Authentic Food Festival and Conference Programme

27-28 May 2026

Student Centre, Belfield Campus, University College Dublin, Ireland

The Authentic Food Festival and Conference (#AFFC) is a new, in-person cross-sector event exploring food authenticity, integrity, and fraud in an immersive, highly interactive festival-style combining cutting-edge research, workshops, clinics, debates, films, games, and food with lots of opportunites to network and learn. If you have not registered yet, note that registration is still open until the 20th of May here: www.eff-cop.eu/festival.  Please find the festival program below.

Conference Programme

8:30 AM - 9:30 AM
8:30 AM - 9:30 AM
Registration, coffee and tea
9:00 AM
9:00 AM
9:30 AM - 9:40 AM
9:30 AM - 9:40 AM
Opening by Ghislain Marechal (EC) and Saskia van Ruth (University College Dublin)
9:40 AM - 10:00 AM
9:40 AM - 10:00 AM
Prof. Alan Reilly (Former Chief Executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland)
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Lively debate moderated by Prof. Chris Elliott (Queen's University Belfast)
10:30 AM - 11:00 AM
10:30 AM - 11:00 AM
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Round table discussion with leaders from industry, retail, and regulatory agencies moderated by Quincy Lissaur (SSAFE)
Interactive clinic on how you would handle under pressure moderated by Frank Cederhout (Deloitte), Hans van der Moolen (Eurofins), Saskia van Ruth (UCD)
Exciting escape room by the fraud academy by Joris Boom (UCD) and Petter Olsen (NOFIMA) 2 rounds (2x max 4 participants)
Hands-on experience and demonstration of latest food authentication devices organised by LGC, BARDS.ie, Bia Analytical and OptiGene (max 20 participants)
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
1:30 PM - 3:15 PM
1:30 PM - 3:15 PM
Views on fraud from adjacent fields: Neuroscience, forensic accountancy, trade flow assessments, and anti-corruption in humanitarian aid organisations
Film session with panel discussion moderated by Sara Erasmus (WUR)
Exciting escape room by the fraud academy by Joris Boom (UCD) 2 rounds (2x max 4 participants)
Hands-on experience and demonstration of latest food authentication devices organised by LGC, BARDS.ie, Bia Analytical and OptiGene (max 20 participants)
3:15 PM - 3:45 PM
3:45 PM - 5:15 PM
3:45 PM - 5:15 PM
Conference session on latest developments in food authentication moderated by Selvarani Elahi (LGC, Food Authenticity Network)
Film session with panel discussion moderated by Petter Olsen (NOFIMA)
Exciting escape room by the fraud academy by Joris Boom (UCD) 2 rounds (2x max 4 participants)
Hands-on experience and demonstration of latest food authentication devices organised by LGC, BARDS.ie, Bia Analytical and OptiGene (max 20 participants)
5:15 PM - 6:15 PM
5:15 PM - 6:15 PM
Session on Data Sonification and Hands-on Transformation of Data into Sounds moderated by Joris Boom (University College Dublin)
Exciting escape room by the fraud academy by UCD 2 rounds (2x max 4 participants)
Hands-on experience and demonstration of latest food authentication devices organised by LGC, BARDS.ie, Bia Analytical and OptiGene (max 20 participants)
6:15 PM - 7:30 PM
6:15 PM - 7:30 PM
7:30 PM - 9:30 PM
7:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Science cafe with music and scientific contributions on olive oil by Gregor Christiaans of Foundation Olive Oil Netherlands and on Irish whiskey by Alan McHugh of Sliabh Liag Distillers
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Stories about food fraud, moderated by Alba Tres (University of Barcelona)
Workshop for early career scientists to learn about career trajectories moderated by Tara Hughes, Sherif Shaheen and Matta Ebaid (UCD)
A serious game about how not to get involved in bad practices moderated by Joris Boom (UCD) and Bas Altenburg (8D)
10:30 AM - 11:00 AM
10:30 AM - 11:00 AM
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Conference session on latest developments in food authentication moderated by Di Wu (Queen's University Belfast)
A workshop dedicated to identify and filling gaps in food fraud prevention and detection education in universities across Europe moderated by Etienne and Bev Wenger-Trayner (Social Learning Lab).
A serious game about how not to get involved in bad practices moderated by Joris Boom (UCD) and Bas Altenburg (8D)
12:30 PM - 1:00 PM
12:30 PM - 1:00 PM
Prize for the Best Counter Fraudster and Performance of the Food Fraud Orchestra
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
2:00 PM
2:00 PM

Speakers/Moderators

Creme Global
Adara Distillery
University of Porto
Bart Ingredients, UK
University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Universidade do Porto, Portugal
Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands
University College Dublin, Ireland
Musgrave Group, Ireland
Deloitte, Netherlands
Stichting olijfolie Nederland
Authentic Food Pty, Australia
Kerry, Ireland
University College Dublin, Ireland
Queen's University Belfast, NI
Wageningen University and Research, Netherlands
BARDS.ie and University College Cork
Broadband Acoustics Resonance Dissolution Spectroscopy (BARDS) will be demonstrated in the mini science lab.
NL Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority
Netherlands
NL Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority
Netherlands
OptiGene
University College Dublin, Ireland
Event organiser
University College Dublin, Ireland
National Reference Centre for Authentic Food
King's College London, UK
University College Dublin, Ireland
Event organiser
University College Dublin, Ireland
Executive Director SSAFE, USA
Queen's University Belfast, UK
Cream of the Crop, Ireland
European Commission
University College Dublin, Ireland
Danone Quality and Food Safety
Foundation Institute Foodfakty, Poland
NOFIMA, Norway
University College Dublin, Ireland
Wageningen Food Safety Research, Netherlands
University College Dublin, Ireland
Bia Analytical
University College Dublin, Ireland
Event organiser
University of Barcelona, Spain
Eurofins, Netherlands
University College Dublin, Ireland
REZOS Brands
Social Learning Lab, Portugal
Queen's University Belfast

No records found.

Location

Location: Student Centre, Belfield Campus, University College Dublin, Ireland, , Dublin, County Dublin

Poster presenters

Posters