IFT NEWS
IFT offers 10 pre–Annual Meeting continuing education programs
IFT’s Continuing Education Committee has eight two-day and two one-day programs planned for this year’s pre–Annual Meeting program, July 11–12, in Chicago, Ill.
Two-day programs
High-Potency Sweeteners—Low-Calorie Alternatives will compare technical properties and demonstrate sensory qualities of high-potency sweeteners and their blends in light of modern theories of sweetness origins and measurement. Program highlights include what makes things sweet, how to measure sweetness, tasting major high-potency sweeteners, why blend sweeteners, advantages of synergy, nutritive sweetener replacement, reviewing the attack on obesity, and explaining industry jargon.
Food Engineering Fundamentals for Food Product Development will cover the fundamentals of engineering needed to select parameters to use in a process, discuss how these parameters impact product properties, and discuss how these parameters may be applied and measured. Case studies will be discussed.
International Labeling Approval of Ingredients and Dietary Supplements will provide an overview of key technical, legal, and regulatory requirements for gaining approval for food ingredients, food additives, and dietary supplement products on a global basis. Emphasis will be on the importance of developing a global regulatory strategy for these products.
Assuring Food Security in Today’s World—Bioterrorism: A Food Industry Threat? will cover the concerns of the industry, regulators, and consumers. Experts in each area will speak and describe methods to identify possible risks in a food process. The course includes a general review of the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-188).
Developing New Products for a Changing Marketplace will cover the entire process from consumer need through launch, capturing the target consumer reaction throughout. Highlights include the critical need for planning; consumer input; scale-up; shelf life (its need and the new predictive modeling); packaging as a protective mechanism and communications market medium; and delighting consumers with safety, quality, and convenience.
Due Diligence for the Food Processor: A Practical Approach is designed to help processors evaluate whether they are indeed “doing diligence” and will offer ideas as to how programs can be upgraded. Instructors will focus not on how to develop and implement programs in food safety, sanitation, and quality, but on how to examine existing programs to be sure that they meet needs. The second day will feature a presentation of Outbreak Inc. by William Marler, managing partner of Marler Clark L.L.P., which will present experiences on both sides of some of the best-known cases of foodborne illnesses and death.
Food Industry Quality Systems is designed to provide a basic understanding of the quality management process and will highlight characteristics of quality improvement, obtaining employee involvement and commitment, quality systems requirements, strategies for implementation, and regulatory impact on quality improvement. Participants will be introduced to basic process control strategies, including statistical and automated process control.
Advanced Product Development Beyond the Bench-Top will give senior product developers a basic understanding of day-to-day business interactions, including the ability to develop unambiguous product and raw material specifications, and knowledge of FDA and FTC regulations regarding product labeling and claims. The program also covers methods to construct more effective and coordinated consumer testing plans and tools to focus cross-functional project efforts to enhance team performance.
One-day programs
Introduction to Confectionery Ingredients (July 11) will cover the important aspects of candy making, beginning with understanding the role of key ingredients and processes in the manufacture of chocolate, creme, caramels, and jelly confections. Participants will gain a thorough understanding of the interplay of science and art in the making and marketing of products.
Preparing for the Marathon Run: Product Sensory Maintenance (July 12) is the fourth in a series of IFT Sensory Evaluation Division workshops designed to stretch traditional understanding of the researcher’s role in product development and decision making through the strategic planning process.
Register online at www.am-fe.ift.org prior to June 13 for the early-bird discount. For more information on the programs, contact IFT’s Professional Development Dept. at 525 W. Van Buren St., Suite 1000, Chicago, IL 60607 (phone 312-782-8424, fax 312-782-0045, www.IFT.org/education/contedu/).
IFT industry services guide posted
An online version of IFT’s 2003 Classified Guide to Industry Services is available at www.ift.org/ClasGuid2003/. The guide is a comprehensive listing of food product development, processing, and testing services and vendors.
In Memoriam
Max Milner, 88, Emeritus Member and Fellow, died January 16, 2003.
Milner began his career in 1938 as a Research Chemist for Pillsbury Mills, where he worked on developing military field rations. He later served as a Professor of Cereal Food Sciences at Kansas State University. In 1953, while at Kansas State, he was recruited by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization to serve as a consultant to the Government of Israel to assist in upgrading its wheat import practices and cereal foods industries.
Milner was a Senior Food Technologist at UNICEF from 1959 to 1971, supervising projects in tropical countries, including Brazil, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Tanzania, where milk from bovine sources may be severely limited. From 1971 to 1975, he served as Scientific Secretary and Director of the UN’s Protein-Calorie Advisory Group, an international council of child nutrition specialists that provided expertise to all UN agencies dealing with child nutrition.
Throughout his career, Milner authored 150 scientific research papers and monographs. He initiated the nutrition program at the U.S. Agency for International Development in Washington, D.C., and continued to serve as a member of its advisory committees. After retiring from the UN, he became Associate Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology International Nutrition Program in 1975. He completed his working career in Bethesda, Md., as an Executive Officer of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences from 1978 to 1984.
An active member of IFT, Milner received the International Award in 1968 and the New York Section’s Distinguished Food Science Award in 1975. He was elected a Fellow in 1976 and also Chaired IFT’s Awards Committee, Samuel Cate Prescott Jury, Post-Harvest Biology & Biotechnology Committee, and International Award Jury. He also served on the Babcock-Hart Award Jury, World Food Program Committee, and Basic Symposia Advisory Committee.
Milner was active in a number of other food industry organizations as well, including the U.S. Wheat Industry Council, Meals for Millions/Freedom from Hunger Foundation (Board of Directors), American Association for the Advancement of Science (Fellow), American Association of Cereal Chemists, and American Chemical Society. He organized and chaired several national and international scientific symposia, including the Fifth International Congress of Biochemistry in Moscow, U.S.S.R., in 1961 and the Tenth International Congress of Nutrition in Kyoto, Japan, in 1975.
Lloyd Witter, 79, Emeritus Member and IFT Fellow, died February 10, 2003, in Urbana, Ill.
He joined the Food Science faculty at the University of Illinois in 1956 after 3 years at Continental Can Co. in Chicago. He retired in 1992 as Professor Emeritus, following a distinguished career in food microbiology during which he authored more than 100 publications in his field.
An active member of IFT, Witter served as a Regional Communicator and on the Scholarship Committee for a number of years. He was elected Fellow in 1982. Witter was also a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, where he served as President in 1968 and received the Tanner Shaughnessey Merit Award in 1982.
by SARA LANGEN
Assistant Editor
Register for the 2003 IFT Annual Meeting + FOOD EXPO® at www.am-fe.ift.org.
Register for the IUFoST 12th World Congress at www.WorldFoodScience.org/worldcongress —see pages 25 and 66.