Dr Peter Varelis is an applications chemist with Shimadzu Scientific Australia where he manages a team of chemists. Prior to joining Shimadzu he was a principal scientist and team leader at Food Standards Australia New Zealand. He trained as an organic chemist and has more than 20 years of research experience in both government and industry. His research interest is the application of mass spectrometry to the analysis of organic compounds that have implications for human health and nutrition. Peter obtained his PhD from the University of Western Australia. He was research professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology and principal research scientist with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia. From 2007 through to 2011, Peter was a theme leader with the National Centre for Food Protection and Defense. Professor Laurence Melton was the Inaugural Professor of Food Chemistry at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, where he set up degrees in Food Science and Wine Science. He has been a Principal Investigator for the Riddet Centre of Research Excellence for Food Research. Formerly he was Professor of Food Science at the University of Otago, at Dunedin, N.Z. and earlier a scientist at Unilever’s Colworth House in Bedfordshire, U.K. His major research interest is how food macromolecules interact to give foods their structure (e.g. the complex mixture of polysaccharides that comprise plant cell walls (dietary fibres) and the interaction of proteins and polysaccharides such β-lactoglobulin and pectins). He has published over 300 scientific papers and reports. Currently he is an Editor for Food Chemistry and Emeritus Professor at the University of Auckland. He wrote “As a teenager I was training to be an electrician but I thought it would be more exciting to be a chemist because there could be fires and explosions. And there were some. However, what kept me motivated over 50 years was the excitement of discovering stuff by doing research.” Professor Fereidoon Shahidi is a University Research Professor at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. He is highly respected for his research in such areas as marine products and functional foods.

• Section 1: FOOD COMPONENTSSection 2: CHEMICAL AND ENZYMATIC REACTIONSSection 3: INTERACTIONS OF FOOD COMPONENTSSection 4: FOOD STRUCTURESection 5: INNOVATIVE FOODSSection 6: FOOD ADULTERATION AND CONTAMINATION