Plan Now to Up Your Wellness IQ at IFT Conference

As we begin a new year, many of us will take stock of our health and well-being. We’ll consider how much we’ve been exercising, how well we’ve been eating, and how often we’ve been sick. Most of us will resolve to do more to lead a healthier lifestyle, and we’ll try to make small changes. We’ll start walking, taking stairs, and going to the gym more often. We’ll pay more attention to the food we buy. We’ll look for food products that can help us lose weight, boost our energy, and even prevent illness.

Research within the last two years from both Mintel and Packaged Facts found about two-thirds of Americans choose healthier foods to stay well. Even though many would like to eat healthy, they are often confused about what that entails, according to a 2012 study by iModerate Research Technologies. These are the types of issues we will examine at Wellness 13, February 27-28, in Rosemont, Ill.

Wellness 13 is the leading event for professionals in R&D, brand management, regulatory compliance, sales, and government who want to successfully develop and market healthful foods for consumers today and tomorrow. This year’s opening session keynote speaker is Michael W. Smith, M.D., Medical Director and Chief Medical Editor at WebMD, a leading source for health and medical information on the Internet. One of the primary goals of the Wellness conference is to promote communication and collaboration among food scientists, the medical community, nutritionists, product developers, marketers, and all other food professionals. For the first time, we’re offering a live broadcast of the first three hours of the event via the web to foster a broader awareness on the important topics presented.

This is the sixth year for the conference, and to keep it fresh, innovative, and relevant, we’re adding a New Products, Technologies, and Services Showcase Session. It will identify new marketplace opportunities and developments. We’ve also added a Supplier Showcase, which is a three-and-a-half-hour event that will combine a networking reception for attendees with exhibitor tastings and demonstrations. We’ve updated our three tracks, which are Healthier Living, Emerging Opportunities, and Consumer Lifestyles & Demographics. Back by popular demand is our consumer panel. This year, the consumer panel will feature “What Teens Consider Healthy” and will take a closer look at the purchasing habits of younger consumers.

The world of food technology is getting ever more complex for both consumers and industry. Beneath that complexity, I see three areas of convergence that are impacting the food health and wellness agenda. Firstly, in the supply chain, the historical divide between hunger and malnutrition in developing countries and obesity and food-related diseases in the developed world is disappearing, with the need to deal with both issues concurrently in most countries. This is
partly due to the second convergence, in which consumers are getting their information in a globally connected world. Ironically, the plethora of available information has led to even more misconceptions on critical  issues like the safety of our food supply and the role that food scientists play to solve these problems. In my visits to Asia, Europe, and Latin America this year, I’ve observed broadly the same confusion over processed foods and concern about food technology that we have heard from our consumer panels at prior Wellness conferences. Fortunately, the merger of information technology and food technology is creating some of the innovative new solutions we need to deal with these concerns. IFT’s work on traceability, to ensure the safety of our food supply in the ever more complex global supply chain, is a good example of how we can move forward.

Wellness 13 offers comprehensive education to food professionals. It’s a chance to learn about the latest advances in functional and healthful foods, gain practical knowledge to apply those advances in product development, and find out how to market those products effectively, ethically, and according to regulatory policies regarding health claims and labeling.

Happy New Year, and I hope to see you at Wellness 13.

John Ruff,
IFT President, 2012–2013
[email protected]