Dear colleagues and friends,

On the 2nd-4th April 2019, the 6th International Conference on Food Digestion (ICFD6) will take place in Granada, Spain. This event is organized by INFOGEST, an international network that aims at “Improving Health Properties of Food by Sharing our Knowledge on the Digestive Process”. The specific objectives of the network are to:
-    compare the existing digestion models, harmonize the methodologies, validate them towards in vivo data and propose guidelines for performing new experiments 
-    identify the bioactive components that are released in the gut during food digestion
-    demonstrate the effect of these compounds on human health
-    determine the effect of the matrix structure on the bioavailability of food nutrients and bioactive molecules.
INFOGEST is financially supported by INRA and gathers more than 380 scientists from 40 countries (Europe but also Canada, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, USA, China, Japan…). Connections between academic partners and industry are strong thanks to the participation to INFOGEST of more than 50 food companies. INFOGEST organizes 2 workshops per year and 1 international conference every two years. We are organized into 6 Working Groups in which scientists have exchanges, write reviews and opinion papers or perform joint experiments on different topics: WG1 is on the correlations between in vitro and in vivo data, WG2 on the development of a semi-dynamic model of in vitro digestion, WG3 on in vitro digestion models for specific populations (infant, elderly), WG4 on digestive lipases and lipid digestion, WG5 on digestive amylase and starch digestion and WG6 on in silico models of digestion. These WGs are fully open to new comers, so feel free to participate if you are interested!
The first edition of the International Conference on Food Digestion (ICFD) was held in Cesena in 2012 and gathered 150 delegates. This is where the story began! In 2013, more than 200 participants met in Madrid whereas participation reached a peak in Wageningen in 2014 with 248 delegates. Then, participation was stabilised in Naples in 2015 with 224 participants and in Rennes in 2017 with 234 where we also had an exhibition of 3 in vitro dynamic digestion simulators. 

Every time, more than 200 abstracts were submitted with an extremely high scientific level and the selection of the oral presentations by the scientific committee was extremely difficult. This year, the scientific committee will welcome 4 new world-known scientists: Dr Alfonso Clemente (Spain) who will also act as Chairman of the Organizing Committee, Dr Harjinder Singh (New Zealand), Pr Gail Bornhorst (USA) and Pr Mike Gidley (Australia).
So on behalf of the Local Organizing Committee and the Scientific Committee, I invite you to join us at the 6th International Conference on Food Digestion in Granada on the 2nd-4th April 2019.
 

Didier DUPONT

Chair of INFOGEST