From the President and IFST News

Abstract

When I attended the National College of Food Technology in 1977 to study for my BSc (Hons) in Food Technology, I never dreamt that one day I would be the Acting Chief Executive at the IFST. However, my career as a food technologist has led to many wonderful and challenging things, so I should not be too surprised.

Being in the 60^th year of the Institute during my short term of office has also made me reflect on what is different now. There are too many things to mention, so I will look at something that isn’t.

I went to Weybridge, much to the surprise of my teachers, who wondered what a pupil with good grades in science A levels was doing going to study to work in the food industry. Little did they know about the food system and the opportunities it held for an inquisitive and curious person with a bias for science and maths, let alone what it had for me. Sadly, that is still the case today, with the opportunities for STEM-minded individuals to pursue careers in the food system still being too much of a secret. In a recent podcast, even the Head of Design and Technology at my old school dismissed design and technology in food as uninteresting based on his experience working in catering.

It was a fundamental challenge then, and it still is today, although we are making progress. We must continue to convey what an amazing place the food system is to work in and how a career in Food Science and Food technology will allow people to contribute to solving some of the world's most pressing challenges. How do we feed the world sustainably, and how can we deal with the impact of a Western diet on our health? Whilst still allowing food to fulfil all those amazing social and cultural things that enjoying food with friends and family is the foundation of. I don’t understand why Gen Z are not queuing up.

The other thing that has not changed is the importance of the members to the success of the Institute and, ultimately, the professionals who will do these amazing things. In 1962, two hundred Weybridge graduates spent three and a half hours one afternoon debating and discussing the merits of setting up a professional institute, which led to volunteer groups and, ultimately, the institute. In my twenty weeks in post, the fun part is two or three times a week, I join our members working on committees, in task and finish groups doing things for our profession with the team at the IFST facilitating those activities. Be it our work on accreditation and recognition, the education and CPD activities, teams working with the science committee on knowledge resources, the editors working on our Journals, the communities of practice led by our SIGs, and last but not least, the branch committees working on getting us together again to meet up face to face. Volunteers started us, and they are lifeblood still. Thank you to you all.

So, there is something we need to change and one thing we definitely don’t. It is a privilege to do this job, completing the set of being a member, volunteer, trustee, and now part of the team. From this unique perspective, I encourage us all to celebrate the fact we are a membership organisation. Let's all get a colleague to join this autumn, and if you haven’t already gotten involved, volunteer or go to a branch event. Plus, let's continue to shout whenever we get the chance about what a great thing it is to be a Food Scientist or Food Technologist and the force for good, we can be in the food system.

On the 12^th of June 2024 Eastern Branch Committee has held the first Food Science Discovery Day hosted by Food Museum in Stowmarket, Suffolk.

We explored the fascinating science behind food and enjoyed delicious samples during this special event! In celebration of the Institute of Food Science and Technology's (IFST) 60th Anniversary, this event brought together local producers and food scientists to showcase how advancements in food science and technology have changed our lives over the past six decades.

The event aimed to bring awareness to how science and technology help to make our food, as well as to the brilliant food made by local producers. It also aimed to engage the younger generation, showcasing careers in the industry and encouraging continued innovation in the food sector, with several local schools taking part.

Event Highlights:

• Discover how our food is made with interactive stalls from producers and scientists in our medieval barn.

• Participate in hands-on activities to learn more about food science.

Event Activities:

Local Producers/Researchers/Service providers:

• Omega Ingredients - Discover the evolution of beverages and the role of natural flavourings.

• Quadram Institute - Learn about a journey through the digestive system.

• Muntons - Sample malt and explore the production process.

• Woosters & EDME Ingredients - Enjoy their signature malt bread.

• Eurofins – understand microorganisms present in food.

• Westfalia Fruit – look out for unique printed avocados and dried mango.

• Neogen – investigate the numbers of microorganisms on your hands by swabbing test.

IFST Interactive Activities lead by Professor Julian Cooper:

• Oobleck Experiment - Explore the unique properties of this non-Newtonian fluid.

• Sugar Rainbows - Create colourful sugar solutions and form a delicious rainbow.

• Beads or Worms - Make your own caviar using two liquids, inspired by experimental chefs.

