IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo^®
More than 15,000 food professionals found themselves in the Big Easy for the 2011 IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo^®, which was held June 11–14 in New Orleans, La. In addition, 900+ exhibitors were present to show their latest products and innovations on the expo floor. In between enjoying breakfast at Brennan’s and a late night snack at Café Du Monde, attendees were meeting exhibitors, attending meetings, and brushing up their skills at the 100+ scientific sessions.

Obviously, one person can’t make it to everything that the meeting had to offer in just four short days. IFT Live—the official electronic show daily—offers the chance for you to see what you may have missed. This year, IFT Live contains 100+ articles from the event, written by the Food Technology magazine staff. Not only does IFT Live offer articles covering the show, it also includes a photo gallery and videos taken at the show.

In this newsletter—the official wrap up of the show—you will find in-depth coverage of the sessions, award winners, products from the expo, and much more. Visit IFT Live.

Malcolm Bourne Receives 2011 Appert Award
Malcolm Bourne, Emeritus Professor of Food Science, Cornell University, was honored as the recipient of the 2011 Nicholas Appert Award on Saturday, June 11, at the Awards Celebration. Robert Gravani, IFT President, presented Bourne with the award, which is IFT’s highest honor and is given annually to an IFT member for preeminence in and contributions to the field of food science and technology. The award includes a $5,000 honorarium and a plaque from IFT. Also honored Saturday night were the 16 food professionals named 2011 IFT Fellows.

Here’s a look at some of the other awards and competition winners announced at the 2011 IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo^®.

Food Expo Innovation Awards
Phi Tau Sigma Honors Division Poster Winners
IFTSA Competition Winners

Running to Raise Money
There’s nothing quite like starting the day off with a run in the New Orleans heat and humidity. Still, the heat didn’t deter the 575+ people that registered to take part in Feeding Tomorrow’s 11th Annual Fun Run on Monday morning, June 13, at Audobon Park. In total, sponsorships garnered over $77,000, once again a record high for Feeding Tomorrow scholarships. Just for participating, all runners received a race t-shirt.

Attendees also gave their time and energy for another worthy cause—the Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana.

IFT Cares Volunteers Pitch in, Reach Out in New Orleans

Dr. Regina Benjamin Defines a Role for Food Science
For the Beacon Lecture series on Monday, June 13, Dr. Regina Benjamin, U.S. Surgeon General, laid out her goal for the health and wellness of U.S. citizens. Food science and the food industry play significant roles in her vision. “As America’s doctor, I really want to provide the best scientific knowledge” to make the lifestyles of Americans healthier, she said. And the best time to provide that knowledge is before illness strikes: a strategy for prevention. Food is an important part of this strategy, and Dr. Benjamin emphasized the role that the food industry can play in the prevention of food-related disease.

Dr. Benjamin wasn’t the only prestigious guest that spoke at this year’s IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo. They include: Patrick Wall, Professor of Public Health at the University College Dublin; Michael Specter, Journalist with the New Yorker; and Sam Kass, White House Chef & Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives. Here’s a look at what they shared with IFT attendees.

Communicating Food Safety Issues in a Global Society
Keynote Session: Speaking Out for Science
White House Chef Urges Students to Create Healthier Products

In the Spirit of New Orleans
This year, Food Technology Senior Editor Donald Pszczola noted that New Orleans fare—tumbo, crawfish etouffee, red beans and rice, and bananas foster—helped to inspire the creation of many of the prototype foods and beverages served at the IFT Food Expo. Ingredient exhibitors use these prototypes not only to capture the local atmosphere, but also to demonstrate, in a number of creative ways, how their ingredients can address trends in flavor, texture, functionality, and better-for-you formulating.

Here’s a look at some of Don’s other product development takeaways from the IFT Food Expo.

A ‘Revolution’ in Texture?
Picking Blueberries in New Orleans
Flavors From Around the World
Sipping on New Beverage Ideas
Meeting Functionality Challenges

Snacks Take Off as Food Industry Struggles to Define
There’s a phenomenon that has taken the United States by storm in the last 30–40 years. In session 136 “Snacking: Insight and perspectives on contributions to the American diet,” held Monday, June 13, three experts examined how snacking has taken over and its role in the growing obesity epidemic. Although the industry is lacking a definitive definition, there is no doubt that consumers are snacking more. According to Rick Mattes, Purdue University, consumers have increased the number of snacks they are eating per day so much so that a quarter of total energy taken in is from snacks.

