SAES-422 Multistate Research Activity Accomplishments Report
Sections
Status: Approved
Basic Information
- Project No. and Title: NC136 : Improvement of Thermal and Alternative Processes for Foods
- Period Covered: 10/01/2001 to 09/01/2002
- Date of Report: 11/14/2002
- Annual Meeting Dates: 09/15/2002 to 09/17/2002
Participants
California (K. McCarthy, R.P. Singh*); Delaware (C. Davies*); Florida (A.A. Teixeira*); Idaho (P.P. Singh*); Illinois/IIT/NCFST (V.A. Balasubramanian*); Illinois (G. Padua); Indiana (J. Marks*); Iowa (L. Wilson*); Michigan (K. Dolan, B. Marks, J. Steffe*); Nebraska (G. Ganjyal); New Jersey (D. Heldman*, M. Karwe, S. Liu); New York -Ithaca Geneva (A. Datta*); New York - Geneva (A. Rao*); North Carolina (C. Daubert*, B. Farkas, K. Keener, K.P. Sandeep); North Dakota (D. Weisenborn*, M. Bhattacharya); Ohio (G. Kaletunc, L. Loghavi, S. Sastry*, P. Wongsa-Ngasri); Oregon (J.A. Torres*); Pennsylvania (S. Anantheswaran*, V. Ghosh); South Dakota (K. Muthukumarappan*); Texas (E. Castell-Perez, R. Moreira*); Virginia (K. Mallikarjunan*); Washington (G.V. Barbosa-Canovas*).
On Monday morning September the 16th, Dr. Ian Gray, NC-136 Administrative Adviser presented his report for the past year. Dr. Hongda Chen (USDA/CREES) gave an update on research funding. Dr. Sastry moderated a discussion regarding the limited funding for Food Engineering. Dr. Paul Singh (California) described the European initiatives in Food Engineering. Dr. Gustavo Barbosa (Washington) addressed the attendants next, describing the creation of the International Society of Food Engineering and its relationship to IUFoST, IAEF and other parallel organizations. Then the Objective A reports were presented. During sthe afternoon the Objectives A & B reports were presented. Following the presentations, ad hoc committees held meetings and prepared reports for wrap-up ad hoc report session. On Tuesday 17th, Objectives C & D reports were presented. Following the presentations, ad hoc committees presented the wrap-up reports.
The following committee met and presented reports: Phytochemicals committee (Heldman); DSC committee (Kaletunc); Gels committee (Castell-Perez); Mathematical modeling committee (Marks); Oils characterization committee (Mallikarjunan); Steering committee (Wilson): Calibration fluids committee (Karwe). USDA funding committee (Sastry).
Accomplishments
* The sharing of ideas, approaches, results, and reviews among the stations was one the of most important accomplishments of the last year project.
* Through the work undertaken by the ‘Yield Stress‘ ad hoc committee, the vane method is now commercialized by Brookfield Engineering Laboratories (MA). The new Brookfield Yield Stress viscometer has been marketed for quality control and research.
* NC-136 members (CA, IA, OH, NY, PA, WA) were represented in processing, preservation, and packaging groups in a workshop organized by NASA on "Advanced Food Systems" in Houston 11/01.
* The "Oils Characterization" ad hoc committee wrote a paper on the ASAE journal on the work made by the committee on "Frying Oil Quality Measured Using Various Objective Methods" by K. Mallikarjunan, R. G. Moreira, D. P. Wiesenborn, L. A. Wilson.
* Organization of an IFT symposium on "Impingement drying processes" by CA and NJ stations.
* Some of the topics addressed in the NC-136 objectives have attracted the attention of the food science/engineering community. One example is the work on "Vacuum Frying" (TX station) that has recently been featured in popular articles and magazines including "The Battalion" - 02/28/02-(Texas A&M University newspaper), "Texas A&M Engineering News" - 02/18/02; "Texas A&M System News" - June/02; and on "Prepared Foods e-News Weekly" - March/4/02.
* A large number of pre-reviewed publications (147) has been presented by the participating stations last year (see list below).
* NC-136 has been recognized widely as a sound body representing food engineers and the industry uses it as a reference.
* Much of the work on nonthermal preservation has had significant impact, based on the amount of industry interest, and new product introductions, especially in the area of high-pressure processed foods.
* Studies on traditional thermal processing continue to have significant impact by improved calculation of thermal inactivation kinetic parameters.
* Other potential impacts to the industry, teaching, research, and extension communities include:
- Development of reliable techniques to characterize product changes during processing and storage, specially staling, baking, frying, extrusion.
- Collaboration among several ad hoc committees has yielded standard procedures for measurement of food properties, including: glass transition temperature, gel properties, frying oil quality characterization, and calibration fluids.
- Development of teaching/research tools to simulate several unit operations using mathematical models has been compiled by the NC-136 members of the ad hoc committee in "Mathematical Modeling".
- Increased funding rate of proposals in the area of Food Engineering submitted to USDA and other agencies due to close interaction with administrators and discussion among NC-136 members
Plans for the Coming Year:
* Continuation with the one and half meeting days format. Presentations by station will follow similar style of last years.
* Intensify the collaborative component of this work through station participations and ad hoc committees.
* Submission of IFT Symposia in: "Recent Advances in Science and Technology of Soy Foods" - IA and ND stations; "Using DSC in Foods" - OH and WI stations.
* Discuss the new directives, needs, and re-writing of NC-136 Project for the next 5-year period (2005-2010).