Who Would Have Thought? The Story of a Food Engineer.

Food engineering is a hybrid of food science and an engineering science, like chemical engineering in my particular case, resulting in the application of chemical engineering principles to food systems and their constituents. With the complexity of food and food processing, one generally narrows his or her interests, and my primary interests were in the kinetics of reactions important in foods, thermal processing, deposition of unwanted materials from food onto heated surfaces (fouling), and microwave heat transfer in baking. This review describes how I developed an interest in these topics and the contributions I have hopefully made to understanding food and to the application of engineering.

Feeding the World Today and Tomorrow: The Importance of Food Science and Technology: An IFT Scientific Review.

by Philip E. Nelson, 2007 World Food Prize Laureate; Professor Emeritus, Food Science Dept., Purdue Univ.

Microflora and Flavor of Wild Rice Fermented Under Different Conditions.

Changes in number and types of microorganisms in fermenting wild rice were studied. The effect of various microorganisms on keeping quality of wild rice during fermentation and on flavor of wild rice was also determined. Addition of microbial cultures and/or nutrient solutions did not increase the storage life of fermenting wild rice held at 21 or 5°C.

Growth of Thermoresistant Streptococci and Deposition of Milk Constituents on Plates of Heat Exchangers During Long Operating Times.

Adhesion of the thermoresistant bacterium Streptococcus thermophilus to the surface of a heat exchanger and deposition of milk constituents during long operating times were investigated. Experiments were carried out on a pilot plant pasteurizer with raw whole and preheated skim milk. Adsorption of calcium, phosphorus and proteins was studied using chemical analysis, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray microanalysis.

Influence of Processing on Nutrients in Foods .

Considerable research effort has been devoted to the effect of processing on nutrients in foods. Yet only recently has a systematic approach been used to identify changes in processes which result in improved nutritional content of the product. The catalyst for this systematic approach has been the generation of kinetic data on the influence of environmental factors on the stability of nutrients which can then be used in process models.