Official Post-Show Coverage

During the Opening Event of the 2003 IFT Annual Meeting + Food Expo on Saturday evening, the Institute of Food Technologists recognized 12 individuals and one company for outstanding achievements in food science and technology. Here are brief descriptions of the winners. Complete details are available in the 2003 IFT Annual Meeting Program and Food Expo Exhibit Directory.

Chang Y. (Cy) Lee, Chairman and Professor, Dept. of Food Science and Technology, Cornell University, received the 2003 Babcock-Hart Award, which honors an IFT member for improving public health through nutrition research.

Lee has devoted his career to the understanding and application of food chemistry to improve the quality of food products, particularly the nutritional and nutraceutical quality of plant foods. His contributions to food science have resulted in improved public health through more nutritious foods. His work has focused on three areas of research: basic knowledge of free sugars in fresh fruits and vegetables; an understanding of provitamin A carotenoids and their fate in fresh and processed fruits and vegetable products; and flavonoids and their unique antioxidant activity in fruits and vegetables.

An active member of IFT since 1964, Lee has served as on many committees and boards and has served as Chair of the Western New York Section. He was elected an IFT Fellow in 1996.

Steve L. Taylor, Head, Dept. of Food Science and Technology, and Director, Food Processing Center, University of Nebraska, received the 2003 Bernard L. Oser Food Ingredient Safety Award, which honors a member for contributions to the scientific knowledge of food ingredient safety or for leadership in establishing principles for food ingredient safety evaluation or regulation.

Taylor has not only made significant contributions to the field of food safety research but has also gone beyond basic research to teach, lecture, give seminars, and participate in the development of science-based regulatory policy. To food scientists, he is best known for his pioneering research on food allergies and the role of various allergenic foods and food ingredients in elicitation of allergic reactions. He has done allergy research on almonds, milk, sesame seeds, soybeans, peanuts, and a widely cited paper on transfer of Brazil nut allergens into transgenic soybeans. Taylor has also done considerable work in developing useful assay techniques in food safety evaluation.

An active member of IFT, Taylor is an IFT Fellow and has served on a number of committees and panels. He has also served as Chair of the Toxicology and Safety Evaluation Division and the Wisconsin Section and as an IFT Scientific Lecturer.

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Francis (Frank) F. Busta, Professor and Head Emeritus, Dept. of Food Science & Nutrition, University of Minnesota, received the 2003 Calvert L. Willey Award in recognition of his meritorious and imaginative service to IFT.

A member since 1960, Busta’s service to the Institute has been continuous throughout his career. He has led and inspired IFT members at the Section, Division, national, and international level. He participated on committees, panels, and juries as a member, elected officer, and appointed leader. Busta has also been a continuous advocate for IFT’s programs for more than 40 years at various levels and in many areas.

He served as IFT President in 1995–96 and continues to be involved in service to IFT as Senior Science Advisor of IFT’s Food and Drug Administration contract entitled “Analysis and Review of Topics in the Areas of Food Safety, Food Processing, and Human Health”; as organizer of the inaugural Summit Conference; and as moderator and presenter in the Food Safety and Quality Conferences. He was elected a Fellow in 1982. Busta has also served in a number of leadership roles for the Minnesota Section, Florida Section, Food Microbiology Division.

As Chair of the Awards Committee in 1989 for IFT’s 50th Annual Meeting and as a member of the 50th Anniversary Committee, Busta was very involved in establishing the Calvert L. Willey Distinguished Service Award, which was first presented at that meeting.

Daryl Bert Lund, Executive Director, North Central Regional Association, University of Wisconsin, Madison, is the 2003 recipient of the Carl R. Fellers Award. This award is intended to honor individual members of IFT and Phi Tau Sigma who have served and brought honor and recognition to the profession of food science and technology.

Lund has been actively engaged in promoting the profession of food science throughout his career. He has brought honor and recognition to the profession through the variety of service activities he has performed, the various leadership positions he has held, and his outstanding communication skills.

He has communicated to a variety of audiences the essential requirement of a society to understand the source and value of the food supply, and to consider its safety, nutritive value, wholesomeness, and quality. He has distinguished himself by bringing individuals into the profession from related scientific fields to work on the challenges presented by such a heterogeneous biological material as food.

