Prof. Frank Devlieghere, Ghent University 

(1968) holds an academic position as Full Professor at Ghent University since 2003 in the area of Food Microbiology and Food Preservation at the Faculty of Bio-Science Engineering, Ghent University, Belgium. His laboratory (Food Microbiology and Food Preservation) focuses on answering to societal challenges regarding worldwide safe food and food waste by creating quantitative and qualitative insights in the behavior of micro-organisms (pathogens and spoilage) in the food chain. His work focusses on microbial aspects of food preservation and has four main topics: (1) mild food preservation, (2) mechanisms of microbial food spoilage, (3) predictive microbiology and (4) microbial aspects of food packaging. 
Throughout his career Prof. Devlieghere, has published more than 350 peer reviewed scientific papers in the field of food microbiology, authored several book chapters and presented at numerous international Conferences/Workshops. For a full list of publications refer to https://biblio.ugent.be/person/801000909433

Sustainable packaging systems - the state-of-the-art regarding the possible effect on microbial shelf life and safety.

Food industry needs to shift towards more sustainable packaging systems. This includes material with possible less barrier function, one-layer foils and reduced material thickness, among others. The protection and barrier function and the use of modified atmosphere is an important control measure in the quality and food safety assurance systems. Therefore, this shift might have consequences on the microbial safety and spoilage of packaged products, and thus also for consumer health and food waste. This talk summarizes the state-of-the-art regarding the possible effect of using more sustainable food packaging materials on microbial shelf life and safety.