"Flanders’ FOOD is the Flemish centre of competence/knowledge/innovation of the Flemish food industry. The centre is accessible for Flemish food companies and for international enterprises with production and/or R&D in the Flanders region. Both SMEs and large enterprises can join.

Flanders’ FOOD was initiated by the Flemish government, IWT en Fevia Vlaanderen (federation of the Flemish food industry) and approved by the Flemish government on 25/11/2005 as a partnership with companies, government and the academic world. The added value will be:

· for companies: innovation stimulation - research should have an economic relevance, also for research centres where research will be performed

· for the government: improvement of the competitiveness

· for the consumer: improved health status of foods

The mission of Flanders’ FOOD is to IMPROVE the COMPETITIVITY BY SPECIFIC STIMULTATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF SCIENTIFIC/TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION.

This mission will be realised through the following main goals of Flanders’ FOOD:

· Start up of collective research projects at centres of expertise. This will be marked-pulled research. Research projects will be generic (rather fundamental but still with a economic relevance).

· Broad diffusion of (existing and newly acquired) knowledge. For this purpose, a technology watch system will be launched in which main technological inventions, patents, publications will be presented.

· Validation of results: the food industry should be able to effectively use and implement the results in their product and process innovation.

· Regional, national and international networking

· Organisation of training and workshops

· Scientific/technological support

Central theme of Flanders’ FOOD is: Food products of the future, balanced and tasty. There will be focus on controlling the caloric values and on the optimisation of health promoting effects.

Within this central theme, 4 basic dimensions are important and will be investigated:

· Interaction between functional ingredients and food compounds

· Interactions by processing: conventional and new processing technologies on functionality.

· Nutritional stability and shelf life: (micro)-biological, (bio)-chemical and physical stability

· Sensory characteristics: flavour, taste, texture and colour."