In the EU the gap is generally known as the European 'paradox', a weakness in transforming research into industrial development and this, in turn, into commercial results.

A food brokerage meeting held in Nantes, France during the recent conference of the International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) and one being held tomorrow in Poland are examples of the push to solve the problem by increasing contact between researchers and industry.

Such brokerage events involve face-to-face meetings between research scientists and industry representatives to discuss the possible use of their discoveries as ways to improve operations, such as by adjusting processing or food safety techniques.

In such meetings food companies could possibly gain access to research they may not have been aware of before, giving them a one up on the competition. Discovering that such research exists may also saving companies the cost of having to repeat such studies. For scientists it's a means of getting patented research to market faster.

The brokerage event being held in Warsaw, Poland from 16-17 November between scientists, industry and EU administrators is part of the official launch of the bloc's release of €54m in funding for research in the country, of which part will be slated for studies in the food, agriculture and biotechnology sectors.

The brokerage event offers a forum for tailored face-to-face meetings between researchers and small businesses. It is open for research centres, industrial organisations and enterprises active in the field of food production and processing, a spokesperson for the event told FoodProductionDaily.com.

The meetings could also result in research and food industry groups forming consortia to prepare applications for some of the research funding on particular topics. The spokesperson said about ten meetings had been set up over the two days of the event.

Meanwhile in Nantes, the France-based Centr' Atlantic IRC organised a day of meetings between food companies and researchers during the International Union of Food Science & Technology's five-day bi-annual conference, held in September.

Centr' Atlantic IRC organiser Cendrine Carmagnac said about 140 meetings occurred during the day, the first such brokerage event to be held at an IUFoST conference. Each meeting was scheduled to last about half an hour. Half the meetings were requested by companies. The rest were requests by scientists seeking to pitch their ideas to particular companies.

"Companies and scientific institutions are really happy to be involved in such meetings" she told FoodProductionDaily.com. "You know what you are talking about in advance so you don't waste your time. For example if you have a technical problem you always invest a lot of time and money to solve them, but perhaps you already have the answer available from research."

Some of the companies were there to negotiate exclusive access to the patented research produced by the scientists in a bid to open new markets for themselves, she added.

Offers made during the meetings include quality, safety and production management software, from researchers in Holland, a method developed by a Spanish research centre to detect adulteration and frauds in food products and a "new concept" in tray packaging developed in France.

A French cook who says he spent 15 years developing a new snacking product was also among the mix of those making pitches to manufacturers in a room set up for the brokerage event.

Carmagnac says Centr' Atlantic IRC, a regional organisation funded by government to encourage technology transfer, plans to hold similar events for the food sector in the future.