With the industry highly focused on making food healthier, many of the 100+ scientific sessions offered at the IFT Annual Meeting addressed health and wellness. Here’s a look at just some of these sessions.

Overcoming the Challenges of Natural High-Potency Sweeteners
A Taste for Reduced Sodium
Healthy Icon Served on a Plate
Improving Physical Performance Through Nutraceuticals
Creating an Effective Anti-Inflammatory Food Market
Natural Flavors, Colors Here to Stay
Antioxidants: The Potency Debate

Trend & Solution Tours
For the third year, IFT offered Trend & Solution Tours on the Food Expo floor. Trend & Solution Tours are self-guided tours to the booths of exhibiting companies that offer innovative products or services related to major issues and current trends facing the food industry. This year’s tours were: Taste Modification; Ingredients for Functional Foods; Next Generation for Fats & Oils; New Direction for Carbs; and Weight Management & Diabetes. Of the companies chosen to a part of the Trend Tours, eight were selected to make short videos discussing their products and what trend they address. View the Trend & Solution Tour videos.

This year’s Annual Meeting & Food Expo was a fabulous event, but next year is going to be even more exciting! Join us June 25–28, 2012, in Las Vegas, Nev., for the world-class cuisine, diverse entertainment, and beautiful hotel accommodations that make Las Vegas such a unique business destination. At our 2012 event, you’ll find up-to-the-minute scientific education, a food expo showcasing new products and suppliers from around the world, innumerable opportunities to forge new professional connections, and much more.

Make your plans now to attend the 2012 IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo. We look forward to seeing you there!

Check out other sessions that took place on Monday:

Snacks Take Off as Food Industry Struggles to Define
Using Social Media to Enhance the Product Development Process
Evaluating Emotional Responses Shapes Product Development
Restaurant Industry Serves Up Sustainability

Humidity Can’t Keep the Fun Runners Down
There’s nothing quite like starting the day off with a run in the New Orleans heat and humidity. Still, the heat didn’t deter the 575+ people that registered to take part in Feeding Tomorrow’s 11th Annual Fun Run on Monday morning, June 13, at Audobon Park. In total, sponsorships garnered over $77,000, once again a record high for Feeding Tomorrow scholarships. Read More >>

Tapping Into Trends Courtesy of Innova Market Insights
What’s driving consumer behavior in 2011? Experts from Innova Market Insights mapped it out for Food Expo attendees with comprehensive top 10 trend displays in the Taste the Trend pavilion (Booth 6253) on the show floor. Innova showcased a list of overarching top 10 trends as well as lists of numerous secondary trends. Read More >>

Healthy Icon Served on a Plate
Earlier this month, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) unveiled a new icon to help U.S. consumers make better food choices: the MyPlate icon. To elaborate further on what the icon represents and why it was developed, Robert Post, Deputy Director of the USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, and Sam Kass, Assistant Chef for the White House, held a press conference on Monday, June 13, at the IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo. Read More >>

Ensuring Food Safety after a Nuclear Disaster
Environmental accidents do affect the food supply and consumer perceptions of food safety, but speed, consistency, and communication are keys to responding to food safety issues, reported Ronald Klein, President of the Association of Food and Drug Officials. He and other experts were on hand to provide information about addressing food safety concerns arising from radioactivity in the late-breaking session “Food after Fukushima: Responding to Radioactive Material as a Foodborne Contaminant.” Read More >>

A Taste for Reduced Sodium
Although the movement to reduce sodium intake is underway, strategies to limit sodium in foods are diverse and not as straightforward as simply reducing the use of salt in food preparation. During Session 183, “Reducing Sodium in Foods: Implications for Flavor and Health,” presenter Russell Keast of Deakin University in Australia pointed out that humans have a biological imperative for sodium intake. Read More >>

For the Beacon Lecture series on Monday, June 13, Dr. Regina Benjamin, U.S. Surgeon General, laid out her goal for the health and wellness of U.S. citizens. Food science and the food industry play significant roles in her vision. “As America’s doctor, I really want to provide the best scientific knowledge” to make the lifestyles of Americans healthier, she said. And the best time to provide that knowledge is before illness strikes: a strategy for prevention. Food is an important part of this strategy, and Dr. Benjamin emphasized the role that the food industry can play in the prevention of food-related disease.

