|
Support Science (or art or music or...) in the Classroom!
Through DonorsChoose.org you can make a cash donation and see exactly where it goes. Browse through the projects that teachers have submitted for funding and give a little...or give a bit more and receive follow-ups and thank you letters from 'your' students. A "Giving Card" is a great way to celebrate a special occasion or fund a project 'to honor' that important someone.
Name that Candy Bar!
Part of the Science Museum of Minnesota's Thinking Fountain, this site challenges you to name the candy bars...by just seeing a cross section. We're all in the food industy...we should do great, right?
Take the challenge!
North Atlantic Region College Bowl- Sponsors Needed!
This year’s meeting will take place at The University of Maine on April 3-4, 2009. The area meeting and college bowl competition attracts some of the brightest and most energetic food science students in the region to compete in a double elimination, “quiz bowl” style competition, with questions covering all aspects of food science. The meeting also offers food science students the opportunity to network with peers and industry professionals as well as participate in various co-curricular activities. We are expecting over 100 students and faculty from the following universities in the North Atlantic area:
Rutgers University
Cornell University
Penn State University
University of Maine
University of Massachusetts
University of Rhode Island
Throughout the two day meeting, we will provide meals for the visiting teams, raffle prizes, awards for the winning college bowl team, and thank-you gifts for the judges, session moderator, and invited speakers. To accomplish this, we are looking to generate over $5000 to cover the expenses associated with the meeting. Your contribution will be gratefully acknowledged by the IFTSA, students, and faculty participating at the meeting. Sponsors of the area meeting will receive an invitation to attend and network with students and attendees, signage at the meeting, and recognition in meeting materials.
To become a sponsor and support this worthy endeavor, contact Jason Bolton, University of Maine, Jason_Bolton@umit.maine.edu or use this form.
Industry News
We are pleased to announce that, effective January 1st, 2009, JL Food Ingredient Sales and Del-Val
Food Ingredients have merged. The merged company will retain the Del-Val Food Ingredients name.
The business focus of JL Food Ingredient Sales and Del-Val Food Ingredients are extremely similar.
The synergism of the two companies will be of true benefit to our customers and our strategic
principals. JL Food Ingredients has focused on two primary product lines that will be integrated into
Del-Val’s strategic principal base. These product lines include:
• International Dehydrated Foods, Inc. – manufacturer of further processed meat and
poultry ingredients, which are available in fresh, frozen, concentrated and powdered
forms. IDF specializes in the production of a variety of high quality, natural poultry
ingredients as well as dehydrated meat and poultry ingredients.
• Pacific Farms – dehydrated and individually quick frozen vegetables.
Further, Joe Latvis, President of JL Food Ingredients, will join the Del-Val Team
In Memorium....
Herbert Hultin
Of Rockport, formerly of Quincy, 73, on Dec. 10, 2007. Dr. Hultin was a longtime
faculty member of the Food Science Department at Umass, Amherst and
considered a founding father of food biochemistry. Husband of Marie
C. Hultin of Rockport. Also survived by a brother Richard of Weymouth;
a sister Joan Goffi of Needham; his five children, Stanley and wife
Irina of Kensington, N.H., Patricia and husband Dr. Roland Vanaria of
Hopkinton, Katherine and husband Ed Frick of Wenham, Lil of Stoneham,
Stephen and wife Anne-Marie of Sudbury; twelve grandchildren Helen,
Ekaterina and Stanley Hultin; Alessandra Vanaria; Edward, Samuel and
Benjamin Frick; Stephen, Caroline, Francoise, Julia and Alexia Hultin.
A Funeral Mass will be celebrated in St. Joachim's Church, Broadway,
Rockport, on Friday, Dec. 14th, at 11 AM. Burial will follow in Calvary
Cemetery, Gloucester. Visiting hours will be held on Thursday, Dec.