An active member of IFT, Lund served as President in 1990–1991 and was elected a Fellow in 1980. He was the first IFT Regional Communicator for Wisconsin and currently chairs IFT’s Frontiers in Food Science Committee.

He has also actively promoted the revitalization of the Phi Tau Sigma chapter at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has volunteered to serve as the advisor and recruited members of the Food Science Club to serve as officers.

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Alfred A. Bushway, Professor, Dept. of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Maine, received the 2003 Elizabeth Fleming Stier Award, which honors an IFT member for pursuit of humanitarian ideals and unselfish dedication that has resulted in significant contributions to the well-being of the food industry, academia, students, or the general public.

Bushway has been a faculty member in the Dept. of Food Science and Human Nutrition for 25 years, serving as Dept. Chair for 10 years. Teaching is one of his passions, and he is always searching for new methods to address students’ learning styles. In 1999, he received the College Outstanding Teacher Award for his dedication to teaching and enhancing the educational experience.

Bushway’s research interests have been in the areas of postharvest quality and safety of fruits and vegetables, and product development. His advocacy for increased funding for research at the university was responsible for a bond issue that provided $3.2 million for a new food science and nutrition facility.

Since 1995, Bushway has coordinated the process and product review for individuals and small companies interested in establishing food processing businesses in Maine. Done in conjunction with the Maine Dept. of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources, the process has provided an opportunity for more than 250 individuals or small companies to place products in the marketplace. He was also cofounder of the Maine Food Processors Association. In 1996, he received the University of Maine Presidential Public Service Award and the Maine Alumni Black Bear Award for service to the university in 2003.

An active member of IFT, Bushway has served as a Food Science Communicator, Secretary of the Education Division, and Councilor for the Fruit and Vegetable Products Division.

National Starch and Chemical Co. is the recipient of the 2003 Food Technology Industrial Achievement Award for its Novelose® 240 and Novelose 260RS2 Resistant Starches. The award honors the developers of an outstanding food process or product that represents a significant advancement in the application of food science and technology to food production, and which has been successfully applied in actual commercial operation for at least six months but no more than seven years.

Resistant starches improve health through multiple mechanisms. When consumed, resistant starch functions more like a fiber in the human diet and is in fact labeled as a dietary fiber. Obtaining the potential benefits of fiber by adding traditional fibers commonly found in plants to processed foods has been a challenge to food researchers. In addition to the processing difficulties, consumer acceptance of foods with high fiber content has been limited due to fiber’s reputation for being dense with unappetizing mouthfeel.

National Starch and Chemical’s research team has produced two RS2 resistant starches, Novelose 240, commercialized in 1997, and Novelose 260, commercialized in 2001. The primary difference between the two is the total dietary fiber of 40% and 60%, respectively. The company believes the 60% TDF level is the highest available in a commercial resistant starch. The products themselves and the process used to make them are protected by U.S. patents.

The principal technical advantage of Novelose resistant starches over traditional fiber sources are their very small particle size and low water-holding properties. The products are also very bland in taste, so they do not adversely affect the flavor of food systems to which they are added.

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Raymond A. Bourque, President, Ray-Pak Inc., is the recipient of the 2003 Industrial Scientist Award, established to recognize an IFT-member industrial scientist who has made a major technical contribution to the advancement of the food industry.

Bourque has dedicated his career to advancing food and beverage packaging for the benefit of consumers. His major contributions have been in the areas of aseptic packaging and processing and hot-fill plastic packaging.

He has been responsible for more innovations and packaging than any other individual. Bourque was formerly Director of Packaging and Processing Technology for Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc. During the 30 years he spent at Ocean Spray, he led the introduction of aseptic juice box packaging in the U.S. in 1981 and the first hot-fill PET bottling in the mid- to late 1980s. He also pioneered ambient-temperature shelf-stable juice concentrates, aseptic packaging in barrier plastic cups, and squeeze bottles.

Today, aseptic packaging in brick-shaped paperboard composite packages is a 10-billion-unit business in the U.S. The hot-filled polyester fruit beverage bottle totally revolutionized the fruit beverage industry, displacing both glass bottles and most metal cans, and was adapted for jams, soups, applesauce, and tomato sauces. Squeeze bottles for sauces are now mainstream.

