSO workshop “Plant Pigments and Human Health” on May 2011, which was highly appreciated by all participants and gave rise to this working group.
In particular, plant biochemistry can make significant contributions to the identification and measurement of many metabolites in plant-based foods, especially phytonutrients known to promote health. From this, plant genetics and metabolic engineering can be used to make foods that differ only in their content of specific phytonutrients.
Meetings:
Workshops to discuss contributions from plant science to Food 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals. The most recent workshop took place online on 4th December 2023. The next workshop will take place in Lecce (IT) and online, in April-May 2025 (tba).
EPSO news developed by this WG:
Members:
Borjana Arsova – Jülich, DE
Susanne Baldermann – IGZ, DE
Elena Bitocchi – UNIVPM, IT
Tilman Brueck – IGZ, DE
Massimiliano Corso, INRAE, FR
Araceli Diaz-Perales – CBGP (UPM-INIA/CSIC), ES
Theresa Fitzpatrick – Univ. Geneva, CH
Wolfram Weckwerth- Univ. Vienna, AT
Caroline Labrie – WUR, NL
Carolyn Lister, PFR, NZ
Antonio Masi – Univ. Padova, IT
Karin Metzlaff – EPSO
Edward Muntean, USAMV Cluj Napoca, RO
Joan Narciso, ETHZ, CH
Silvana Nicola, Univ Torino, IT
Claudia Nunes dos Santos – ITQB, PT
Deborah Pacetti – UNIVPM, IT
Francesco Paolocci – CNR-IGV-Perugia, IT
Katia Petroni – Univ. Milano, IT
Roberto Pinton – Univ. Udine, IT
Giuseppe Puglia, CNR, IT
Angelo Santino – CNR – ISPA-Lecce, IT
Teresa Serra – IBET, PT
Monika Schreiner – IGZ, DE
Carmen Socaciu – Univ. Cluj, RO
Derek Stewart – Hutton Institute, UK
Chiara Tonelli – Univ. Milano, IT
Bjorn Usadel – Jülich, DE
Marta Vasconcelos – UCP, PT
Trine Hvoslef-Eide – Norwegian Univ. Life Sciences, Ås, NO
Manuel Gonzalez-Guerrero – CBGP (UPM-INIA/CSIC), ES
Observers:
Mark Chapman – Univ. Southampton
Rebeca Fernandez – FoodDrinkEurope, BE
Alain Goossens – VIB – UGent, BE
Sebastien Thomine – I2BC, FR