13th, from 4 to 8 PM in the Burgess & Mackey Funeral Home, 20l Main
St., ROCKPORT. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to University
of Massachusetts, referencing Dr. Herb Hultin Fund, Development Office,
Attn: Rick Robar, 311 Stockbridge Hall, Amherst, MA 01003
Support grows for turning marine station into a research center that
reflects beliefs of UMass scientist
Courtesy of Boston Globe, July 21, 2008
link |
check out these
links....
UMass
Food Science Club
Food
Science at UMaine
Food
Science at URI
Food
Science at UMass
Food
Science at Northshore CC
NEIFT
Bylaws
|
Associated
Press: July 13, 2007 BEIJING - Chopped cardboard, softened with an industrial
chemical and flavored with fatty pork and powdered seasoning, is a main
ingredient in batches of steamed buns sold in one Beijing neighborhood,
state television said.
The report, aired late Wednesday on China Central Television, highlights
the country's problems with food safety despite government efforts to
improve the situation.
Countless small,
often illegally run operations exist across China and make money cutting
corners by using inexpensive ingredients or unsavory substitutes. They
are almost impossible to regulate.
State TV's undercover
investigation features the shirtless, shorts-clad maker of the buns,
called baozi, explaining the contents of the product sold in Beijing's
sprawling Chaoyang district.
Baozi are a common
snack in China, with an outer skin made from wheat or rice flour and
and a filling of sliced pork. Cooked by steaming in immense bamboo baskets,
they are similar to but usually much bigger than the dumplings found
on dim sum menus familiar to many Americans.
The hidden camera
follows the man, whose face is not shown, into a ramshackle building
where steamers are filled with the fluffy white buns, traditionally
stuffed with minced pork.
The surroundings
are filthy, with water puddles and piles of old furniture and cardboard
on the ground.
"What's in
the recipe?" the reporter asks. "Six to four," the man
says.
"You mean 60
percent cardboard? What is the other 40 percent?" asks the reporter.
"Fatty meat," the man replies.
The bun maker and
his assistants then give a demonstration on how the product is made.
Squares of cardboard
picked from the ground are first soaked to a pulp in a plastic basin
of caustic soda — a chemical base commonly used in manufacturing
paper and soap — then chopped into tiny morsels with a cleaver.
Fatty pork and powdered seasoning are stirred in.
Soon, steaming servings
of the buns appear on the screen. The reporter takes a bite.
"This baozi
filling is kind of tough. Not much taste," he says. "Can other
people taste the difference?"
"Most people
can't. It fools the average person," the maker says. "I don't
eat them myself."
The police eventually
showed up and shut down the operation.
|
|
In the future, you’ll
be able to customize more and more products to your own liking, and
why should beverages be any different?
This new technology
from Ipifini, called “Choice-Enabled Packaging,” provides
bottles of soda with multiple flavor “buttons,” which can
be pressed to create your own customized soft drink flavors.
A programmable bottle
with four flavors and a caffeine button can produce up to 32 unique
concoctions. A six-button prototype has been produced which can create
64 combinations. Bring on those cherry lime vanilla sodas!
[via Technabob via
Technovelgy via CNET]
Details at Ipifini
|
|
|
|
Welcome Regional Members of the
Institute of Packaging Professionals!
Members of the NEIFT are invited to keep up with the latest developments
in food packaging technology through the resources available at their
website, www.ioppne.org
Check for links
to packaging professionals in the NE region, as well as upcoming events.
|
Passings....
Ernest Earl Lockhart,
93, died at his home on July 26, 2006.
Following a year of study on fellowship at teh Biochemical Institute in
Stockholm, Sweden, Earl served as the physiologist on Rear Admiral Richard
E. Byrd's United Stated Antarctica Expedition of 1939-1941. For this service
he received a special medal authorized by the Congress of the United States.
Upon his return to the States, Earl began a career of research and teaching
at MIT in the field of food technology and nutrition. In 1955, he left
MIT to join the Coffee Brewing Institute, a trade organization located
in New York City, as its Research Director. In 1965 he assumed the position
of Assistant Research Director of the Coca Cola Company in Atlanta, where
he remained until his retirement in 1978.
