Can you measure and quantify how delicious a food is? Were the vegetables your granny cooked healthier? Can hot water improve the keeping quality of apples? The answers are yes, yes and yes! Come to the great Nordic Food Festival at Tangkroen in Aarhus from 6^th to 8^th  September 2013 and hear scientists from Aarhus University explain this and many other things.

At the Food Festival, food will be celebrated, prepared, explained, experimented with and competed with – and the audience will be offered endless tastings. Themes such as Nordic Sips, the Childrens’ Spot, The Cornfield, The Ocean and Sweets testify that there is something for everyone. The scientists from Aarhus University’s horticultural site, AU Aarslev, will have a stand under the theme The Food Exploratorium and AU Foulum under the themes The Meat World and The Dairy World. Here there is ‘delectable research’ in fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy products.

At the university’s stand you can, for example, discover how berries and herbs can be used as a natural preservative in meat products. Some berries and herbs contain substances that inhibit certain bacteria. Scientists have tried to identify which berries and herbs work best against bacteria and, in collaboration with Tulip and Hanegal, which flavour combinations taste the best. Get a taster of the new and exciting natural products and judge for yourself whether the scientists are on the right track.

You can also sample the old and new varieties of kale and cabbage to assess whether cabbage tasted better in the good old days, and you can hear whether ‘modern’ cabbage is healthier than the cabbage was then.

Taste is a matter of taste

If people have to eat a healthy diet and if new food products are to be successful, it is important that we, the consumers, accept the products. They must, in short, be appetising. When do we deem a food to be delicious? Is it only a matter of taste? Or does colour, crispness, and other factors also have a say? Eating and drinking is a sensual experience that involves all the senses simultaneously. Scientists from Aarhus University carry out research in this area, which is called sensory research. At the Food Festival they will talk about their research – and you can taste and evaluate some of the products they work with in their research.

Scientists from Aarhus University put the production of cheese from pasture to product under the microscope in order to optimise cheese production in the various stages of the production chain. At the Food Festival, the scientists will be available to demonstrate and explain how milk is transformed into cheese. You can learn what role salt plays in the flavour, texture and shelf life of cheese and you will even have the opportunity to start a cheese yourself.

The audience can expect a plethora of tasty morsels and new knowledge. At the Food Festival scientists from Aarhus University will also talk about meat tenderness, organic farming, apples grown under roof, urban farming – and much, much more.

Read more about the Food Festival here.

Further information: Administrative officer Merete Brødsgaard Henriksen, Department of Food Science, e-mail: merete.brodsgaard@agrsci.dk, telephone: +45 8715 8332