3-6 November, 2026 • Prague, Czech Republic

The RAFA organizers, University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague  https://uapv.vscht.cz  (UCT Prague, Czech Republic) and Wageningen Food Safety Research (WFSR),  https://www.wur.nl/en/research/food-safety  part of Wageningen University & Research (The Netherlands), would like to invite food scientists from academia, together with representatives of industry, national and international agencies, control authorities, governmental and commercial laboratories to attend this event.

www.rafa2026.eu

Since the first edition in 2003, RAFA has grown to become a prestigious international attracting up to 850 participants from more than 60 countries worldwide. More than 50 sponsors, exhibitors, media and supporting partners typically support RAFA.

RAFA 2026 will provide an overview of contemporary trends in analytical and bioanalytical strategies for food quality and safety control and discuss challenges and novel approaches in food and natural products analysis.

Satellite events, seminars and workshops

The conference programme will be also accompanied by several satellite events focused on novel challenges, including for example workshops on “Vibrational spectroscopy and chemometrics”, and “Smart data handling and AI in food analysis”. An interactive seminar will discuss “Step by step strategies for fast development of smart analytical methods”. The EC Reference Laboratories Colloquium will include a workshop on “Experiences, achievements and challenges addressed by EU Reference Laboratories”. The Experts’ summit, EU and beyond will feature a joint session by AOAC INTERNATIONAL and ILSI Europe on “Harmonizing Methods and Managing Risk: A Food Industry Perspective”. Another workshop will provide an overview of “Opportunities to collaborate within a European research and innovation area”.

Vendor Seminars and Exhibition

Leading companies will organize vendor seminars to introduce recent instrumentation and analytical strategies for advanced food quality and safety control. The exhibition will showcase state-of-the-art instrumentation, laboratory equipment, screening tests, standards/reference materials, and consumables used in food analysis.

Opportunities for Young Scientists

A platform for young scientists will be provided to present their scientific work. Typically, 20% of contributed oral presentations are assigned to the next generation of researchers. RAFA 2026 Student Travel Grants will be available. The best poster presentation(s) by a young scientist(s) will be awarded with the prestigious RAFA Poster Award and sponsored poster award(s).

Why to attend

RAFA offers a particularly attractive combination of high-level scientific content, real-world analytical challenges and a highly international audience from academia, industry and regulatory laboratories. One of RAFA’s major strengths is its practical relevance, highlighting analytical solutions for challenging sample matrices and emerging food safety issues.

In summary, RAFA 2026 will offer again a high-quality scientific programme with top-level presentations followed by stimulating discussions, a series of satellite events, a state-of-the-art exhibition and an attractive social programme. Scientific contributions will be presented by leading scientists through keynote lectures, and by contributed oral and poster presentations.

More details can be found on the RAFA 2026 website at www.rafa2026.eu