Earl was a co-founder of the International Life Sciences Institute, a
worldwide foundation that seeks to improve the well-being of the general
public through the advancement of science.
He is survived by his loving wife and constant companion of 63 years,
Helen Scrufutis Lockhart. Condolences may be sent to PO Box 720, Summerfield,
NC 27358. |
SOUP TO NUTS
By Meredith Goad
Portland Press
Herald
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Sweet deal!
They were up against a bagel with the cream cheese
already swirled inside it, a healthier version of fish and chips for
kids, and a caramel apple without the stickiness -- it had caramel
flavoring injected into it.
The other students in the competition had more experience and fatter
budgets.
But in the end, the food-science students from the University of Maine
were triumphant. Their "Yo Bon Blueberry Bites" -- frozen
blueberry yogurt covered in dark chocolate -- won first place in a
prestigious product-development contest sponsored by the Institute
of Food Technologists Student Association in June. There was lots
of hugging and yelling.
"We beat out some of the nation's largest food-science departments,"
said Jason Bolton,
Now, encouraged by their success and a grant from the Maine Technology
Institute that allowed them to purchase a chocolate waterfall, Bolton
and a couple of partners are trying to develop the frozen novelty
further.
Cathy Billings, one of the consumers who taste-tested the Yo Bons
when the students were creating the product for one of their food-science
classes, liked them so much she asked to be made a partner in the
endeavor.
"It's that outstanding," she said.
Not only are the Yo Bon Blueberry Bites tasty, they're more healthful
than a lot of frozen novelty products on the market, too. They are
full of antioxidants and calcium. One serving of the bites, which
amounts to two bon bons, is higher in antioxidants than a cup of blueberries.
A serving contains 188 calories, 25 percent of the daily value of
calcium, 10 percent of daily fiber needs, and a little over 9 grams
of fat.
Using real chocolate instead of a chocolate coating, as other products
do, made a big difference in the amount of fat in the bon bons, Bolton
said.
"The chocolate coatings are mostly fat, less chocolate,"
he said. "Most of our competitors have almost twice as much,
if not more, fat than we do."
The product has the same mouth feel as higher-end ice creams, however,
according to Shari Baxter, a graduate student who worked on the project.
The Yo Bons, which start with Gifford's plain frozen yogurt, have
a lower percentage of milk fat than premium ice creams, she said,
but "we have compensated for that by using stabilizers to make
a creamier mouth feel so it still feels like you're eating a very
high-end product, but you aren't getting the fat associated with that."
When they were developing the product, the students tested it on 132
consumers and were astonished by the response. On a scale of 1 to
9, with 9 being the highest score, the Yo Bon Blueberry Bites averaged
8.1, "which is extremely high," Baxter said.
"In most industry product-development scenarios, if they get
in the high 6's to 7's they know they have a good enough product to
take to market."
The students produced 600 of the bon bons for the food-science competition.
Now, even with their initial success, the students are still making
the bon bons by hand, but their productivity has skyrocketed.
Before receiving the MTI grant, they were using a chocolate waterfall
at Wilbur's of Maine in Freeport.
"We actually transported frozen yogurt cores on dry ice the hour
and a half down to Freeport, coated them, put them back on dry ice,
and transported them back up to the university," Baxter said.
Now they are able to make more than 4,000 bon bons in a couple of
weekends.
There's still more market research, and other work, to be done before
you'll be seeing the product in your grocer's freezer. And the partners
are considering developing other product lines -- say, coffee- or
cranberry-flavored bites.
"It's a learning process even still, and there's quite a long
way to go, I think, before we get to the point where we totally ramp
up for production," Billings said.
If they ever start making money at this, they plan to give back to
the university, which has allowed them to use its equipment and the
expertise of its faculty. One thing they are considering is donating
some of their profits for food-science students who want to do similar
projects in the future.
