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News from GOED Exchange 2018

Blog post by Dr Neil Auchterlonie, Technical Director, IFFO

I travelled to Seattle for the 2018 GOED Exchange held over the 6th-8th February.  The event was held in the Benaroya Hall, the home of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.  This proved to be an apt venue as the rather unique keynote on day 1 had the audience playing music via percussion as a means of emphasising the importance of rhythm and harmony in seafood industry leadership!  As well as the usual focus on markets, there were some excellent scientific and technical presentations with key themes of bioavailability, regulation and emerging contaminants.  A very interesting panel discussion on the anticipated emergence of long chain omega-3 fatty acids from GM sources was well attended and prompted numerous questions.

Particularly fascinating for me was the session on omega-3 science which looked at where the gaps in knowledge are in relation to the benefits lie for a whole range of human medical conditions.  Included were references to performance and the protection of muscle in both sports and the elderly, and it was nice to hear some reference to rugby in the presentations albeit in connection to omega-3s adoption by professional rugby teams in the UK to manage the impact of concussion. A superb session on communicating science referred to many of the difficulties in the “post-truth” age of engaging with the general public as a technical or scientific expert was followed by a session questioning the role of omega-3s as dietary ingredients or pharmaceuticals.  The conference was wrapped up with a very stimulating presentation on innovation by the Director of the Nike Innovation team!

All in all a thoroughly informative event and enjoyable event, hosted as always by the personable GOED team!