Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Summary of Accomplishments. 1. NC-1023 is the premier group on Food Engineering in the nation. Its goals, aligned with those of the Land Grant Universities, are three-fold: to promote research, education, and outreach. In that context, NC-1023 serves as an open and effective forum for the discussion of novel intervention technologies that ensure the safety and quality of foods. Discussion groups, organized as ad-hoc Committees, continually scrutinize the effectiveness and viability of new technologies and identify eventual control points. Three ad-hoc committees met this year: High-pressure processing, Mathematical modeling of food processes, and Nanotechnology in the food industry. 2. Design of Interactive Virtual Experiments for Food Processing Education. During the past three years, we have created several virtual laboratory experiments using mathematical models developed under the auspices of research reported under this regional project. These laboratories are designed to provide educational contents for students taking university courses as well as practicing professionals in the food industry. The collaborative opportunities provided by NC 1023 resulted in a multi-state project funded by the Higher Education Challenge Grant program of USDA. This effort is now underway with active participation of Purdue University, Ohio State University, University of Illinois and University of California. Virtual laboratories on a variety of topics are being developed. 3. A Wiki for mathematical modeling of food processes was created. Computer simulation can be an important tool to food product, process and equipment designers by reducing the amount of experimentation and by providing a level of insight that is often not possible experimentally. Such simulation capability can provide a significant boost to the productivity in food manufacturing that is yet to benefit from this technology. The purpose of this Wiki is to develop a common collaborative resource for research, educational, and outreach purposes. Participation stations include, NY-I, CA, TX, NC, IN. The web address for the Wiki is http://commune.cit.cornell.edu/wikis/foodmodel/index.php/Main_Page 4. The 2007 IFT Symposia on Engineering research priorities in the food industry, was conceived and developed at the 2006 NC-1023 meeting. The original idea and the speaker list came out of conversations at the meeting. USDA participated in the original discussions and the final symposia had OH and CA participation. 5. Collaborative effort on the Safety of Foods Processed Using Four Alternative Processing Technologies. The group has documented clearly, the enhancing effect of electric fields on diffusivity of ionic species. Electrical conductivity data are now available for a wide range of food products that were not previously studied; and show the influence of salt infusion on electrical conductivity and heating uniformity. Participants are: The Ohio State University, North Carolina State University, University of California, Davis, Washington State University, and the US Army Natick Laboratories. 6. A collaborative research proposal submitted to NRI Food Safety on Improving processed food quality by pressure-assisted thermal treatments. Participants include Oregon State University, The Ohio State University, University of Florida, and Iowa State University 7. A collaborative effort is being carried out on microbial destruction in non-thermal processes. This is a relatively new area of study and constitutes a new direction for this group. The kinetics of these processes will be studied at the IL, VA, OH, OR, NE, TX and WA stations. 8. Kinetics of inactivation of Bacillus stearothermophilus under ohmic and conventional heating were studied collaboratively by researchers at the Ohio State Univ/OARDC and NASA. The intention was to determine kinetic parameters for verification of an in-package sterilization process. A device has been developed for measurement of thermal inactivation kinetics under ohmic and conventional heating. 9. Publication of a new textbook on physical properties of foods. The book is entitled Food Physics: Physical Properties - Measurement and Applications. It represents a collaborative effort from the University of Florida and the University of Applied Sciences in Bremerhaven, Germany. The book was released by Springer Press in 2007. 10. Please refer to the Appendix Station Reports for a complete list of accomplishments.