"One of the things we're priding ourselves on is, because of
the backing from the university, we always want this to be associated
with the university," Bolton said.
Until then, they are working hard and weighing all their options.
"We're pretty open to see what the future holds for us,"
Baxter said.
Staff Writer Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at:
mgoad@pressherald.com
|
UMaine Product Development
Team
|
|
Global
Organics Ltd., supplier of organic ingredients to the natural
food and cosmetics industries worldwide, is pleased to announce the
addition of two new members to its' management team in QA and Operations.
"Given our significant growth in the last few years, we are adding
depth to our team which allows us to continue working closely with our
customers to meet their needs in a very exciting and challenging business
environment," said Dave Alexander, Founder and President. "Quality
assurance and operations are critical components to the high level of
service we provide our customers."
Lisa White has been hired as Director of Operations and Business
Development. Most recently VP/Operations and Quality of Annie's Homegrown,
Lisa brings over 25 years of experience in the food business to Global.
She will be responsible for overseeing operations as well as developing
new business initiatives. In addition to Annie's Homegrown, Lisa has
worked with Newman's Own Organics, Nantucket Off-Shore seasonings and
Stirrings among others. Lisa is a graduate of Boston College and holds
a professional chef diploma obtained in Annecy, France.
Ed White (no relation) joins Global Organics, Ltd. as Quality
Assurance Manager. Ed holds a BS degree in Food Science and Technology
from University of Massachusetts. Previously employed at Shaw's Supermarkets,
Stop & Shop and Amstar Corp. (Domino Sugar), Ed will be responsible
for maintaining a total quality program for Global Organics, including
vendor compliance and product development in addition to providing technical
support to customers.
Global Organics, Ltd. sources quality organic ingredients worldwide
from sustainable projects that are environmentally and socially responsible
members of their communities. It distributes from warehouse locations
in the US, Canada and Europe.
|
The
University of Massachusetts Food Science Club
will be hosting the North Atlantic IFTSA Area Meeting. For this event,
students from regional food science departments will travel to Amherst
for a two day meeting and the College Bowl Competition, which will determine
which team moves on the competition at the IFT Annual meeting in Chicago.
Three of Professor Vieira's food chemistry students at North
Shore Community College recently had
articles published in the monthly school newspaper, The Pennon. Janet
DeLeskey wrote a wonderful article on The Avian Flu & Food Safety.
Danielle Ennamorati wrote about Splenda and the many myths surrounding
it and Ryann Collins had an article published on Food Terrorism and the
effects it could have on our food supply. |
|
|
|
|
Congratulations
to Andres Rodriquez, UMASS,
2006 recipient of the
International Association for Food Protection's
"Developing Scientist" Award.
More than 1,700 of the top industry, academic and government food safety
professionals attended IAFP 2006 held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, August
13 to 16.
The
meeting has earned recognition as the leading food safety conference
and featured over 500 presentations on all aspects of food science and
food protection. Networking opportunities, committee meetings, tours
and special presentations rounded out the meeting. Representatives from
115 companies exhibited equipment and the latest innovations in food
safety services.
|
Concord Foods
Teaches Kids!
Brockton based Concord Foods visited the Elmhurst Street Children's
Park in Dorcester on July 20 to keep children about food science, food
preparation and human nutrition. Concord employee Caitlin Jamison taught
children to use the Food Pyramid and to prepare healthy snacks.
Ever wonder what
foods the Vikings ate when they set off to explore the new world? How
Thomas Jefferson made his ice cream? What the pioneers cooked along
the Oregon Trail? Who invented the potato chip...and why? Welcome to
the Food Timeline.
www.foodtimeline.org
A fun look at Organic Foods...presented
by the Organic Trade Association
www.storewars.org/flash/index.html
What 25 basic ingredients would you find in kitchens
around the world?
International
Pantry
|
|
