'Plant Breeding: Sustaining the Future' Abstracts of the XVIth EUCARPIA Congress, Edinburgh, Scotland, 10-14 September 2001 FOOD QUALITY, NUTRITION AND HEALTH - AN INDUSTRIAL VIEWPOINT P.J. LILLFORD Unilever, Colworth House, Bedfordshire MK44 1LQ, England

Predicting the future is a dangerous game, but becoming increasingly important as consumer choice determines so much of industries' success in a competitive free food market.  By constructing a model of the Food Chain, we can examine the interests of each of the players, and the impact of science and technology on each.

The potential offered by understanding the genetic origin of the properties of our crops and the health of our consumers is enormous.  Frighteningly so, since whilst everything now seems possible, the number of innovative raw materials and product technologies will increase rapidly but the only successful ones will be those that satisfy consumer needs (which are often latent and uncommunicated).

We must also recognise that, for rich consumers independent of their nationality or location, all options are possible.  However, the other great driver on the food industry is continuing rapid population growth.  Technology will be vital in the provision of more food, but who will pay the development costs, and who will take the profits?