The "IV International Symposium on Sourdough: from arts to science” will be held in Freising (near Munich, Germany), 14.-17. October 2009. The symposium venue is the "Kardinal Döpfner Haus", which is situated right across the famous Cathedral of Freising on the history-laden hill in the old town. In this symposium we want to bring together all colleagues interested in the topic, residing at universities, research institutes and (research departments of) companies. In particular we want to address this to young researchers and (PhD) students to exchange and discuss their novel results, stimulate new ideas and bring forward international collaborations and short term missions.

Bread is a staple food in many diets. It contributes to cultural and geographical identity. Further, artisan bread production, when obtained by using sourdough, provides a wide, regional variety of breads and many other different leavened baked goods. Sourdough is a mixture of wheat or, especially in Central/Northern Europe, rye flour and water that is fermented by lactic acid bacteria and yeasts. Sourdough fermentation improves dough properties, texture, flavour and nutritional value of the leavened bakery product, retards the staling process, and limits spoilage. Sourdough can be looked at as an art based on intrinsic baker’s tradition to achieve maximal sensorial experiences. The growing industrial production and awareness of health from nutrition stipulates a deeper look into all aspects of the sourdough system. The resulting science-based understanding of nutritionally enhanced, sensorially improved sourdough products with enhanced shelf life explains traditions and fosters industrial developments of the otherwise irreproducible quality of artisanal baked goods.

The symposium follows a successful series of International symposia on sourdough held in Verona, Brussels and Bari and is organized by Prof. Dr. Rudi F. Vogel, Technische Universität München, Freising, Germany. It is endorsed by Healthgrain (an Integrated EU Project on "Exploiting Bioactivity of European Cereal Grains for Improved Nutrition and Health Benefits", and GDL (Gesellschaft Deutscher Lebensmitteltechnologen) and it will aim to divulgate, to both scientific community and bakery industries, the most recent developments in scientific research on sourdough, from a microbiological, biochemical, molecular, biological, technological and consumer point of view.

The Local Organizing Committee is composed of: Rudi F. Vogel, Daniel Meißner, Matthias Ehrmann and Angela Seppeur (TUM, Freising, Germany).

The Scientific Advisory Board is composed of: Elke Arendt (UCC, Cork, Ireland), Markus Brandt (Böcker GmbH & Co. KG, Minden, Germany), Stephan Cappelle (Puratos N.V., Andenne, Belgium), Franco Dellaglio (University of Verona, Italy), Michael Gänzle (UA, Edmonton, Canada), Marco Gobbetti (UB, Bari, Italy), Peter Schieberle (TUM, Garching, Germany), Kaisa Poutanen (VTT, Finland), Rudi F. Vogel (TUM, Freising, Germany) and Luc De Vuyst (VUB, Brussels, Belgium).

You are invited to submit contributions for oral presentations and posters. These will be reviewed by the scientific board members who reserve the right to accept presentations and make a final decision on the presentation as poster or lecture, depending on scientific quality, novelty and available time and space.

For submission of a contribution, please go to "Abstracts" in the side toolbar and follow the guidelines given there for the required format.

We especially encourage PhD students to present their recent work and thus contact colleagues with similar topics for scientific discussion, collaboration and future laboratory visits. To stimulate this process, we intend to give awards to the best student contributions selected by the scientific board.

Contact Dr. Daniel Meißner at sourdough@foodscience.ws for scientific matters

Contact Angela Seppeur at contact@foodscience.ws for organizational matters