Finland-China Food and Health Network (FCFH) is a pioneering platform aimed at promoting research, education, and cooperation in the fields of food sciences, and other fields related to food and health. In addition to collaboration within academia, the FCFH-Network strongly emphasizes collaboration with industry encouraging industrial-academia collaboration as well as providing a platform for companies from both countries to meet and to develop business partnerships.
Initiatives that foster collaboration between nations hold immense significance
Food and nutrition security is a grand challenge globally. Food production and consumption are major contributors to biodiversity loss and climate change. A transition to a more sustainable food system is urgently needed to ensure safe and healthy food for the growing world population within the ecological limits of the planet.
Finland and China have food systems with strikingly different operating models and cultural backgrounds. Both countries have strong and complementary expertise in food science and technology. The Finland-China Network is a pilot project of the global internationalisation programme launched by the Ministry of Culture and Education of Finland.
The FCFH-Network aims to enhance scientific and technological know-how to address the global challenges of food security, malnutrition and climate change by promoting the cooperation between universities in the two countries. The FCFH-Network covers research and innovation of a broad scope of food and on various topics of health related to food and diet. In addition to collaboration within academia, the FCFH-Network emphasizes collaboration with industry encouraging industrial-academia collaboration as well as providing a platform for companies from both countries to meet and to develop business partnerships.
The Finland-China Food and Health Network (FCFH) is a pioneering platform aimed at promoting research, education, and cooperation in the fields of food sciences, and other fields related to food and health such as biomedicine and nursing science. University of Turku coordinates the network’s activities in Finland. The network is part of The Ministry of Education and Culture’s internationalisation programme within its core funding for Finnish higher education institutions during the period 2021–2024.
Long-term goals of the network include building a unique platform for multidisciplinary research, increasing business collaboration between Finland and China, conducting top-level scientific research, creating and supporting innovations, as well as raising awareness of and attracting international experts to Finland. The network strives to bring together universities, universities of applied sciences and companies from different fields. Interestingly, the network’s initiative is based on already existing collaboration with Chinese partners.
During the project years, collaboration between the consortia partners has been deepened. There has been student and staff mobilities, joint publications, research projects, scientific workshops, seminars.
The significance of such collaboration cannot be overstated, especially in today’s interconnected world where issues like obesity, malnutrition, and food safety transcend borders. Through the network we can develop innovative solutions that can benefit societies on a global scale.
Food insecurity due to population growth and limited arable land, overburdened landfills in agricultural side streams, and diet-induced diseases such as diabetes, obesity and metabolic disorders are ongoing grand global issues that require urgent and sustainable solutions. Contributing to the scientific renewal, FCFH have been supporting the state-of-the-art researches which focus on nutrition and health effects of food; sustainability, quality and safety of food; and technologies of digital tools related to food and health.
Examples of undergoing research
FCFH seed fundings have been granted to many studies with multi-dimensional novelty and multi-disciplinary background. For instance, one of the seed-funded on-going project EncapWaste4Gut proposes a systematic approach to unlock the unknown fields of phenolic-driven gut metabolism, aiming to increase the bioavailability of phenolics in the colon. EncapWaste4Gut will pave the way for developing a scientific approach to upregulate gut health accurately via the fully utilized efficacy of phenolics. Our findings will achieve scientific breakthroughs in targeted transporting phenolics to the specific site in the colon. Improved phenolic bioavailability will enhance the effectiveness of their intervention intensity of prevalent gut diseases.
Using Finnish local agricultural side streams (e. g. oat hulls, berry pomace) as alternative sources of phenolic compounds will increase resource-use efficiency, avoid the competing burden and save the commonly consumed plants for the growing human population while minimizing the negative impact of food waste on nature. Encapsulated phenolics with customized dosages will be suitable for developing consumer-oriented prebiotic products.
FCFH also support the joint research on Chinese traditional herbal medicine – Gardeniae fructus. Visiting assistant professor Qinxue Ni from China and senior researchers Dr. Ying Zhou and Dr. Ye Tian from University of Turku have been working on converting medical herbs into innovative food products and searching for an efficient and safe approach for Finnish and Chinese food companies to introduce Gardeniae fructus into human diet. This collaboration will enhance public health in both Finland and China, and deepen the collaboration between Finland-China food industry.
Scientific and social impact
By establishing the FCFH platform, researchers with multi-disciplinary background are sharing professional skills, facilities, methodologies and valuable experiences. Project outcomes include but are not limited to top-journal publications. With the teamwork of experts in FCFH network and their reciprocal mobility collaboration, the efficiency of project progress will be improved while potential risks of the research will be minimized. This will benefit all project partners to foster collaboration and build partnerships in long-term. The knowledge gained in the projects could promote the intervention of daily diet, the development of healthy food and a new market for novel food based on sustainable perspective. Eventually, it will provide a broader perspective on the resilience of food system and circle economy based on scientific knowledge.
Authors
Professor Baoru Yang, Senior Researcher Ying Zhou and Coordinator Kia Lundqvist (edited)
University of Turku (FCFH -network)
The Sino-Finnish research cooperation within the frame of FCFH – network
Finland-China Food and Health Network) covers a broad scope of research on sustainability and health effects of food, with a special emphasis on cooperation between researchers from Finland and China.
Professor Baoru Yang from University of Turku leads the coordination of the FCFH network nationally, while the universities of Helsinki, Eastern-Finland, Oulu, Tampere and Åbo Akademi form the active members of the network.
The network is part of The Ministry of Education and Culture’s internationalisation programme within its core funding for Finnish higher education institutions during the period 2021–2024. As part of this internationalisation programme, Finnish higher education institutions launched several global networks focusing on regions in Africa, China, India and the US.
For more information about the Finland-China Food and Health Network and its initiatives, please visit the website at https://fcfh.utu.fi/.
