The Organizing Committee would like to invite you to take part in the 18th International Symposium on Processing Tomato by sending an abstract to present your research orally or by poster during the event. This influential Symposium is a unique platform within ISHS symposia, allowing researchers and people working in the industry to meet, discuss and find solutions together
The Symposium will be held in parallel with the 16th World Processing Tomato Congress with a full schedule of oral and poster sessions, from Monday 8 to Wednesday 10 June 2026, including some joint sessions with the congress.
The Symposium will focus on addressing key scientific questions and issues related to the entire industry, from field (production for industrial purposes, applied ecophysiology, agronomy, biotic and abiotic stress resistance, genetics applied to industrial food systems) to fork (organoleptic and nutritional food quality, smart quality control processes, healthy food, high quality cultivars).
A fee must be paid to submit an abstract (this is not part of the symposium registration fees and is charged by ISHS and not by the symposium organisers) if you are not already an ISHS member.
If you are not an ISHS member and are unsure if your abstract fits with the symposium theme to be accepted, you can send it for pre-screening to the Symposium Secretariat at symposium@worldtomatocongress.com.
All abstracts must be in English and should contain a short introduction, material and methods and key results (maximum 300 words). Graphics, tables, references and acknowledgments should not be included. Title, keywords, authors, affiliation and contact details (postal address and e-mail) should be added in separate fields. Overtly commercial and insufficiently informative abstracts will not be accepted for the symposium.
Please indicate your preference for oral or poster presentation at the time of abstract submission. Final decisions on whether submissions are accepted as oral or poster presentations will be made by the Scientific Committee on the basis of the abstracts submitted.
Abstracts will be reviewed by the Scientific Committee and authors will be informed of their acceptance as a poster or oral presentation at the very latest by the end of February 2026.
All accepted abstracts will be published in the Abstract Book which will be distributed to all registered participants at the congress & symposium. Following the Symposium and after review by the Scientific Committee, full papers will be published in a special issue of Acta Horticulturae (https://www.actahort.org/). The first author of each published paper will be given online access to the electronic version of the Acta Horticulturae symposium proceedings.
Your abstract should address one or more of the following areas:
1. CROP PRODUCTION
1.1. Managing Plant Stress in the Future - more regulatory pressure (less effective tools), and the impacts of climate change
1.2. Opportunities for Automation: Transplanting, Cultivation, Irrigation, and Stress Monitoring
1.3. Agronomic Management - is Precision possible?
1.5. Emerging Pests & Diseases - Management for Problems which lack of resistance - Soil-borne fungal pathogens, Root-knot nematodes, Vectored viruses, and Parasitic weeds
1.6. New Breeding Technologies - What's Possible? What are we waiting for?
1.7. Management Adaptation that Works for the Market and the Grower - Organic, Regenerative and Climate-Smart Practices
2. PROCESSING & PRODUCTS
2.1. Efficient use of resources used for processing (water, energy, …) and reduction of environmental impact
2.2.Emerging technologies for tomato processing
2.3 Quality measurement and new methods to predict finished-product quality
2.3. Adding value to tomato by-products in food or non-food applications
2.4. Health benefits of tomato products and extracts from tomatoes
2.6. Food safety issues: contaminants, alternaria toxins, …
2.7. Innovation in tomato products
Please note: When submitting your abstract, you are indicating your availability and willingness to attend and present your paper at the 18th ISHS International Symposium on Processing Tomato, to develop and write a full paper complying with the ISHS Acta Horticulturae Author Guidelines (https://www.ishs.org/authors) and to respect all deadlines.