His accomplishments have earned a record three prestigious DuPont Awards in recognition of the extraordinary innovation and commercial impact each had on the U.S. food scene.

Bourque is a founding member and Past Chair of IFT’s Food Packaging Division. He received the Division’s Riester-Davis Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1997.

Poul Hansen, Professor Emeritus, Ohio State University, is the recipient of the 2003 International Award. The award is given for promoting better international understanding of food science and the practical transfer of technology to a developing nation or to an economically depressed area in a developed nation.

Hansen is a leading scholar in international technology transfer and academic program improvement in developing nations. He has helped raise the quality, safety, and marketability of food products in developing countries by educating food plant personnel, entrepreneurs, government officials, and educators.

His colleagues and the thousands of people he has helped during four decades of work in every hemisphere on earth all agree he has a special passion for food science. He has a unique ability to creatively adapt technology to match users’ available resources and needs. He enthusiastically takes on assignments in some of the most rugged places in the world, such as Uzbekistan and Mongolia. His service to mankind and the food science profession is laudable and shows the critical role he has played in improving the human condition.

Hansen has devoted his time to Uganda, Ethiopia, Albania, India, and Mongolia sponsored by agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. In recent years, he has devoted much of his time to technology transfer in the former Soviet republics, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Russia, as well as projects in Armenia and Macedonia.

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Dietrich Knorr, Professor, Dept. of Food Biotechnology and Food Process Engineering, Berlin University of Technology, received the 2003 Nicholas Appert Award, IFT’s highest honor, which recognizes an individual for preeminence in and contributions to the field of food technology.

Knorr’s pioneering research has opened many new areas of food technology to scientists today. Beginning with his early research in food and fermentation technology, Knorr has shown consistent lifetime contributions to understanding the mechanisms of biochemical changes that take place in foods, food ingredients, and microbes present in foods as a result of their treatment by thermal and nonthermal processes. He pioneered cutting-edge areas of food technology, including tissue culture, food biotechnology, and nonthermal and combined processing and preservation methods.

Knorr’s research career began with studies on recycling, reusing, and converting food processing wastes. His work on potato proteins showed that highly functional proteins could be recovered economically from processing plants producing potato starch. Similar work was carried out on soy proteins. He was also the first to write scientific papers on organic foods.

He created the term “food biotechnology” and founded many research paths being explored in that area today. He published the first book on food biotechnology in 1986 and was the initiator and Editor of the international journal Food Biotechnology.

Knorr has also played a key role in the area of novel emerging nonthermal unit operations. In the area of novel processing techniques, Knorr’s opened and studied areas such as the effect of high pressure on food-related microorganisms, food related enzymes, and food related polymers, leading to the first models for predictive modeling of microbial inactivation in this area. He was also a pioneer in the application of high electric field pulses in food preservation.

Knorr has also been tireless in his efforts to disseminate his ideas and research results and teach young professionals in the field of food science.

Knorr is active in IFT’s International Division and the Biotechnology Division, which he founded and served as Chair. He was also a founding member of the Nonthermal Processing Division, whose Scientific Lectureship Award he won in 2000. He has been on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Food Science and is currently on the Editorial Board of Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science/ Food Safety.

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E. Allen Foegeding, William Neal Reynolds Professor of Food Science, Dept. of Food Science, North Carolina State University, received the 2003 Research & Development Award, which recognizes a member who has made a recent, significant research and development contribution to the understanding of food science, food technology, or nutrition.

Foegeding’s research program is recognized worldwide as a pioneering group that has linked chemical and rheological factors to control the functionality of whey proteins. Although he did not start working with whey proteins until 1990, his efforts in this field have already developed a solid platform to understand the chemical and physical factors that alter whey protein functionality, most notably gelation. He is widely sought out by major food companies and whey manufacturers for his expertise in this area and is considered the leading whey protein researcher in the U.S. His insights and approach are providing new opportunities for whey as a predictably functional and widely used ingredient.

Foegeding’s group was the first to use fundamental large-strain rheological methods to understand the rheological properties of whey protein gels. Among his other research accomplishments is his development of the needed approaches and methodologies for determining physical properties of whey protein gels. His laboratory was among the first in the world to demonstrate “coldgelation” of whey proteins, producing three patents in this area.

