Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

NC1023: Improvement of Thermal and Alternative Processes for Foods Minutes of the Annual meeting held at South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD. Sunday, October 3rd evening the group had dinner at Mom Alones Mexican Grill. Announcements related to next day meeting were made. Monday October 4th morning 8.0 A.M. meeting, host Dr. Kasiviswanath Muthukumarappan welcomed everyone. After participants introduction, committee chair Kumar Mallikarjunan and Vice-chair Bala Balasubramaniam introduced various agenda items for the two day meeting. Meeting minutes were taken by Secretary Gonul Kaletunc. Meeting had 27 attendees. Attendees introduced themselves. Multi-State Project Administrative Adviser Comments Multi-state project administrative adviser Dr. David Jackson (Nebraska) emphasized the importance of multistate collaborative nature of the project. Impact of the project comes from collaborations of researchers from various stations. After two and a half year, there will be a project review to evaluate whether the project is on track. Therefore, it is extremely important to start collaborative projects. A good target is to have three fourth of the projects as collaborative. A good approach will be choosing one project for each objective and pursue it collaboratively. Washington Update from USDA National Program Leader Dr. Hongda Chen, National Program Leader, USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) provided Washington update. He summarized the recent organizational and leadership changes in USDA. Effective September 16, 2010, Dr. Catherine Woteki was confirmed as the Under Secretary. Dr. Roger Beachy is the Director of USDA NIFA for a 6 year term in September 23, 2009. NIFA mission statement is defined as leading Food and Agricultural Sciences to create a better future for the nation and the world. On October 1st 2010, NIFA was reorganized and the mission is expanded to include the world. Focus areas and potential funding in NIFA competitive grants program in 2010 were: 1) Climate change $55M 2) Bioenergy $40M 3) Food safety $20M 4) Nutrition and childhood obesity $25M 5) Global food security $19M NIFA will establish a competitive programs task force. For Fiscal year 2010 AFRI budget was $262M ($40M increase from 2009). For FY 2011 Presidents proposal was $429M. House and senate are working on $310M budget. As of September 30, 2010 congress has passed a short term CR till December 3, 2010. For 2011, expected RFA release is December 2010. Expectation is to have funding similar or higher amount than in 2010. New RFA is expected to be less focused compared to 2010. Dean Barry Dunn welcomed the NC1023 committee and gave information about the college, the university, and the growing food processing plants in South Dakota. Station Reports It was decided that reports related to collaborative efforts among stations be presented. Bala Balasubramaniam provided examples of the collaborative efforts between OH and other stations. a) multistate project for evaluation of selected alternative technologies for food quality focused on tomato with collaborators from OH, WA, CA, NC, Natick and Food Industry, b) a book was developed titled Nonthermal processing technologies contributed by OH, OR, WA, DE, PA, IL, CA, USDA ARS, Natick, FDA, and food industry, c) short course development for food industry. Martin Lo reported collaborations:a) between MD and CA on xanthan/curdlan hydrogel complex application in frozen food products, b) between MD and LA on receovery of solanesol from tobacco using microwave assisted extraction. Wade Yang (FL) mentioned a collaborative study with IL on extraction of xylane from corncob using ultrasound and tomato peeling by power ultrasound. Graciela Padua (IL) mentioned collaborative efforts a) with IA on developing seminars, b) with KY and IA evaluation of different methods to determine the influence of low-dose radiation on the ability of rennet to form curds in cheese manufacture, c) with MD for co-editing a book, d) proposed collaboration to prepare a live book on Food Engineering. Gustavo Barbosa Canovas (WA) mentioned about a) ISEKI-3 program funded by European Union open to European Union countries and ISEKI-Mundus program open to countries outside EU b) upcoming book on ultrasound, c) CORANET program participated by OSU, TAMU, NCFST, Rutgers, Tennesee, Michigan State, Clemson, d) collaboration with Purdue on pressure assisted thermal processing. Muthukumarappan reported the collaborative efforts in SDSU. South Dakota State University have developed a funded Higher Education Challenge grant titled Recruitment and Retention of a Diverse Population of Food Safety Students Using Market Research for Enhanced Programs in collaboration with North Dakota State University and New Mexico State University. Lester Wilson (IA) mentioned a) collaborative USDA project focused on produce sanitization in collaboration of colleagues from OH, IA and New Mexico, b) Cornell, Iowa and Romania and Slovenia about food safety education. Roger Ruan (MN) mentioned collaborations a) with SD on non-thermal pasteurization, b) improve whole grain bioavailability. A discussion about organizing symposia during ICEF 10, during May 22-26, 2011 was discussed. Input for NIFA from NC 1023: A discussion was moderated by Hongda Chen to identify proposal areas for USDA as a stake holder input. Points raised are: 1) 2010 RFP missed some food science work/food quality. It was focused on obesity. 2) It is difficult to find food quality in the RFP. Scope needs to be broadened. 3) Time after RFP announcement should be around 3-4 months. 4) Opportunity for fundamental and innovation type research should be available. 5) Language similar to 71.1 is preferred. 6) Foundational programs are misleading. Language should be made clear. 7) Can we have more challenge grant/special grants for fundamental/innovation projects? New Adhoc Committees A discussion to develop new adhoc committees around NC 1023 objectives was conducted. 1) Technologies detecting microbial contamination in foods (KY, IA, IL, WI) 2) Objective 1 b (chair: Bala) 3) Objective 1c (chair: Ashim) 4) Objective 1a (chair: Muthu) 5) Objective 2 (chair: Mark) 6) Objective 3 (Gonul, Martin, Bala, Lester) Next CoFE Meeting Martin and Kumar will organize CoFE in 2012 in Washington D.C. in April 2012. Following CoFE meeting will be in 2015. Possible places are NJ, IL, Seattle, WA. Next Meeting Hawaii volunteered to serve as the next host. Majority agreed to select Hawaii as the next meeting place in October 2011. Potential meeting places WA in 2012, LA or NE in 2013, and KY in 2014. There were two nominations for secretary position, Fernanda (IN) and Kai (LA). Dr. Fernanda, from Purdue University was elected as the next secretary. The meeting was adjourned by 10:30 AM October 5th.

1) A book was developed titled Nonthermal processing technologies contributed by OH, OR, WA, DE, PA, IL, CA, USDA ARS, Natick, FDA, and food industry 2) A workshop during Institute of Food Technologists on Food Processing and Packaging to Food Product Developers by NC1023 participants from VA, OH, TX, and IN stations.