Moderated by Daria Liutcerina Q&A Session with Experts - Professor Julian Cooper, Bob Bowman, Rob Winwood and Debera Smith - was very insightful.

Bob Bowman, Post-Chairman of Eastern Branch, IFST: ‘IFST was founded in 1964, and the Food Discovery Day is part of a nationwide year of celebration of its 60^th Jubilee by its members. Here in Eastern Branch, we are delighted to be holding this event at The Food Museum, a unique venue with long-established historical ties to East Anglian way of life. The activities of the museum and its links to communities across all age groups match exactly our aims to inform the public how food science and technology has changed our lives in the last 60 years, showcasing to young people the wide variety of rewarding and inspiring careers in the food sector’

Marie Taylor, Events Manager, Food Museum: ‘ We are delighted to host the IFST event at the Food Museum, the UK's only museum dedicated to food. Our mission is to connect people with the origins of their food and the impact of their choices on the environment, society, health, and wellbeing—past, present, and future. So, this partnership and event could not be better aligned with each other's values. It will provide even more added value for our museum visitors on the day, who will get involved with fun hands-on experiments, food tastings and an insight into how the food industry works behind the scenes.’

The event was noticed by BBC Radio Suffolk and had live interview which was an incredible experience!

Overall, it was a great event, and we are hoping to do similar events in cooperation with Food Museum and attract more schools, students and everyone who wants to explore the Food Science!

Thank you to the entire Eastern branch committee and Delia Mertoiu for your support!

A special thanks to the Food Museum for hosting us in their amazing barn - Marie Taylor and Ellen Harling and the entire team!

Daria Liutcerina, Event Coordinator from Eastern Branch Committee/Independent Food Safety Consultant and Eastern Branch Committee

IFST Scotland Branch secretary, Dr Jon Wilkin (lecturer in New Product Development and Business Development Manager for Food Innovation at Abertay University) invited IFST along to the V & A Dundee to celebrate the IFST 60 years Jubilee anniversary as part of their event on ‘The Future of Food’. Several pop-up events were taking place in the city as part of the Dundee Food Festival. Around 70 members of the public attended the lectures, all keen to hear how food science impacts the safety and sustainability of our foods.

Dr. Jon Wilkin and Dr Martin Peel (Managing Director at Growers Garden) each presented on initiatives with sustainability as the key driver-utilising the great seaweed resource along the Scottish coast, and how efforts are being made to utilise wonky vegetables, which are graded out of the supermarkets for cosmetic reasons. Audience members were asked to shout out what ‘sustainability’ means to them and it was clear this was a very interested and well-informed audience, also seen by the probing questions at the end of the session; we ended up discussing insects as a potential food source of the future.

Jon demonstrated that we have miles of Scottish coastal waters where seaweed could be harvested for future use, while reassuring the audience that we already use extracts of seaweed in the food industry (as agar, alginates and carrageenan). Jon has been working with an innovative company looking at an ingredient which has been extracted from seaweed biomass, which is high in fibre and minerals and has been successfully added to baked muffins, resulting in enhanced size and fibre content. Martin explained how his business embraced sustainability by creating a new product-Broccoli Chips-sharing that ~20% of the broccoli crop in Scotland is discarded as waste since it does not make the grade for the supermarkets. This business supports the farmers with a fair return for their crop and results in low food miles, while creating a healthier crisp alternative (with half the fat and salt compared to standard potato crisps) while at an affordable price point for the consumer. Samples of the product were available to taste and take away so we all agreed they are the way forward and were very interested to hear that future product launches are due any day using cauliflower, sweet potato and red pepper. Growers Garden, which started as a collective of 16 vegetable farming families, has grown but still holds on to their passion and commitment to farm sustainably and responsibly.

Professor Kofi Aidoo, Emeritus Professor at Glasgow Caledonian University, and recently appointed to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants (JECFA), was able to reassure the audience how international committees are working to ensure that our food sources have a low level of contaminants, based on their expertise and review. Using mycotoxins as an example (Kofi's specialist subject), Kofi explained how these contaminants enter the food chain and how the robust evaluation procedure results in the setting of MRLs (maximum residue levels) for global acceptance and use.

