Thirty Years of Aquatic Food Product Technology

Another strange year has passed with a pandemic still affecting our lives, but it is possible to see a more normalized world in a not so distant future. Online meetings and conferences are a very effective way to meet, but attending a physical conference, EFFoST 2021 in Lausanne, Switzerland in November 2021 reminded me that meeting fellow scientists face to face is something I had missed for the last 20 months. The opportunity to meet and to discuss with new and old contacts, to be able to sit down and have a coffee or lunch together, and even going to a conference dinner are experiences that an online meeting cannot give. I do hope there will be new possibilities in 2022; perhaps, we even will see the return of the WEFTA conference that has not been arranged the last two years and that has been an excellent meeting place for fish technologists mainly from Europe.

It has been thirty years since our founding editor, George Pigott, began the Journal of Aquatic Food Product Technology in 1992, and we have finally grown up. Having gone through the toddler and pre-school years with George in charge, Michael Morrissey took over and brought the journal through elementary school beginning in 1999, bringing on Torger Børresen as a co-editor for the junior high in 2004. David Green replaced Michael in 2007 bringing the journal safely through high school and fulfilling a successful master study. Ready for the PhD, David gave the reigns to Christina DeWitt in 2016, and two years later, I stepped in for Torger as co-editor, bringing the journal through the PhD and into a two-year post doctorial. So finally, JAFPT is fully educated and ready to deliver the real job for the future years. The journal has been evolving nicely from the start, increasing both the number of issues and published papers through the three decades of existence and without having a negative effect on the impact factor, quite the opposite.

The Board of Editors is also changing. Some have stepped down during 2021; kudos to Jörg Oehlenschläger, who has been a Receiving Editor for more than 14 years, and to Charlotte Jacobsen (since 2010), Ragnar Olsen and Ana Carvajal (2016), and Ida-Johanne Jensen (2018). They have decided to leave the editorial board for various reasons, but when someone leaves, it opens the possibility for others. New members are already on-board, and more are coming soon. Due to an increased number of manuscript submissions, we are planning to expand the editorial board further in order to lighten the burden for each member. So, if you are reading this and would like to contribute your time to the Board of Editors, you are welcome to send your CV and motivation letter to my email below to be considered.

Have a tremendous 2022! It can only be better, and with increased focus on sustainable development goals, climate change, and healthy living, there are numerous scientific challenges within aquatic food product technology on which to focus.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.