The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s MyPlate icon emphasizes the dietary elements necessary for a healthy lifestyle: at least half a plate of fresh fruits and vegetables. “We are working on getting fresh produce into neighborhoods where there are no grocery stores,” Dr. Benjamin said. And as part of the First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign, several food companies—including The Coca Cola Company, ConAgra, Kellogg Company, and Kraft Foods—have committed to trim 1.5 trillion calories from their food products by 2015. The food industry can also direct their efforts to offering more healthy food products that mirror the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.  These endeavors will ensure that consumers have the tools necessary to make healthier lifestyle choices that can lead to healthier lives.

While the role of the food industry is significant, perhaps that of the medical industry is even more important. “We need to move from a system based on [treating illness] to one of preventing illness,” Dr. Benjamin said. This may mean changing the curriculum at medical schools so that it includes more courses on food science and nutrition. Hopefully, once physicians, food scientists, and food manufacturers are armed with the same information, consumers will gain more access to resources for maintaining good health and preventing food-related diseases.

A little over a year after the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, government regulators with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have determined that seafood from the gulf is safe for human consumption.  

“The bottom line is that there is an extensive amount of data that supports the statement that gulf seafood is safe to eat,” said Calvin Walker, a scientist with NOAA, who made the statement at a press conference on Monday, June 13, during the 2011 IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo in New Orleans.

NOAA and FDA teamed up to test seafood for oil contaminants and chemical dispersants used to break up the oil that flowed into the gulf. The agencies focused testing on two compounds—Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) from the oil and Dioctyl Sodium Sulfosuccinate (DOSS) from the dispersants.

The agencies broke up the affected area (about 37% of the Gulf of Mexico) into 30-mile grids and systematically conducted tests on samples drawn from each grid. During the testing process, thousands of samples were collected and tested for contaminants using both sensory and chemical analysis.

At this point, said Walker, all samples have passed the established testing protocols; levels of contaminants were routinely found to be 100 to 1,000 times below any levels of concern. All federal waters and 99% of the state waters have been reopened for seafood harvesting. NOAA is wrapping up the post-opening surveillance process of follow-up testing.

Check out other sessions that took place on Sunday:

Your Love for Fat May Be All in the Genes
Improving Physical Performance Through Nutraceuticals
Creating an Effective Anti-Inflammatory Food Market

Communicating Food Safety Issues in a Global Society
Outbreaks are not due to bad luck, they are due to bad management, explained Patrick G. Wall, Professor of Public Health at the University College Dublin and one of the Institute of Food Technologists’ inaugural Beacon Lecturers. During the last 25 years many high profile food scares and outbreaks have occurred in the European Union that have eroded consumer confidence in the safety of the food supply and the regulators charged with overseeing food safety issues. Read More >>

Four ‘Must Sees’ on the Food Expo Floor
At the Sunday morning keynote session of the 2011 Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting & Food Expo, incoming IFT President Roger Clemens and President-Elect John Ruff announced and presented four companies with the 2011 IFT Food Expo Innovation Awards. The winners are DuPont Teijin Films, Ecolab, Loders Croklaan North America, and Summit Resource Group. Read More >>

Chefs and Food Scientists Working Side by Side
It is becoming increasingly common for food scientists to be inspired by the culinary world and vice versa. At this year’s IFT/RCA presentation on Sunday, June 12, a chef and food scientist from Bruce Foods shared how they are bringing together their respective fields to enhance the product development process. Chef Nick Landry (photo, left), Corporate Chef and R&D Chef, kicked off the presentation by explaining to the audience what the chef can bring to the table. Read More >>

Attendees Sample Top Trend Products at Mintel
At the beginning of each year, Mintel releases their flavor and ingredient predictions for the year ahead. Now, six months into 2011, Mintel reviewed the top seven of 12 trends at their New Products & Consumer Insights Pavilion presentation on Sunday, June 12. In addition to reviewing the data on new product introductions, Mintel’s Lynn Dornblaser and David Jago offered 23 products for attendees to taste featuring these trends. Here’s a look at the top seven trends influencing the marketplace now. Read More >>

IFT President Bob Gravani welcomed the group. He and IFT Executive Vice President Barbara Byrd Keenan reviewed some of IFT’s highlights of the past year. “We innovated and created value,” said Gravani. Here’s a look at some of the highlights that were shared.

