IFT Live 2012

posted on June 8, 2009

At Sunday morning’s keynote session of the 2009 Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting & Food Expo, incoming IFT President Marianne Gillette and President-Elect Bob Gravani announced and presented four companies with the 2009 IFT Food Expo Innovation Awards. The recipients are: Ecolab Inc.; EnWave Corp.; National Center for Food Safety & Technology; and National Starch Food Innovation.

A panel of eight jurors from industry, academia, and government with broad expertise in research & product development, processing & packaging technology, analytical methodologies and tests, and food safety selected the four companies and their innovations from 49 qualified entries. Only companies exhibiting at the 2009 IFT Food Expo in Anaheim were eligible. Judging criteria included degree of innovation, solves a problem relevant to food science and technology, technical advancement, benefits to food manufacturers and consumers, and scientific merit.

• Ecolab Inc. (Booth 1901) garnered the 2009 IFT Food Expo Innovation Award for its Peroxyacetic Acid-based Commercial Sterilant, which sterilizes plastic bottles at lower temperatures than hydrogen peroxide, thereby reducing energy. It also mitigates bottle shrinkage and peroxide residuals. “Since the sterilant can be used to sterilize non-porous packages, the need of a cold supply chain is eliminated,” noted a juror. “This is another energy savings (cost) both for the consumer and processor.”

• EnWave Corp. (Booth 1386) won the award for its nutraREV Dehydration Technology. The radiant energy vacuum technology delivers rapid, low-temperature dehydration of fruits, vegetables, snack foods, and herbs. It uses less than one-third the energy of freeze drying with one-sixth the capital cost. The technology provides for rapid dehydration via vacuum microwave and allows process design for a variety of finished product moisture contents, said a juror.

• National Center for Food Safety & Technology (Booth 608) was honored for its Pressure Assisted Thermal Sterilization—an FDA-accepted processing technology which combines mild heat with high pressure to produce commercially sterile low-acid food products with equivalent or better quality than frozen foods. “An FDA-accepted system uses mild heat with high pressure to produce shelf-life stable food with better quality,” stated a juror. “This breakthrough technology is important to ensure the safety and quality of low-acid foods.”

• National Starch Food Innovation (Booth 1237) captured the 2009 IFT Food Expo Innovation Award for its NOVATION Starches, which can be used to manufacture products such as salad dressings with texture attributes and process tolerance that were only possible with modified food starches. The starches are labeled as “corn starch” on the ingredient statement. The technology meets consumer needs, said a juror.