As the Food Industry Turns, IFT Style

As we gear up for IFT’s 2011 Annual Meeting in New Orleans this month, let us reflect on the 2001 meeting, also held in “The Big Easy.” What a difference 10 years makes.

Less than three months away from Sept. 11, 2001, travelers to the show boarded airplanes, paper tickets in hands, blissfully unaware of the dangers of nail clippers and bottled water. New Orleans was still four years away from Hurricane Katrina and the storm surge that submerged 80% of the city. At the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, thousands passed by rows of booths offering the latest in beverages and foods, versus the thousands of refugees that later flocked there in a vain search for food and water.

At the 2001 IFT show, Elizabeth Dole keynoted on the inevitability of change as she shifted her political aspirations from the executive branch to the legislative branch. The “Hot Topic sessions” concentrated on bioterrorism, product development and mad-cow disease, as IFT urged stronger focus on science-based public policy. At the Expo, açaí was nowhere to be found, and attendees flocked to the Kraft and Kerry booths to partake of tandoori wings, grilled-cheese dipping sauce, chorizo y queso empanadas, char-grilled chicken breast, Mexican cheesy pasta “bake” with chiles and black beans, and Oreo cookie-and-cream cheesecake truffles.

Fast forward 10 years: Pack the clippers and 3.4 oz. of your favorite beverage as you check in with your smartphone; just try to enjoy your pat-down before boarding. New Orleans is on the mend—especially if you don’t venture beyond the business and tourist areas—despite a “little” backsliding created by a certain petroleum company about a year ago.

Sucralose is no longer the new sweetener on the block. And while stevia still has that new-car smell, can lo han guo be far behind? Nanotechnology, just a scientific curiosity in 2001, is a potential food-safety tool in 2011, and we can discover how to design carbohydrate nanoparticles for food. The Hot Topics appear to be gone, but there is a Special Focus on Dietary Guidelines. And while mad-cow disease is a bit passé, we seem to be puzzling over BPA, acrylamide, melamine, hydrocarbon-laced seafood, radiation, food adulteration and dangerous (or not) food additives. We’ll be wondering, “Is there still a place on the table for refined grains after the 2010 Dietary Guidelines report?”; ask, “What does sustainability mean to the food industry?”; and ponder, “Overweight and obesity: What do we know about the role of snacking?” (Waves hand: “I know! I know!”) Science-based policy is still a hot-button, with 2011’s keynote on “Delivering Science: Changing the Image of Food Science in the Marketplace.”

We’ll help you make sense of the evolving food and beverage industry with some special Food Product Design reports—both electronic and cellulosic—from the show and beyond to help solve your food-product-designing dilemmas. Stop by the VIRGO booth (#4659), and let us know if you have any requests, or if you can’t make it to the show, contact us online.

   -Lynn A. Kuntz