An active member of IFT, Foegeding has served on a number of committees and is currently Chair of the Food Chemistry Division and was the Newsletter Editor of the Muscle Foods Division.

Martin Wiedmann, Assistant Professor, Food Science Dept., Cornell University, received the 2003 Samuel Cate Prescott Award, which is given to an IFT member who is less than 36 years of age or has received his or her highest degree within the previous 10 years and has demonstrated outstanding ability in food science research.

Since receiving his DVM degree from the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich in 1992, Wiedmann has been an exceptionally productive researcher in the area of food safety and food microbiology. He has published more than 45 peer-reviewed publications, five book chapters and reviews, seven proceedings articles, more than 70 abstracts, and two patents. He has also given more than 50 invited presentations in the U.S. and other countries, including Germany, Denmark, Mexico, South Korea, and China.

Since joining the faculty of the Dept. of Food Science at Cornell University in 1999, Wiedmann has developed a highly productive and wellfunded research group and has garnered more than $3 million in federal, state, and private research funding. His research program integrates basic and applied components to generate both fundamental and practical knowledge necessary to prepare the food industry to address future challenges in the areas of microbial product quality and food safety. He is widely recognized as a leader in applying modern molecular biology and genomics methods to the study of foodborne pathogens and spoilage microorganisms.

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Gary R. List, Lead Scientist, National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, received the 2003 Stephen S. Chang Award, which recognizes a member who has made significant contributions to lipid or flavor science.

List is internationally recognized for his research on edible fats and oils and is widely consulted by scientists in the oil industry, academia, and government agencies. His research has encompassed many areas, including analytical methods development, processing of oil-seeds and edible oils, lecithin, hydrogenation, physical refining, deterioration of oilseed in international trade, supercritical fluid extraction, interesterification, genetically and structurally modified oils, and functional properties of triglycerides

He developed several analytical methods in use in quality control laboratories throughout the world.

List and his coworkers were the first to demonstrate that hydrocarbons are initial products of fat hydroperoxide decomposition. They developed methods to separate hydrocarbons by gas–solid chromatography, which led to a method to predict and measure edible oil quality by the amount of n-pentane formed during oxidation. They also developed a new sensory method to assess the acceptability of cooking and frying fats.

List has also been a leader in developing new technologies to eliminate trans acids in food oil products like margarines/spreads and shortenings.

In 1999, he received the Alton E. Bailey Medal from the AOCS in recognition of his research accomplishments and was elected an AOCS Fellow in 2002. He is the author of more than 230 publications, proceedings, book chapters, and abstracts and has edited two books on fats and oils.

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John Rupnow, Professor, Dept. of Food Science and Technology, University of Nebraska, received the 2003 William V. Cruess Award, which honors a member who has achieved excellence in teaching food science and technology.

Rupnow has been described by his peers as one of the finest teachers at the University of Nebraska, one who has probably taught more students and logged more contact hours in the past ten years than any other professor at the university. But they are also quick to point out that his considerable teaching contributions have less to do with quantity and much more to do with quality.

During the 20 years he has taught, Rupnow has been one of the school’s most innovative teachers. He combines the latest electronic technologies with traditional Socratic approaches. He learns students’ names, even in classes of 350, stays after class, holds help sessions, and even provides his cell phone number to students.

Rupnow has taught classes on quality assurance, food microbiology, food chemistry, and food composition. Ten years ago, he developed a new course called the Science of Food. Twenty students enrolled that first semester. Now the class attracts more than 350 students every semester.

In 1995, Rupnow developed a workshop for high school teachers so they could introduce food science units into their science curriculum. He has expanded his efforts by promoting IFT and food science to high school teachers throughout the country.

Teaching and mentoring students remain Rupnow’s passion. He has been an Advisor to the IFT Student Association and has served as Chair of the IFT Education and Career Guidance committees. The University of Nebraska recognized his outstanding teaching efforts by presenting him with its two highest awards, the University Distinguished Teaching Award and the College of Agriculture Holling Award for Teaching Excellence.

by Sara Langen,
Assistant Editor