2018_03_27_FAR_symposio

This year the Industry Symposium organized by the Master's Degree European Food, Nutrition and Metabolism (E-MENU) of the School of Pharmacy and Nutrition of the University of Navarra featured three leading companies in their sector: Congelados de Navarra, Europastry and Nestlé España.

Íñigo Antón, director of Marketing and research and development of Congelados de Navarra explained in his discussion paper - "CN: research and development local for a Global market"- how the deep-frozen vegetable market has been on the rise in recent years due to the boom in trends towards a healthier lifestyle. In his case, he highlighted as essential the firm commitment to investment in research and development andthe partnership that they have been developing, among others, with the research center in Nutrition (CIN) of the University of Navarra, with the goal to improve the nutritional criteria of their products. "Precisely, this constant investment in research and development allows us to respond to changing market trends - 60% of exports are to other European countries - and consumer trends (such as the rising trend of the flexitarian buyer)." The profile of the dietician-nutritionist working at business, he added, "is focused on the consumer from a technical point of view but without forgetting marketing knowledge".

Marina Diana, Scientific Manager of Europastry, explained the purpose of business and its main lines of research, financed by the Ministry and by different consortiums. Among the projects, she focused on those related to bread, "to which we want to give functional and highly nutritious properties without increasing the final price of the product. To this end, we are working on the role of microorganisms that participate in the fermentation processes of sourdoughs and that can generate specific bioactive compounds". In his lecture he talked about bread rich in GABA, in IECA peptides (with hypotensive effect); or bread rich in vitamin B12 oriented to vegan population.

A Symposium that puts on contact the student and the industry

In Marina Diana's opinion, sessions such as this Symposium "help students at Master's Degree to have a broad and explicit vision of the strategic aspects of companies, since it is important that they stay close to the business world and can fill in in that environment the learning of the theoretical concepts they acquire at the University", emphasized the guest from Europastry.

Laura González, Nutrition, Health&Wellness manager at Nestlé Spain, presented at the Symposium a summary of its program to improve eating habits for children from 4 to 12 years old based on the Nutriplato method, at partnership with the Hospital Sant Joan de Dèu. Inspired by the Healthy Eating Plate of the Havard School of Public Health.

According to the Nestlé guest, her participation in the Symposium should have the added bonus of bringing this professional opportunity closer to graduates: "I believe that companies have a lot to do and that it is very necessary for us to be close to students in order to inspire them and transmit to them all our passion and experience. Contrary to what many of them believe, the food industry invests a lot of effort in research, in addition to offering other career options, such as marketing, sales or communication. Specifically, Nestlé hires highly qualified professionals at subject in Nutrition for positions at research - also internationally -, technical positions, marketing, etc.", concluded the guest at this 2018 edition of the Master's Degree E-MENU Industry Symposium.