The UNIMORE Department of Life Sciences, in collaboration with the Italian Scientific Group for Food Packaging (GSICA), hosted the 11th edition of the Shelf Life International Meeting (SLIM), an international conference dedicated to food technologies and food packaging.
The conference was held from 20 to 23 May 2024, at Palazzo Dossetti – Reggio Emilia Campus, where researchers from over 15 countries gathered to present the state of the art in international research on technologies serving the stability of food products and the development of innovative packaging materials.
“The Shelf Life International Meeting conference,” according to Professor Fabio Licciardello of UNIMORE, chair of the conference, “was established exactly 20 years ago, promoted by the Italian Scientific Group for Food Packaging. The 11th edition returned to Italy, in Reggio Emilia, an area with a strong agri-food vocation.”
The SLIM intensive scientific programme, consisting of about 130 contributions (presentations and posters), focused on the most recent knowledge related to food shelf life, including new, safe and sustainable materials and technologies supporting greener food packaging and food waste management processes. The programme also offered the opportunity to visit some important companies of the Emilia Food Valley.
The conference was structured into four sessions:
- Shelf Life Assessment and Prediction
- Innovative Technologies for Shelf Life Extension
- Trends in Packaging Materials Development
- Technical and Safety Issues of Recycled and Sustainable Packaging
Each session was introduced by a keynote lecture:
- Packaging Design for Reducing Food Waste (Helén Williams, Karlstad University, Sweden).
- Active Packaging and Waste Valorization: A Real Opportunity for Food Sustainability? (Sara Limbo, University of Milan, Italy).
- Chemical Safety and Risk Assessment on Bioplastics for Food Contact (Ana Rodríguez Bernaldo de Quirós, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain).
- Safety Assessment of Mechanical Recycling Processes of PET to Be Used for Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (Remigio Marano, EFSA).
