BACKGROUND

CIGR (Int. Commission of Agricultural Engineering - www.cigr.org) Section VI (Postharvest Technology and Process Engineering) deals with the engineering principles and technologies in post-harvest and processing of agri-food products. It is devoted to follow the trends, promote the advancement and enhance the dissemination and transfer of technology in postharvest and processing at a global scale.

Agri-food processing engineering has had an increasing importance for the rapid development during the past decade. A fundamental basis of this area of knowledge is to bring together physical sciences with knowledge on product physiology and properties, in order to maintain quality and develop new techniques for quality recognition. There has been a great development of technical improvements in post-production practices. Although yields of many products and field production technologies have made significant advances, losses due to lack of appropriate storage and processing facilities and technologies have increased globally.

On the other hand, quality and safety of the products has evolved into a high priority in many markets. This development has taken place mainly in the advancement of the traditional sciences and technologies, and also in a broadening areas of knowledge that have been introduced into agri-food processing, especially new technologies for sensing and computing.

In order to fulfill better its missions, following the successful 1st International Conference on Bioproducts Processing and Food Safety held in Beijing in October 2004, and the 2nd Technical Symposium on Future of Food Engineering held in Warsaw in April 2006, the CIGR Section VI is organizing the 3rd Technical Symposium on Food and Agricultural Products: Processing and Innovations in Naples (Italy) on 24-26 September 2007.