UCD School of Biosystems Engineering

On 20 October 2012, a large delegation from the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Ireland, led by Ambassador His Excellency Mr. LUO Linquan and his wife Mrs. Qiao Li, Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission Mr. WU Lijun and his wife, First Secretary (Consular and Administration) Mr. LI Chengyuan, First Secretary (Science and Technology) Mr. YANG Zhijun and First Secretary (Culture) Ms. HUANG Fei, visited the UCD Food Refrigeration and Computerised Food Technology Centre (FRCFT). The event consisted of a research seminar followed by experimental demonstrations of some leading food processing technologies developed by UCD FRCFT.

The event began with a seminar chaired by Professor Da-Wen Sun from UCD School of Biosystems Engineering. Prof Sun first extended hearty welcome to Ambassador Luo and thanked sincerely the Embassy for their support in the past many years. He then gave an introduction to food engineering research activities in UCD. Ambassador Luo expressed his thanks to Prof Sun and his team for their warm hospitality and conveyed his congratulations to the remarkable achievements that Prof Sun and his team have made. In his speech, the Ambassador outlined the excellent development of the bilateral friendly relations between China and Ireland. He spoke highly of the great contributions that UCD has made in promoting education links with China. Ambassador Luo also encouraged the Chinese students to study hard and make contribution to UCD research activities, and to play a role in fostering cultural exchange and mutual understanding between Ireland and China. Currently five Chinese students funded by the UCD-CSC scholarship scheme are studying for their PhD degrees in UCD FRCFT under the supervision of Prof Sun.

Four presentations were given to demonstrate the cutting-edge food engineering research projects conducted in UCD FRCFT, including three EU Research for SMEs projects and one FIRM project. These three EU projects were, MILD-DRY: Affordable Variable Frequency Microwave Assisted Vacuum Drying for Heat Sensitive Foods, ULTRAFINEWINE: A Novel Method for Assisting and Accelerating the Aging Process of Wine, and COOL-MEAT: A Novel Method for Improving the Vacuum Cooling of Cooked Meats, and the FIRM project was Rapid, Objective and Quantitative Determination of Meat Quality by Non-Destructive and Non-Contact Hyperspectral Imaging System.

After the seminar, a number of experimental demonstrations were given to the delegation. Experiments were conducted to show how vacuum cooling can be used to rapidly chill food products, how power ultrasound can enhance food processing efficiency and how to use hyperspectral imaging for food quality evaluation and control.

By finishing the event, Ambassador Luo extended his thanks to Professor Sun again for his invitation. He said that the visit was very interesting and his delegation has leant a lot from these presentations and demonstrations. The Ambassador also expressed his best wishes to Prof Sun and his team for continuing conducting high quality research and for further development of collaboration with China.

About UCD FRCFT

The UCD Food Refrigeration and Computerised Food Technology Centre (FRCFT), directed by Prof Sun, is an internationally recognized centre of excellence for food engineering research and education. The main research activities of UCD FRCFT include cooling, drying and refrigeration processes and systems, quality and safety of food products, bioprocess simulation and optimisation, and computer vision technology. To date, the UCD FRCFT has published over 600 papers and 13 books, including more than 250 refereed journal papers, and has established extensive research collaboration with many Chinese universities and research institutes, leading to the publication of over 50 joint journal papers. 

Pictures of the visit