IFT NEWS

IFT and CIFST Host Conference in Shanghai
A Food Summit was held in Shanghai, China, on November 12–14, 2002. It was the first major fruit of an Allied Organization relationship established in 2001 between the Institute of Food Technologists and the 130,000-strong mainland Chinese Institute of Food Science and Technology (CIFST), headquartered in Beijing. More than 300 individuals from industry, academia, and government attended the event, which was very timely because of the entrance of China in the World Trade Organization.

Presentations covered developments in food safety, functional foods, marketing, consumer perceptions, regulatory aspects, and international trade. Speakers chosen by the IFT organizing committee included Mary Schmidl, IFT Past President; Owen Fennema, IFT Past President and co-organizer of the Food Summit; Christine Bruhn; John Surak; Bruce Chassey; Louis Grivetti; Sharon Shoemaker; and Walter Spiess, who also represented the International Union of Food Science and Technology.

Chinese dignitaries and CIFST representatives included Zhang Zhaofan, CIFST Vice President; Pan Beilei, CIFST President; Feng Guoqin, Vice Mayor of Shanghai; Lu Yongjie, Director, SLIHC; Lan Xiande, President, Shanghai Jiao Da Onlly Co. Ltd.; and Pingfan Rao, CIFST Vice President. Ralph Bean, Deputy Director of the United States Agricultural Trade Office, also attended the conference.

Pszczola named Senior Associate Editor
Donald E. Pszczola has been promoted to Senior Associate Editor of Food Technology from his former position as Associate Editor. A 16-year member of the IFT staff, Pszczola has been increasing the publication’s coverage of ingredients over the years and will continue to enhance coverage. In his monthly Ingredients section in Food Technology, he reports on new ingredients, technology, marketing developments, and applications and provides assessment and analysis of trends.

Access to IFT’s Password-Protected Sites Made Easier
Starting this month, after signing in to IFT’s Web site (www.ift.org) with their name and password, IFT members will be able to access IFT’s new and improved online membership directory and other password-protected areas.

The membership directory has improved search capabilities to make it easier for members to quickly and easily find other members. Among the improvements is the capability to target a search on a particular data element, such as last name. Members will also be able to make changes to their directory listing.

Once in the password-protected area, members will also have one-click access to all other IFT password-protected products and services, such as the online version of Food Technology and certain information provided by IFT’s Regional Sections and Divisions.

Food Technology is currently available online to anyone free of charge. However, after June 1, 2003, it will only be available online to members and subscribers. Others will still be able to access the table of contents, as well as purchase copies of articles online, through the Online Document Shop (www.ift.org/publications/docshop). Thus, access to Food Technology will be the same as access to IFT’s other online publications—Journal of Food Science, Journal of Food Science Education, and Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, which are available only by subscription.

November-December 2002 JFS available
The November-December 2002 issue of the Journal of Food Science is now available.

It features a Concise Review entitled, “Public Perceptions of Biotechnology” by K. Blaine, S. Kamaldeen, and D. Powell, plus 47 other papers. It also contains the annual subject, author, and reviewer indexes.

The “Industrial Aspects of Selected JFS Articles” section presents brief discussions of papers on biotechnology, health benefits of cranberries, high-pressure treatment of foods, effect of sucrose esters on fat crystals, effect of cattle feed on warmed-over flavor of beef, effect of carbon dioxide modified-atmosphere packaging on irradiated beef, and supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of carotenoids from paprika.

The table of contents for the issue, as well as the abstracts of the papers, can be viewed—and searched electronically—at www.ift.org/publications/jfs/index.shtml.

SECTION & DIVISION PEOPLE
Regional Sections Are IFT’s Neighborhoods
What are the IFT Regional Sections, and how do they fit into the overall IFT organization? These questions were recently asked at the annual IFT Leadership Conference.

The easiest way to answer the questions is to use the analogy of a city with neighborhoods. The Institute of Food Technologists is the city, but the Regional Sections are the neighborhoods. The neighborhoods are where people meet their neighbors; do things together that they enjoy, such as have parties; work together to make their neighborhood a better place to live; and elect officials from the neighborhood to represent them in the City Council.

As Toni Ruth Manning, Past Chair of the IFT Committee on Sections and Divisions recently said, “Sections bring humanity to IFT.” IFT Regional Sections hold meetings throughout the year so that members can meet their peers in the area; they have parties to celebrate holidays; and they work together to bring good programming which will enhance their careers. They also elect Councilors and Alternate Councilors to sit on the IFT Council. The Regional Sections are the “people” part of IFT.

The neighborhoods are where everyone starts. Just as children grow up in our neighborhoods and we all try to make them safe environments for the children, IFT students receive their first “taste” of what IFT is like by mingling with professionals and going to educational programs through the Regional Sections.

By working with their neighborhood political organization, people learn how the politics of the city operate and are better prepared to move into city politics should they desire to do so. Likewise, by being active in their Regional Section, members learn how IFT works and become ready to move into volunteer work in IFT within a few years. Regional Sections are the training ground for IFT volunteers, which is why IFT Presidents-Elect prefer to appoint to committees volunteers who have previously served in Regional Sections and/or Technical Divisions.

Some people say that with the use of electronics, Regional Sections are going to disappear. That may happen, but if it does IFT will become like a city without neighborhoods—large, impersonal, and run by trained management personnel whose only goal is to disseminate scientific information. And what will happen to the scientific information without the give and take of information that comes from meeting peers and discussing projects? Where will IFT’s volunteer leaders come from? Who will voice individuals’ concerns in IFT?

The Regional Sections are IFT’s neighborhoods, and I hope they thrive for many years to come.

by SARA LANGEN
Assistant Editor