In his speech, Chen Zhuan, Member of the Party Leadership Group of the Hubei Provincial Administration for Market Regulation, mentioned that advancing food science and promoting the healthy development of the food industry is a crucial task for implementing the "Healthy China" Strategy and meeting the people's pursuit of a better life. The food industry is one of Hubei Province's pillar industries. In 2018, the main business revenue of the province's food industry reached 616.5 billion yuan, with an 8.3% growth rate, showing a sound growth momentum. However, more efforts are still needed to prioritize innovation-driven development and advance industrial upgrading.

Li Zhaohu, President of Huazhong Agricultural University, stated that the College of Food Science and Technology is a key part of the university's talent cultivation and technological innovation, and also a vital hub for the university's discipline development. He expressed the expectation that through this grand event, cooperation will be further strengthened to make greater contributions to the modernization of agriculture and rural areas and the advancement of the "Healthy China" Initiative.

"Encourage exploration and highlight originality; focus on frontiers and blaze new trails; be driven by needs to break through bottlenecks; adhere to a common-goal orientation and promote interdisciplinary integration." Professor Li Xingfeng, Director of the Food Science Program under the Department of Life Sciences of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), introduced the funding orientation of the NSFC in the new era and further explained the classified application mechanism based on four types of scientific issue attributes.

Technological Innovation: Pooling Efforts for the Integration of Science, Technology and Industry

In his keynote report titled "Innovation-Driven Modernization of Traditional Chinese Food" at the conference, Sun Baoguo, Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), Vice Chairman of the Chinese Institute of Food Science and Technology (CIFFST), and President of Beijing Technology and Business University, mentioned that the development direction of food is "dual-oriented by flavor and health"—meaning food should not only taste good but also be healthy. "The modernization of production is the mainstream of the food industry's development, but it is not the whole story. Handmade food production and modernized production will coexist for a long time and complement each other."

"The Chinese food sector should further strengthen its confidence in dietary culture, proactively study the basic scientific principles and key technological issues related to traditional Chinese food and its modernization, and lead the global research direction of traditional Chinese food," said Sun Baoguo. He also pointed out the new problems and challenges faced by the modernization of traditional Chinese food, such as the public's confidence in food safety not being fully restored, prominent issues of food authenticity, frequent occurrences of food adulteration and fraud, outdated regulations and standards becoming new bottlenecks affecting the development and innovation of the food industry, and the lack of knowledge among consumers regarding food production, safety, nutrition, and consumption. He believes that to drive the modernization of traditional Chinese food through innovation, it is necessary to use modern science and technology to explore the basic scientific issues of traditional Chinese food, transform the traditional food industry with high and new technologies, promote revolutionary and disruptive technological innovations in the food field through interdisciplinary collaboration, and at the same time strengthen science popularization to safeguard the modernization of traditional Chinese food. It is the mission of food science and technology workers to inherit and promote China's excellent food culture and bring Chinese cuisine to the world.

In his report "Chinese Food Science and Technology: From 2020 to 2035", Chen Jian, Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), Honorary Vice Chairman of the Chinese Institute of Food Science and Technology (CIFFST), and President of Jiangnan University, stated that food synthetic biology, precise food nutrition and personalized manufacturing, and intelligent manufacturing of food equipment will become the strategic trends of China's food industry in the future. Factors such as ecological effects and population growth will pose challenges to China's food industry. Future food will be a representative substance reflecting changes in human production methods and lifestyles, and will play a role in addressing global food supply and quality issues while meeting people's higher-level needs.

"Why does eating citrus cause 'shanghuo' (a concept in Traditional Chinese Medicine referring to symptoms of internal heat, such as sore throat, dry mouth, or facial acne)?" Pan Siyi, Chairman of the Hubei Institute of Food Science and Technology and a professor at Huazhong Agricultural University, shared the mechanism of citrus-induced "shanghuo", pointing out that the "shanghuo" caused by eating citrus is an immune inflammatory response induced by water-soluble proteins in citrus fruits through the human arachidonic acid metabolic pathway. Pan Siyi focused on introducing the nutritional characteristics and efficient resource utilization of citrus, a local advantageous resource. Citrus is mainly distributed in old revolutionary base areas and poverty-stricken mountainous areas, and has become an important industry for fruit farmers to increase their income. As a key measure for industrial poverty alleviation, the planting area of citrus has been continuously expanding. He believes that the goals of efficient citrus utilization mainly include maximizing the utilization and protection of secondary metabolites, improving the bioavailability of secondary metabolites, exploring secondary metabolites, and clarifying the health mechanisms of secondary metabolites.