Institute of Food Technologists
“common sense and sound science on food”
Can we do it again?
“Dr. Borlaug …. The answer is yes!”
Targeting Science & Technology to fight
Hunger into the next millennia!
Mark McLellan, Ph.D.
Past President, Institute of Food Technologists
Dean and Director
Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences
University of Florida
Food Science & Technology
• Food Scientists
– Basic science and engineering
• Nature of food
• Causes of deterioration
• Principles of preservation
• Food Technologists
– Applications to the food system
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Preservation
Processing
Packaging
Distribution
Food Science
and
Technology
are the
arrows!
What is IFT?
• Institute of Food Technologists
• Founded in 1939
• Nonprofit scientific society with 22,000 members
• Sound science and common sense — Food
• Safe, nutritious, abundant and affordable food
supply worldwide
IFT’s International Focus
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Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)
IUFoST
Partnership for Food Safety Education
Codex Alimentarius Commission
Global Food Safety & Quality Conference
Chinese Institute of Food Science & Technology
Latin American and Caribbean Association of
Food Science and Technology (ALACCTA)
Commitment to the Future
• Training Next generation of scientists
– Discovering the “foods of tomorrow” - today!
– Meeting Research challenges with innovation
– Improving the quantity, quality and safety of
our food supply — worldwide
• IFT Foundation — “A Taste for Science”
– Educational outreach - “the science of food!”
– Scholarships and fellowships
– Target: $10 million
Reducing Hunger:
The role of food science
Preservation
Packaging
Nutrition
Safety
Distribution
Food Science as a Discipline
• Established in 1961
– 1991 World Food Prize Laureate Dr. Nevin
Scrimshaw
– Department of Nutrition and Food Science at (MIT)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Discipline with specialized study of food
– Increase quality and availability
– Understanding enables safe, wholesome, food
supply
Challenges
A Chronology of Inventiveness
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Converting raw products to edible foods
Preserving those foods
Providing enough for all peoples (food security)
Ensuring safety of foods
Maximizing nutrition from foods
Ensuring Quality: texture/flavor composition
Improving Choices
Maximizing health impact
– Young, immuno-compromised, allergic, etc.
• Making foods good for you (the individual)
Early Interventions vs. Modern
Processes
• Fermentation and pickling
(8,000 yrs ago)
– Wine, yogurt, vegetables
• Drying
– Meat, fruits
• Salting
– Meat
• Smoking
– Meat
• Canning (1809)
• Pasteurization(1862)
• Refrigeration/
freezing(early 1900s)
• Freeze drying
• New packaging and
storage systems
• Bulk Aseptic processing
(1961)
• Hazard Analysis Critical
Control Point
20-60% of food still lost post harvest
Bulk Aseptic Processing
Package Material
or Container
Raw
Product
Package
Sterilization
Product
Preservation
Aseptic
Filling
• Bulk aseptic storage 1960 Dr. Philip Nelson
• Enabled Global Large scale preserved foods
Final
Product
Bulk Aseptic Impact
• Total conversion to Bulk Aseptic in US will result
in enough waste reduction to feed nearly 9 million
people annually.
• A 10% reduction in spoilage for worldwide tomato
products and orange juice manufacturing
industries - produces 1 million metric tons of
food products per year.
• In 2003 - worldwide over 1.3 billion liters of
product was aseptically packed.
Food Safety
• Hazard Analysis Critical
Control Point
– Safety assurance system
– Identifies hazards in
advance and establishes
controls
• Recent developments
– Improved detection
methods for chemical and
microbial toxins
– Follow outbreaks with
molecular biology tools
Into the Future
• Probiotics - foods for you
• Non-thermal processing
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E-beam
High Pressure
Pulse Electric
Hypobaric storage
Active/Smart Packaging
On farm harvest-processing
RFID & other tracking
New efficient shipping designs
The Leading Edge of Food Science
• Genomics
– Individualized nutrition based on genetic code
• Nutragenomics
– Diet-regulated genes and nutritional interventions
• Metabolomics
– Cellular metabolism e.g. glucose, cholesterol,
ATP and lipid signaling molecules
• Proteomics
– Protein structure, function and expression
• Nanotechnology applications
– packaging
Institute of Food Technologists
“The science behind the the production of a safe, nutritious, abundant
and affordable food supply worldwide”