Dr. Patil will be leaving in a few days for Australia to present as a keynote speaker at the 6th International Human Health Effects of Fruits & Vegetables Symposium.

The event will celebrate research focused on the incredible variety of health benefits of fruits and vegetables, as well as recent improvements in processing and growing procedures that help deliver the advantages that a diet rich in FAVs can provide to the public. It centers around the label of FAVs as functional foods: those that “provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition, protection against disease, and increase in performance.”

The symposium’s website, which can be found here, explains:

This symposium addresses recent research on fruit and nuts that aims to (1) identify and improve fruit quality in terms of internal and external properties, (2) enhance the composition as it relates to nutritional value and human health, and (3) develop insights into consumer preferences and behavior to guide product specifications and production systems. Presentations will encompass breeding and commercialization of new cultivars as well as pre-harvest and post-harvest aspects of research on commercial fruit and nut crops with a specific focus on citrus, nuts, Mediterranean zone fruits, pome, stonefruit, vine and berry fruits. Academics, scientists, researchers, consultants, technologists, marketers and industry leaders are invited to participate.

Food quality has been defined as all those characteristics of a food (not just sensory characteristics) that lead a consumer to be satisfied with the product.”

Sessions will be focused on the following themes: