On Friday, October 20, Ms. Begoña Rodríguez, the Director of the BCC Innovation R&D & Technology Center at the Basque Culinary Center (BCC), and her colleagues visited Biwako-Kusatsu Campus for an information exchange session with College of Gastronomy Management Professors Masayoshi Ishida and Yuji Wada and other partners.

BCC is an academic institution located in the Basque region of Spain. Comprised of Mondragon University’s Faculty of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts and Food Science Development and Innovation Center, BCC has developed a reputation as a world-class center for the creation of new food-related businesses, the transfer of technologies in related industries, and the promotion of technological innovation. A delegation from the BCC R&D & Technology Center visited Ritsumeikan for this session.

The information exchange session continued with a talk by Hitoshi Tonomura, Founder of Food Tech Studio - Bites, on the topic of foodtech and the significance of BCC's visit to Japan. This was followed by introductions of both institutions by Jose Peláez of BCC and GMRU Professor Ishida. Next, College of Gastronomy Management Professor Wada and Mt. Tomi from Fuji Oil explained the gastro-cognitive science research being conducted in Japan and its applications to the fields of engineering and new material development. After this, participants were given the opportunity to taste Fuji Oil's vegetable-based Japanese and Western-style soup stocks. Mr. Kikuchi from Biwako Hotel introduced the Satoyama Project, which aims to maintain and develop the terroir of Lake Biwa, and the participants were given a taste of what the project is all about at the welcome dinner held at the same hotel. Finally, Mr. Oda of the Kyoto Prefectural Office discussed the food research that the Prefecture plans to conduct going forward.

This information exchange session proved to be a valuable opportunity to share opinions on the future of food science from a global perspective.