The enthusiasm shown by all of the speakers showcased the vital and positive role of food science in the future, especially where sustainability in the food chain must meet health, climate and economic goals. It was a great opportunity for IFST to be part of the festival events hosted at the iconic V & A where the following day the food-fun continued with an exhibition of food themed art and archives from the University of Dundee Archives and Museum collections. There were many interesting exhibits including ration books, (really) old food science exam papers and a perfectly preserved 40 year old scone.

IFST Education and Professional Development Coordinator Robin Leaper ran an event as part of the University of Leeds Summer School to promote studying food science and technology as a course at university. Robin ran a virtual factory tour and spoke about his own experiences as a food science graduate, as well as speaking about the wider food system. We had excellent feedback on the event and are looking forward to hosting similar events in the future.

IFST has released two new Technical Briefs as part of our ongoing series on Food Reformulation:

Food Reformulation for Fats: Provides an overview of the types and sources of dietary fats, their health impacts, their functional roles in food, strategies for reformulating fats in products, sustainability implications, current understanding, and future directions.

Food Reformulation for Sugars: Discusses the types and sources of dietary sugars, their health concerns, their roles and replacements in food, strategies for reducing sugars, current challenges, and future directions.

Both can be accessed on the IFST website at https://www.ifst.org/resources-policy/science-technology-resources/technical-briefs or by searching for ‘Technical Briefs’ in the search bar.

IFST has also released the 2024 update to our 2020 Information Statement on Dioxins and Dioxin-like Compounds in Foods and Feeds. You can read the Information Statement at https://www.ifst.org/resources/.

■An Update on the Transition of the International Journal of Food Science and Technology

The International Journal of Food Science and Technology has now entered the next phase of its transition to Oxford University Press. Journal Editor Professor Charles Brennan and the Editorial Board have been working around the clock during July and August to approve new submissions, which were coming in at a higher rate than ever before as we neared the transition cutoff. The IJFST Transition Team, made up of the editorial board and members of the IFST Team, chaired by project lead Deborah Kendale (IFST Business Development Director), have been working with colleagues from Oxford University Press to secure a smooth transition.

Article authors hoping to publish in IJFST can now submit articles to the new journal website, hosted on Oxford University Press. Articles submitted from September 2024 onwards can expect to be published in January 2025 after the flip to Open Access. Authors will be subject to an Article Processing Charge (APC) of £2,000. IFST members at all levels receive a discount of 20% on the APC, bringing a new benefit of IFST membership. For more information on the IJFST journal transition, visit https://www.ifst.org/our-resources/publications/international-journal-food-science-and-technology, or contact Professor Charles Brennan at [email protected].

We are now able to reveal a preview of the TFS Cover Art (pictured in page 13), which represents the converging of the different disciplines which the journal will cover. If you have any questions about TFS, please contact Editor Professor Niall Young at [email protected]

In connection with IFST's change of publishing partner – moving to Oxford University Press (OUP), we are also launching a new journal in January 2025.

Translational Food Sciences (TFS) will be a fully open access journal promoting near market food research from all background and disciplines relevant to food, pursued in a rigorous, practical, applied go-to-market manner, and will be Edited by Professor Niall W. G. Young. Niall has been involved in IFST's existing journal, the International Journal of Food Science and Technology (IJFST), for 20 years, most recently as Assistant Editor. He will bring his expertise along with Dr Charles Brennan as Assistant Editor, with a new editorial board.

A feature of TFS will be commissioned viewpoint pieces, which will be showcasing topical opinion on food matters aiming to inform and influence balanced food debate within our community as well as regulatory or policy decision makers. These viewpoint pieces will be built from a solid foundation of scientific literature which supports the views being proposed.

Translational Food Sciences articles will focus to drive genuine progress from new technology, new farming, new extraction procedures, new technological process to generate new foods, and new approaches within social science and anthropology which will impact new foods, trends, and consumer interactions with food.

This approach aims to mobilise a new audience of readers, with the near-market style and open access publishing making the articles much more accessible to readers working throughout the food system.

Translational Food Sciences articles will be relatively short – max 4000 words, supported by references which are predominantly recent, i.e. 75%.

