Mid-America Food Processors Association Meeting

I had the opportunity on March 4-6 to attend the Mid-America Food Processors Association (MAFPA) Meeting at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN.

Tomato cutting showing different experimental varieties of processing tomatoes.

After checking into my hotel room I wandered over to the Nelson Hall of Food Science where I got a tour of the facilities and mingled with the food processors. We got to see a myriad of tomatoes as part of a trial at Ohio State in a collaboration of Dr. David Francis, a plant breeder and geneticist in the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, and the Food Industries Center in the Department of Food Science and Technology, lead by pilot plant supervisor Steven Simmons. The project explored different tomato varieties, bred by Dr. Francis, and how they stood up to processing as juice, whole peeled tomatoes and tomato dices. I must say, the smell of a couple dozen types of tomatoes reminded me of my time at UC Davis working on the T4 tomato variety trial, spending all week testing pH, titratable acidity, Bostwick viscosity, color and Brix of hundreds of tomatoes. While I enjoyed my time working on that project, I will never look at processed tomatoes the same way again.

 

The second day of the meeting involved many speakers covering a wide variety of topics relevant to the food processing industry. First, Dr. Brian Farakas, department chair at the Purdue Department of Food Science, talked to us about partnerships between industry and academia. He pointed out what defines a good partnership including common interests and goals, being mutually beneficial, having agreed upon expectations, having good communication and having a champion who has a real interest in the project. He pointed out that a good partnership is not defined as fun, which may be something students in particular often overlook. Next we heard from Wallace Tyner about the impact of energy and emissions on the environment and learned what would happen to the global climate if energy consumption continues as it has. This was followed by Doug Adams who presented the impacts of the “Cans Get You Cooking Campaign.” We learned that February is National Canned Food Month and that the average person has about 100 meals per year that contain come component of canned food. This was followed by Brian Hendrickson, a consultant who updated us on the impacts of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) on the processed food industry. The last speaker was Marland Buckner, who gave us a perspective on the impact of the Farm Bill.

The last part of the program was both a beer and wine tasting. The beer tasting was led by Chris Johnson, owner and head brewer at People’s Brewery in Layfayette, IN. Chris gave us a little insight into the craft brewing industry and how it has grown recently. We also got a little history on the craft brewing industry in Indiana before tasting three beers from the brewery. This was followed by a wine tasting led by Dr. Christian Butzke, professor of enology at Purdue. We learned about the growth of the wine industry in Indiana and the US as a whole. This was followed by a tasting of three wines.

Beer tasting from People’s Brewery. (l-r) Ol’ Tavern Lager, Flying Duchess IPA, and Mr. Brown.

Wine tasting led by Dr. Butzke. (l-r) Midwestern Concord, New Zealand Savignon Blanc, and Indiana Traminette.

The Food Babe Saga

In the middle of January 2015 I had the privilege of working with some of my food science colleagues in the composition of an open letter to The Food Babe, Vani Hari. Our letter was written with the goal of encouraging Hari and her so-called “Food Babe Army” to take a closer look at some of the values they are touting. Shockingly, Hari responded! While the response was predictable and ignored much of the content of our letter, we got the dialogue started, which was the goal! A like-minded professor at the University of Florida took it upon himself to add some of his own comments to Hari’s response. Dr. Folta’s comments, while a bit more forceful than our original letter, the sentiment echoed our own thoughts about the general lack of supporting evidence which is typical of the claims presented throughout the Food Babe network. This deconstruction of Hari’s response was followed up by a story on the Tellus News Digest in which Dr. Folta and our own group gave more of the reasoning behind our thoughts and motivations in taking on this challenge. Our group was also interviewed for the Sense About Science USA website, which promotes communication of science and “the importance of evidence and transparency” in scientific research.

I can’t believe the amount of attention we have gotten from this letter. I think it is wonderful because it shows that people really do care about this issue. We as scientists need to take the time and effort to clearly communicate the importance of our own research as well as that of our peers. We are missing a huge opportunity to teach and to learn. I cannot wait to continue working with these people as well as the scientific community as a whole to help the public really understand what is in their food and not be afraid of new technology just because nobody has taken the time to explain it to them. Keep an eye out for more posts from me and my colleagues  addressing some of the more controversial issues in food science and technology!

Ohio State College Bowl Team Runners-up in National Competition

OSU College Bowl Team (l-r) Dr. John Litchfield (advisor), Jacob Farr, Olivia Geoghegan, John Frelka, Matt Teegarden, Paul Park, and Dr. Mary Kay Pohlschneider (advisor)

I am so proud of my team who came home from the IFT Annual Meeting and Food Expo as national runners-up in the College Bowl competition. We fought hard winning our first two preliminary rounds against the University of Minnesota and Texas A&M. We went on to lose to Penn State in our third round and then beat NC State to play Penn State again. The final round was a nail-biter with Penn State winning by a nose. We played our hardest and most of the team will begin practicing again in the Fall. We will be aiming for the prize again and hope we can bring home the title in the new year of competition.

Consumers of Frozen Meals Healthier than Fast Food Eaters

New data presented at the Experimental Biology conference in San Diego showed that consumers of frozen prepared meals  had lower calorie intakes and better Healthy Eating Index (HEI) score than consumers of fast food. The research, sponsored by Nestle (makers of the Lean Cuisine and Stouffers brands), reiterates the significant role frozen foods can play in the American diet. More details of the study can be found summarized here.

March is Frozen Food Month

March 2014 marks the 31st annual National March Frozen Food Month. The National Frozen and Refrigerated Foods Association is celebrating by running a number of promotions, giveaways and awards all in the hopes of promoting more sales throughout the month. The goal is to encourage consumers to “take a fresh look at frozens.”

This is the ideal time to start a re-positioning of frozen foods. Many consumers may be hesitant to purchase frozen foods, but when it comes down to it freezing is one of the most reliable methods of food preservation that preserves an almost fresh taste, texture and appearance to foods. My recent research in the area of frozen food has led to my own re-evaluation of these food products and a greater appreciation for the availability they create for seasonal foods in particular. Take some time this month to browse the frozen foods aisle in your grocery. You never know what new product is waiting for you to take it home.