Seminar measuring food quality: concepts, methods and challenges : Monday 12th, Tuesday 13th and Wednesday 14th of February 2007, at the Louis Bolk Institute, Netherlands

Summary

During three days a diverse and intensive program was presented. On the first day definitions of food quality were discussed as well as the methods to measure this quality. The second day diverse studies were presented, examples are the QLIF studies on organic and low input dairy, studies performed on lettuce, apple and carrot quality and how management factors influenced the quality of the products, and a presentation on food safety and food risks in organic production. The 3rd day taste and health were the main topics. The overall conclusion was that for the evaluation of food quality you have to take much more aspects into account than nutritional content and contaminants only. An enlarged or holistic quality concept is needed to cover the ambitions of organic food production. Challenge is to further develop such concepts and to design robust scientific studies which account for all relevant quality aspects.