After an 11-year absence the International Congress of Meat Science and Technology (ICoMST) returns to Ireland this week.

After this week, Ireland will become the only country to host the event twice. Over 500 delegates from the food industry, academia and policy organisations are expected to attend.

The theme of this year’s event is ‘nurturing locally growing globally’ and speakers will consider how science can offer the meat production and processing sector solutions to enable it to nurture sustainably at local level while offering opportunities to grow globally.

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This will be discussed over five days through several sessions.

Sub-themes at this year’s congress include genomics, animal welfare, meat processing, meat safety, consumer aspects and the health aspects of meat.

Keynote speakers include Professor Frank Rijsberman of the Global Green Growth Institute and Professor Temple Grandin of Colorado State University.

Hot topic

The programme also includes a ‘hot topic’ session. This will encourage dialogue between researchers from academia and industry, which will continue throughout and beyond this meeting.

"The conference is an excellent opportunity for academics, researchers and industry to come together under one roof and share their perspectives on the future challenges and opportunities facing our industry," said ABP Group Technical and Sustainability Director Dean Holroyd.

The congress opened on Sunday evening, 13 August at 4pm and will continue until 2pm on 18 August.