Dr Maria Dermiki and her three PhD students, Mahrokh Jamshidvand, Leocardia Ranga and  Shelly Fox,  presented their work at the 10^th European Conference on Sensory and Consumer Research (EUROSENSE) in Turku, Finland in September. The title of the conference was a Sense of Earth, and the group from ATU Sligo presented their work on product development of foods for different population groups aiming to address the three pillars of sustainability.

The group presented two posters on Circular Eating,  which is the concept of exploring the revalorisation of fruit and vegetable peels and trimmings from the food industry; one poster presented by Dr Maria Dermiki on their work exploring the willingness of French and Irish students to consume waste-to-value ingredients, and one poster presented by Ms Shelley Fox exploring the readiness of Irish consumers towards circular eating. Ms Leocardia Ranga had a poster and an oral presentation presenting her work on the willingness of French and Irish students to consume insects, a collaborative project with students from Biological Engineering at Polytech Clermont-Ferrand in France.

Ms Mahrokh Jamshidvand presented her work on “Perception and preference of Irish adults older than 55 years to protein fortified foods”. Mahrokh has won the best poster award, awarded by Compusense (Compusense – Consumer and Sensory Testing Made Simple). Her poster was chosen among 200 posters presented at the conference and 90 posters that were shortlisted.