International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (CIGR) established in 1930 is the largest international organisation of its type in the field. Section VI of CIGR deals with the engineering principles and technologies in postharvest and processing of agri-food products. It is devoted to the advancement, dissemination and transfer of technology in postharvest and processing at a global scale, with its mission as follows:

  • To bring together all those working in postharvest and processing;

  • To enhance international experiences, exchange and cooperation, for the advancement of knowledge in this area worldwide;

  • To stimulate participation in CIGR activities, especially CIGR Congresses;

  • To define areas that are in need of research and transfer of technology; and

  • To advance the assurance of safety of all products for human consumption.

In order to fulfil the above missions, CIGR Section VI has organised a series of international symposiums. The latest symposium—the 8th CIGR Section VI International Symposium on Advanced Food Processing and Quality Management—was held in South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China, on 3–7 November 2013.

The theme of the conference, Advanced Food Processing and Quality Management, was presented by leaders from both industry and academia focusing on recent scientific advances in food processing and technological tools to handle, preserve, process, maintain and control quality in fresh and processed foods. I was delighted with their commitment to the conference, as with the high standard of the papers presented across all sessions of the conference.

The organising committee has made particular efforts to provide an excellent programme for all delegates by including sessions on advanced food processing technologies; non-thermal techniques; food safety and traceability, and quality measurement; mathematical modelling and process control; imaging and image processing; non-destructive measurements and biosensors; drying and bio-processing technology; packaging and storage technology; cold chain technologies; transportation, logistics and supply chain management and others. In total, the conference has attracted 421 papers from 42 countries. In the period of two and a half days, 130 oral presentations were given in 6 keynote lectures and 21 parallel sessions, plus 210 posters were displayed. These sessions were designed to stimulate meaningful debate, enable in-depth technical discussions, allow significant exchange of new and exciting findings of research and generate good ideas for the participants. I therefore believe that this conference has proven to be a productive one for all of us. In this CIGR Special Section, some selected papers from the conference are included to highlight the quality and diversity of the papers presented at the conference.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues in the organising committee for their contributions and the staff of CIGR for their professional assistance with the organisation of the conference. I would also like to thank all of our sponsors whose generous support has enabled us to present the conference with a high standard and broad appeal.

In particular, I would like to thank members of the Paper Selection Committee for recommending suitable papers for this CIGR Special Section, and Prof. Jorge Barros Velazquez for handling all these papers.

Da-Wen Sun

Chairman of the Conference

CIGR President 2013–2014