20TH LUCRID WEBINAR ADDRESSES FOOD SECURITY, HEALTH, AND WASTE MANAGEMENT
- Post by: lmu
- August 2, 2022
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The 20th edition of the Landmark University Centre for Research Innovations and Discoveries (LUCRID) webinar with the theme “Relevance of Food Science in Food Security, Health and Sustainable Management”, harped on converting food wastage to wealth, eating responsibly and protecting food across the globe on Wednesday, May 25 2022. Organized by the Food Science and Nutrition Programme in collaboration with Landmark University SDG 12, the 20th LUCRID webinar featured leading researchers in food science from Singapore and India.
In her remarks, the Acting Vice-Chancellor, Professor Charity Aremu stated with enthusiasm the relevance of the webinar to the development of the nation as she anticipated that the discourse would proffer lasting solutions to the issues of food insecurity and wastage. “Today is special because it addresses the vision base of Landmark University,” she noted. According to Professor Aremu, “Food security is when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe, nutritious (meets their dietary needs) food preferences for an active and healthy life”. She noted further that the webinar was not limited to SDG 12 but intertwined with almost all the SDGs since food production is the springboard of UN SDGs.
Earlier, the Registrar, Miss Adefunke Fola Oyinloye expressed excitement over the relevance of the webinar to society, going by the popular saying, “if hunger is removed from poverty then poverty has lost its potency”. Miss Oyinloye encouraged all participants to grab the full opportunities of the webinar thereby making an impact which is primarily to ensure accessible and affordable food on the continent.
In his presentation, Dr Hongshun YANG, an Associate Professor and Director Graduate Programme in the Department of Food Science and Technology at the National University of Singapore (NUS) with the topic “Relevance of Food Science in Achieving Food Security and Healthy Living”, urged manufacturers and consumers to prioritize nutrition and texture over appearance and flavouring. He said, “most companies aim to imitate appearance and flavouring rather than imitate the structure and texture of food”. Dr YANG stated further that until the aforementioned challenges are addressed, healthy living and safe consumption of food would be a mirage.
Also in his presentation on “Relevance of Food Science in Sustainable Waste Management”, Dr Shivanand S. Shirkole, an Assistant Professor from the Department of Food Engineering and Technology, Institute of Chemical Technology Mumbai, India, identified collaboration and coordination, awareness-raising, research and projects as some of the global initiatives that could reduce food loss and wastage. He also implored food chain actors to take actions to reduce food loss and wastage by improving production planning, aligning with the market, improving the production of resource-efficient production and processing practices, improving preservation and packaging technologies and improving transportation and logistics management among others. Dr Shirkole noted that reduction in food loss and wastage is a collective responsibility of producers, consumers and policymakers as expected. According to him, converting waste to wealth involves RRR (Recycle, Reuse and Reduce), Collaboration, Awareness, Research and Government Policies.
In conclusion, the acting Vice-Chancellor, Professor Charity Aremu in her closing remarks made it known that the webinar is a call to action in terms of research, publications and community impact.
The Head of the Programme, Dr Abiola Olaniyan in her remarks appreciated the management for supporting the programme, especially during the accreditation exercise. She then noted that the food webinar which is the third in its series is linked to proffering lasting solutions to food insecurity and curb wastage.
The 20th LUCRID webinar attracted over one hundred onsite and online participants from the University of Keiv, Covenant University, LAUTECH, Philomath University and Ekiti State University. While Landmark University’s Faculty, Staff and Students majorly within the host College of Pure and Applied Sciences and SDG 12 participated on site.