• The IFT Wellness 11 conference in March was the best attended ever.

• IFT’s Food Safety Law Forum and webcast was held just 72 hours after passage of the FDA Food Safety and Modernization Act and attracted 700 participants both in person and online.

• Participation in IFT’s Member-to-Member online community has increased substantially. 

• Twelve IFT webcasts took place in the past year.

• The Chinese Institute of Food Technology renewed Global Food Industry – Food Technology magazine for two years.

• IFT partnered with GS1 to address traceability issues. 

• IFT’s Food Executive Leadership Forum drew a group of senior food officials, who appeared eager to work with IFT.

• IFT media and consumer outreach efforts led to about 2,500 media placements.

• Membership numbers have stabilized, and retention has improved.

• A total of 1,754 members volunteered in support of IFT activities. 

Following the year-in-review presentations, Town Hall meeting attendees divided into three groups for discussion and question-and-answer exchanges. Discussion topics included: 1) Ask the Board of Directors; 2) IFT’s Certification Activities; and 3) Section Engagement. In the course of the latter discussion, IFT’s Director of Membership Sharon Kneebone invited members with ideas on section engagement to e-mail sections@ift.org with their thoughts.

Outbreaks are not due to bad luck, they are due to bad management, explained Patrick G. Wall, Professor of Public Health at the University College Dublin and one of the Institute of Food Technologists’ inaugural Beacon Lecturers.

During the last 25 years many high profile food scares and outbreaks have occurred in the European Union that have eroded consumer confidence in the safety of the food supply and the regulators charged with overseeing food safety issues. As a result, a series of reforms to EU food safety policies and changes to the regulatory environment were established, including reforming EU food laws, creating the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to centralize risk assessment, and establishing a food and veterinary office to audit systems and establish standards for food products within and outside the EU. Wall explained in his presentation, “Reform of Food Safety Control in the EU: Are there Lessons for the USA?”, that despite the EU’s efforts in reforming how it addresses food safety, especially with creating the EFSA, challenges still remain in the global food market.

One challenge Wall discussed in particular was communicating to the consumer in an era of a 24/7 news cycle increasingly dominated by social media and the blogosphere. When a food safety issue arises, media demand answers immediately, which can be burdensome to the regulators dedicating their time and resources to determining the cause of an outbreak. There is also disconnect between consumers and modern food production systems meaning people do not understand where their food comes from, said Wall. Scientists, regulators, and company officials should keep in mind that communication is a two-way process: They should answer questions as well as ask of others what should be addressed, added Wall.

It is becoming increasingly common for food scientists to be inspired by the culinary world and vice versa. At this year’s IFT/RCA presentation on Sunday, June 12, a chef and food scientist from Bruce Foods shared how they are bringing together their respective fields to enhance the product development process. Chef Nick Landry (photo, left), Corporate and R&D Chef, kicked off the presentation by explaining to the audience what the chef can bring to the table.

Firstly, chefs by nature and training understand the use and interaction of flavors and ingredients. They also have experience in food preparation for retail and foodservice environments. Finally, they can add value through customer service, such as providing recipes and advice on how to use the product in new and unique ways. On the other side, food scientists enhance the working experience by bringing their appreciation for product testing and control, their knowledge of shelf life, nutrition, and packaging, and their experience with staging up products to full-scale production.

Joe Orr (photo, right), Food Scientist and Director of R&D, described how he was able to work with Landry to develop a new sweet potato side dish for Bruce Foods. Orr began by explaining the challenges they had to face for the project. These included, shelf life, appearance (color, texture and viscosity), and the flavor. The key to beginning any product development project is to “know your core competencies,” said Orr. This includes the competencies of the company and the abilities of yourself and your coworkers.

In the case of the sweet potato side dish, Orr and Landry knew that Bruce Foods is really good at canning, so they decided to go with a canned product. They then worked together to tackle the flavor profile, color optimization, improve the texture, among many other facets of the project. “We wanted to create a canned sweet potato product that would appeal to consumers as a side dish all year round,” explained Orr. And by each of them offering their different backgrounds and skill sets, they were able to create a product that is now on the market and will hopefully lead to many other successful product line extensions for Bruce Foods.

It is easy to submit a nomination online.  Click here to access the online nomination form. The deadline is October 3, 2011. Questions? Contact Erin Carter, Staff Coordinator for the Nominations & Elections Committee at ecarter@ift.org.