Using Cereal Science and Technology for the Benefit ...

Brand newSoftcover book. Shipping is FREE worldwide.The Cereal & Bread Congresses which are run under the auspices of the International Association for Cereal Science & Technology (ICC) have a long and distinguished history. They take place every four years in different locations around the world.The UK was chosen to host the 12 Cereal & Bread Congress and brought together cereal scientists, technologists, millers, bakers, plant breeders, nutritionists, engineers, equipment and ingredients suppliers from around the world to exchange their knowledge through verbal and poster presentations (the contents of this publication), exhibitions and informal networking.The ICC congresses provide a unique opportunity to learn from others working in the many different fields of cereal science and technology and their associated disciplines. T have attended quite a few in my career and have never failed to come away impressed with the scale and quality of the work in cereal science. I have always found that my own thinking has been challenged, adjusted and strengthened by the experience. I have always enjoyed the occasion and the 12th such event was no exception.The Congress theme - Using cereal science and technology for the benefit of consumers - was chosen with the aim of getting presenters to think about the process from beginning to end, 'plough to plate' or 'farm to fork' are much used phrases in this context. However, while such grand visions fit well with the modern jargon of 'joinedup thinking' or 'joincd-up business' they tend to over-simplify the process and the link to the consumer.Even the concept of 'the consumer' has been hijacked to be the 'person in the street'. Surely if you have a product then the 'consumer' is the next person/company in the chain. So millers consume wheat supplied by the farmer, at least in the sense of taking wheat and modifying into another form, bakers become the consumers of the miller's product and the people in the street consumers of the baker's product.Who then is the 'consumer' of the product of cereal scientists and technologists? Their product is knowledge and so we are all consumers of that product, wherever we fit in the 'grain chain'. Ultimately if we are to benefit we need access to that knowledge and it must be provided in a readily assimilated form. Conferences provide one form but then we cannot attend all of these and so access to their proceedings provide another form.