Niall W. G. Young & Charles Brennan

As IFST switches publishing partners from Wiley to Oxford University Press (OUP), a part of that transition is to move to full Open Access for our two journals; International Journal of Food Science and Technology (IJFST), and our new journal (Launching in January 2025) Translational Food Sciences (TFS).

Many are asking what the benefit of this move to Open Access will be and what the impact of this will be for our authors. One of the biggest changes is that our authors now become clients! Publishing suddenly comes with an Article Processing Charge (APC), £2000 for IJFST and £1600 for TFS. So, what are you getting for your money? The new APC fee for IJFST represents a 25% reduction on our current rate and is part of our commitment to minimise the cost of publishing within our journals.

As a client, you are looking for service. Our commitment to partner with you and make sure that your paper is published as fast as possible – but not faster! I say this to convey our commitment to quality, quality to our process, and, also in our product – your paper! Due diligence will be maintained in the peer review, editorial, and production processes to deliver a manuscript which is viable and ready to be presented to an engaging world. But don’t you already do that could be the rebuttal? Yes, we do, and the further benefits also include: Visibility, Transparency, Availability, Societal Impact, Interdisciplinary Collaboration / Collaboration, Meeting Funding Body Requirements, and Citation Harvest. Let's unpack these in a little more detail.

Visibility: Open Access offers a greater opportunity to have your research seen, simply by more people being able to download / share / and read your work. These readers now do not have to be ‘part of your field’ but could be – anybody!

Transparency: This is akin to trust, your research, and its integrity is increased by being made available to all, and if this is coupled to a similar access to your data that offers an extra sense of openness. This extra transparency can be the vehicle to bring more credibility or more shareability to your work, and it is able to be offered since we are no longer bound by physical published pages.

Availability: Your work ready to be accessed by anybody, anywhere, anytime. It is no longer hidden behind a subscription wall and will be searchable via all recognised search engines.

Societal Benefits: In many countries Governments and / or Funding Bodies insist that research plays a visible and beneficial role in enhancing society. Through Open Access, your work can be read easily by people outside the traditional academic fields and be more freely available to policy makers, industry, small & medium enterprises engaged in legislation and innovation.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration / Collaboration: Your manuscript being available to everyone means that the chance of readers coming from an ‘outside’ discipline is higher, and this improves the opportunity of these new readers reaching out for discussions to set up collaboration. Open Access is a very effective vehicle to support a new breeding ground of fresh collaborative partners when innovation and new thinking can truly drive interdisciplinary success – and lead to Societal Benefit.

Meeting Funding Body Requirements: Many funding bodies now demand that research is published in Open Access journals, precisely for the reasons being given above. And failure to publish via Open Access can either result in Grants not being awarded, or full Grants not being paid out.

Citation Harvest: Publishing in Open Access has been shown to boost the number of citations returning from a single manuscript by up to 400 %. Authors can derive a direct benefit here in terms of their own citation index scores, and the beneficial effect for the journal is that this can raise its impact factor, creating a ‘Win-Win’ situation.

Join Charles and myself and publish your new research with our new Open Access Journals in 2025. Submissions for 2025 are open from 4th September 2024 for IJFST, and 9th September for TFS.

IFST President Sterling Crew interviews food safety consultant and IFST Vice President Alec Kyriakides.

Alec Kyriakides is one of my own personal food heroes and a food safety consultant with over 35 years experience in the industry. In his 28 years with the retailer Sainsbury's, Alec managed safety, quality, supplier performance, technical training, incidents, customer complaints, analytical assurance and the in-house accredited laboratory. Prior to Sainsbury's, he worked in food manufacturing including the dairy and brewing industries. He is a microbiologist by training and his passion has always been in food safety management. Alec is the coauthor of books on the practical control of food borne pathogens including Salmonella, Listeria, Clostridium botulinum, Campylobacter and Escherichia coli. He has sat on a number of influential industry and government committees including the Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food and is currently a Non-Executive Board Director of Campden BRI, a Trustee of the IFST, Chair of the BRCGS International Advisory Board, Chair of the Safe to Trade Technical Standards Committee and an Honorary Lecturer at Queen's University Belfast. Alec is a Fellow of the IFST and an Honorary Fellow of SOFHT.