More than 60 participants from more than 20 European countries participated in the 2nd Feed for Health Conference in Tromsø (14-15 June). In his opening speech Bjørn Eirik Olsen, Director of Nofima marked, emphasised the importance of the theme 'Food and health elderly' of this conference. After the welcome addresses by Luciano Pinotti, Chair of the COST Action Feed for Health and by Joop Luten (Nofima) as local organiser the confernce started. In total approximately 45 presentations divided over four sessions in 1.5 day. A heavy task for the chairpersons to stay with the time limits given but all was managed smoothly. The speed presentations of 5 minutes in stead of a poster session was a great success. Several young researchers presented their work as an outcome of the Short Term Scientific Missions within the COST Action 'Feed for Health'.

Judith Buttriss (British Nutrition Foundation, UK) summarised as the first keynote speaker the findings of a Task Force that had reviewed the evidence for a role of nutrition and physical activity, in particular, in healthy aging.

In the 2nd keynote presentation Wolfgang Koppe (Skretting Aquaculture Research Centre, Norway) concluded that the tools for producing fish with feeds which have a minimized content of fish meal and optimized content of fish oil exist today.

Jurgen Gropp (Germany), member of the FEEDAP Panel of the European Food Safety Authority, presented in his keynote lecture a number of illustrations of the effect of feed additives used in animal production on the final quality of food.  Examples ranged from vitamin A, vitamin E and vitamin B12 and carotenoids.

Elderly consumers were the central issue in the fourth invite keynote presentation. Øydis Ueland from Nofima Mat (Norway) shared her vision on the role of old habits and new needs of this growning category of consumers.Studies show that old habits prevail, and upholding a traditional diet is therefore important in older age groups.

Feed for fish and fish for food was the title of the fifth keynote presentation. Janneche Utne Skåre (Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, Norway) discussed how the possible health promoting effects of farmed fish consumption depend on the feed quality wrt nutritional composition and the content of undesirable contaminants.

The presentations of this 2nd Feed for Health conference will become available in the next weeks as short news items. The abstract book can be downloaded within a few weeks. The Conference was sponsored by COST, Norwegian Research Council and Nofima.