IFT’s Annual Celebration of Ideas, Innovation, and Insight

One look around at the 2013 IFT Annual Meeting and Food Expo® at McCormick Place in Chicago, and the success of this year’s event was apparent. It was a feast for the eyes, ears, mouth, and mind as more than 23,700 people registered to attend scientific sessions, network with colleagues, and interact with exhibitors. It was one of the best-attended IFT annual meetings in recent years.

The meeting offered more than 350 speakers, 100 scientific sessions, and 1,200 poster presentations. A total of 87 countries were represented. The IFT Food  Expo sold out with more than 1,100 companies exhibiting in more than 2,300 booths—an almost 10% increase over last year.

Proving to be one of the Food Expo’s most popular attractions and new to this year’s event, the Cooking Up Science Theater showcased exhibitors’ products through live cooking demonstrations. Chefs showed how exhibitor-sponsored ingredients can be used to make healthy and delicious meals.

Keynote speaker Fareed Zakaria, a best-selling author, CNN host, and expert on international affairs, spoke to a capacity crowd at the Opening General Session. He said he is cautiously optimistic that a world less dominated by the West will produce a wellspring of talented scientists from countries like China, India, and Brazil, who will help solve challenges such as feeding an expanding population and dealing with water shortages.

The keynote speech was live streamed for the first time in the history of the IFT Annual Meeting. Other speakers live streamed included IFT’s Beacon Lecturers: Hubert Deluyker, Scientific Adviser, European Food Safety Authority; David Robson, Head of Energy and Environmental Foresight, Scottish Government, UK; and Mark Manary, Helene B. Roberson Professor of Pediatrics, and Director, Global Harvest Alliance.

President-Elect Mary Ellen Camire and I announced and presented four companies with the 2013 IFT Food Expo Innovation Awards. The winners are Glanbia Nutritionals, NIZO food research, PerkinElmer, and Tate & Lyle.

Kenneth R. Swartzel, CFS, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor, Dept. of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences, North Carolina State University, was honored as the recipient of the 2013 Nicholas Appert Award at the Awards Celebration. IFT recognized 13 Achievement Award winners and 12 Fellows.

Future food scientists showed off real-world skills with three student product  development contests. They wowed the judges with imaginative and compelling food creations.

More than $100,000 was raised in support of Feeding Tomorrow scholarships at the 13th Annual IFTSA Feeding Tomorrow Fun Run and Walk.That set a new fundraising record for the Fun Run, which also had a record number of registrants.

As part of Feeding Tomorrow’s Food4Thought initiative to encourage students to become food scientists, four high school students from Girls Inc. in Orange County, Calif., attended the meeting for an immersion in food science. The students toured the IFT Expo show floor, met with food science industry leaders, and attended the Disney Student Product Development Competition. The girls also took field trips around the city, touring the Wrigley Global Innovation Center and McDonald’s Hamburger University.

IFT also made a big announcement during the meeting. We officially announced the creation of our Global Food Traceability Center, designed to be a resource for food companies, regulators, and international trading partners. The Center will serve as an authoritative, scientific, and unbiased source for food traceability. Currently, no single entity exists that brings together key stakeholders in the global food chain to collaborate on timely food product tracing solutions.

Obviously, it would be impossible for one person to take in everything the meeting had to offer. That’s why we have IFT Live, which contains 90+ articles from the IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo. See it all at www.IFT.org/IFTLive.

IFT’s Digital Library offers you access to recorded presentations, and recordings of the three Beacon Lecture live streams. Full conference registrants receive complimentary access to the Digital Library; you also can purchase it at IFT.org.

I hope that you will join us next year when the IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo is held in New Orleans, La., June 21–24, where we will celebrate 75 years of IFT history and the future of the food profession. In the meantime, if you missed anything at this year’s event, be sure to check out the coverage on IFT Live!

Janet E. Collins, Ph.D., R.D., CFS,
IFT President, 2013–14
DuPont Corporate Regulatory Affairs
[email protected]