Major Scientific Themes

2.1 Food Science, Quality and Safety

Food quality and safety formed an important part of the scientific programme. Presentations addressed powdered Erzincan Tulum cheese, risk-based food-safety surveillance, the phytochemical and antioxidant properties of Noccaea montana, functional fermented sausages, bottled-water quality, wine fermentation, honey authenticity, and hurdle technology for industrial beverage production.

The programme also considered food-associated microorganisms, antimicrobial resistance, food preservation, pesticide degradation, bioactive plant compounds, microbial flavoring compounds, and traditional food production. Taken together, these studies showed how analytical, microbiological, technological, and regulatory perspectives can complement one another in addressing food-quality and safety challenges.

2.2 Nutrition, Health and Dietary Research

Nutrition and health were also prominent throughout the congress. Topics included whole-food, plant-based nutrition in type 2 diabetes and prediabetes; nutrigenomic and immunological mechanisms linking nutrition with disease; dietary patterns and metabolic syndrome; nutritional characteristics associated with liver cirrhosis; nutritional support during adolescent pregnancy; and dietary management in respiratory and infectious diseases.

The range of work presented in this area underscored the importance of evidence-based nutrition, appropriate dietary interventions, disease prevention, and the links between nutritional factors and clinical outcomes.

2.3 Pharmaceutical Sciences and Food-Drug Interactions

Several presentations explored questions at the intersection of food, gastrointestinal physiology, and pharmaceutical science. These included the effect of food on amorphous solid dispersions, the influence of bile-acid composition on drug solubilization and permeability, intestinal drug-metabolizing enzymes, food-mediated bile-acid binding and drug bioavailability,in situprecipitation in the proximal jejunum, and peptide-drug permeability across human intestinal models.

These studies illustrated how formulation, gastrointestinal conditions, absorption, metabolism, and food-related factors can influence oral drug performance and therapeutic outcomes.

2.4 Artificial Intelligence, Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials

Artificial intelligence and nanotechnology emerged as important areas of interdisciplinary research. Pakistani researchers presented studies involving explainable artificial intelligence and machine learning for personalized antiviral therapy, AI-assisted modelling of green nanocomposite adsorbents for heavy-metal removal and food-safety applications, sustainable ion-exchange-modified carrageenan, and metal-coordinated carrageenan nanohybrids for functional food packaging and nutraceutical delivery.

Additional work examined transition-metal-doped CuO nanoparticles supported on MCM-41 mesoporous silica, including their antibacterial and antifungal efficacy, alongside mechanistic research on intestinal P-glycoprotein and its relevance to food–drug and drug–drug interactions.

2.5 Sustainable Food Technologies and Food-Waste Valorization

Sustainability was addressed through research on food-waste utilization, packaging, agricultural technologies, and resource-efficient processing. Examples included bioactive liquid soap derived from pomegranate peel, seaweed-waste films reinforced with cellulose nanocrystals and tannic acid, and the use of spent tea leaves as a sustainable biosorbent for water-quality applications.

Other contributions considered mechanical shelling of Cucurbitaceaeseeds, awareness of sustainable nutrition and food waste, and the migration of chemical contaminants from plastic packaging into food. These studies demonstrated the breadth of sustainability-related research across the food system.

2.6 Emerging Food Technologies and Gastronomy

The congress also explored emerging technologies and consumer-oriented aspects of food and gastronomy. Presentations covered blockchain-based approaches to food security, sensory evaluation using electronic technologies, dietary patterns and cancer prevention, food-safety knowledge among vocational students, and the role of regional foods and gastronomy in cultural tourism.