LiFT Course and Food Science Sweden Conference
2024
LiFT Course and FSS Conference 2024
Several LiFT PhD students attended the “The Consumer Perspective on Food” course at Örebro University and the Food Science Sweden conference titled “The Food System in Transition” from 8th to 12th April 2024.
The course explored key factors shaping food consumption, communication, and sustainability. Leading experts from academia and industry delivered lectures, exercises, and workshops throughout the course. Marleen Letjes (ORU) discussed how diet, migration, and epidemiology influence food choices based on cultural and ethnic backgrounds, while Elin Boll (Arla) covered business marketing strategies in the food industry. Prof. Åsa Öström (ORU) introduced sensory science, focusing on Swedish sustainable products and the role of sensory departments in companies. Participants engaged in sensory evaluations, including wine and caviar tastings, and learned about the physiology of the senses. Carolin Zorell (ORU) and Nicklas Neuman (Uppsala University) addressed political consumerism and social eating conventions, with a practical workshop for deeper understanding. Rebecka Persson (Orkla) shared insights on health communication from a corporate perspective, while Linda Nordgren (Oatly) discussed using marketing to drive change in the food system. The event highlighted the intersection of culture, sensory science, societal trends, and marketing in shaping modern food systems.
LiFT PhD students also participated in the Food Science Sweden conference: “The Food System in Transition”, at Örebro University Hospital Campus on 10th April, where they presented their research to a wider audience as part of the course.
2023
The LiFT course ““Regulatory and ethical aspects of food production and consumption” was hosted by SLU in Uppsala, 13-17 March, 2023.
This course explored legal and ethical aspects regarding food production and the management of the food chain. The course focused on the laws and the policies, self-regulations and private standards that govern the structure and content of the Swedish food system. Sustainability aspects including environmental aspects, such as natural resources and risk analyses were also considered.
2022
The LiFT course “The Food Industry in Sweden” was hosted by Lund University in Lund, 14-17 November, 2022.
The course was divided into three parts: Food politics, branding and competitiveness, and sustainability. The lectures were given by representatives from Livsmedelsföretagen, Sweden Food Arena, RISE, Malmö University, and Lund University. AAK presented their company and how they work with customer co-development. Orkla presented how they think about production and sustainability. Aventure gave a presentation about their innovative food products. We also organized two study visits. During the study visit to Oatly, a Swedish food company that produces alternatives to dairy products from oats, we learned about this company, history and products, and had a tour in the labs. Lastly, we visited Culinar at Fjälkinge outside Kristianstad, where we learned about their consumer-oriented product development. We also had the possibility to visit the factory.
2021
The LiFT course “Innovation Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Project Management” was hosted by Chalmers in Gothenburg, 18 – 21 October 2021.
The aim of this course was to introduce managerial issues with the emphasis on technology strategy, entrepreneurship, and project management in business-driven research and development (R&D) settings. The course included three parts: Business strategy and innovation management, engagement and economics of research and development projects, entrepreneurship, and intellectual property (IP) strategies. Speaker were invited from the Department of Technology management and Economics at Chalmers, the School of Industrial Technology and Management at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and other experts in leadership, economics, legal counsel etc.
2019
The LiFT course “Food Ethics and Leglisation” was hosted by SLU in Uppsala, 6th-8th May, 2019.
The course gave an overview of food legislation and included legislation and ethics from the industry´s point of view, food safety – risk assessment and management, pseudoscience in food and health, risk and crisis communication and animal ethics, with implications to food. The presentations were provided by lecturers from the National Food Agency, the Swedish Food Federation, Lund university, Uppsala university and SLU.
As a co-event to the course in Uppsala, 11 LiFT PhD students participated at a seminar 9th May, organized by Elisabet Rytter at the Swedish Food Federation in Stockholm.
The program included a presentaion of the Swedish Food Arena (SFA), by Marie Gidlund, director for the SFA and information about the current Health claims/labelling of food by Elisabet Rytter. After the seminar the PhD students attended to the Matdagen at the Modern Museum, this year with the topic public health.
2018
The research school LiFT organized the course “Swedish Food Industry” in Lund from 29th October to 1st November 2018.
The course gave an overview of the organization of the Swedish food actors, including food policy in Sweden, market strategies, packaging logistics in a food supply chain, R & D activity in the food industry and much more. The course included a study visit to Tetra Pak, a multinational food packaging and processing sub-company of Tetra Laval.
Various speakers from Swedish food industries and academia delivered lectures during the course. Some of them are former LiFT PhD students.
“We learned how Swedish food industry has developed over the past decades, we discussed challenges and innovative solutions. This course indeed was an important component of my PhD study”, says LiFT PhD student Hasitha Priyashantha, one of the course participants.
2016
Forskarskolan LiFT organiserade tillsammans med forskarskolan “Food in Focus” kursen “Multivariate statistics and experimental design” i oktober 2016.
Kursen arrangeradesi Uppsala, vid Ultuna uppdelad på två delmoment. Del 1 (Multivariat analys) den 3-4 oktober och del 2 (Försöksdesign) 6-7 oktober. Kursen Innovationsstrategi, entreprenörsskap och projektledning genomfördes den 11-14 april 2016 vid Chalmers i Göteborg