Report from Eurosense 2020

Special mentionErvina Ervina

I would like to gratefully thank the European Sensory Science Society (E3S) for the special mentions award that I received during the 9th European Sensory Symposium (Eurosense) 2020. This award gives me great motivation and strengthens my interest in the sensory and consumer science area, especially in relation to healthy eating. This award also inspires me to continue working and collaborating with other researchers in this field.  

This year’s Eurosense conference was originally arranged to be held in September before the committee reschedule it into September due to Covid-19 pandemic. In the end, the committee finally decided to move the whole conference into a digital format, making it the first ever Eurosense conducted online. However, the conference itself did not lack any of its exciting appeal from the previous one, as there were plenty of interesting and insightful keynotes’ talks, workshops, presentations, in addition to the more than 300 of intelligent posters!

I do miss the physical conference though where you were able to network in person with people who have the same research interests. This is where you receive advise and exchange ideas to not only improve your own research but positively impact others as well. However, Eurosense 2020 was still able to provide all of these aspects despite its digital format, as I could “meet” other researchers and PhD students digitally and have a discussion with them with ease through the online conference rooms. I was able to discuss with one senior researcher whose work was relevant with my interests regarding taste sensitivity and healthy food preference. Moreover, I was also able to chat with participant with a 12 hours of time differences with CET in one of the poster sessions!  

My favourite keynote talk was by Victoire Dairou from Danone, France. Her talk was on engaging a user in co-design to drive the food revolutions. I believe this method has good potential to be used in children healthy eating study. I also really enjoyed the presentation by Prof. Hedwig te Molder from VU Amsterdam University and Wageningen University regarding to like or not to like foods especially in negotiating children’s food choice from low socio-economic backgrounds. I think this talk is relevant in a very current situation and become homework for all of us on how to provide food that are available, reachable, healthy, and sustainable for children.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed all the programs provided by Eurosense 2020. Moreover, the award that I have received was a highlight of my journey in my final year of PhD and once again I deeply honoured for this award. 

Ervina Ervina

 

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