Second Annual HealthFerm Meeting: a tasteful workshop, insightful discussions, and a VTT company visit in Helsinki

The HealthFerm consortium came together for their second Annual Meeting from the 10-11th of September 2024. The University of Helsinki kindly hosted the meeting in Helsinki, Finland.

On 9th of September, an afternoon was dedicated to a tasteful workshop for interested consortium members. In total, 46 participants came together for insightful talks about the HealthGrain project, Fazer´s fermented grain-based foods, Valio´s novel fermented dairy alternatives and a sensory evaluation of fermented faba beans. During the breaks, participants had the chance to taste different bread products from Fazer, gurt samples produced by Valio, and a variety of fermented faba bean samples produced by the University of Helsinki. More information on the workshop can be found here.

Throughout the following two days of the Annual Meeting, specific sessions were dedicated to each work area, where individual partners updated their colleagues on their progress. Afterwards, the entire consortium received updates on the progress from the past two years of the different work areas. To promote the interaction between working groups, discussions among different fields allowed further in-depth explorations of topics connecting the various workflows within HealthFerm. Above all, the talented young researchers of HealthFerm were invited to present their scientific work to the entire consortium in the form of pitch presentations, after which they could further present their work in a dedicated poster session . In total, 24 HealthFerm posters were presented!

After the Annual Meeting, consortium partners were invited on a company visit at VTT, one of the dedicated HealthFerm partners. During this visit, consortium members got the chance to see their research facilities .

All in all, the foundations have been laid for another successful year of the HealthFerm research. Looking forward to meeting again next year in Umeå, Sweden!

Plenary session of the HealthFerm consortium meeting.

Impression of the reception, which was followed by the young researcher poster sessions.

Impression of the WP1 breakout session.

Impression of the WP2 breakout session.

Impression of the WP3 breakout session.

Impression of the WP4 breakout session.

Impressions of the WP6 breakout session.