Food Science

Prof. Steele's latest research on the genetics of lactic acid bacteria (used in cheesemaking) was recently a featured news item. Using breakthroughs from the genomic sequencing of a key cheese ripening bacteria, they identified the key enzyme responsible for reducing bitterness in cheese. They are currently applying for a patent for this discovery and anticipate that modified starter cultures (which contain the gene for this enzyme) will be commercially available in less than two years. Bitterness in cheese is one of the major defects, which costs the dairy industry millions of dollars every year in downgraded products. (This story was also featured in Wisconsin Week, January 15, 2003).

Dr. Lucey's research on improving yogurt quality was recently a featured news item. Whey (liquid) on the top of yogurts after opening a new container is an unwanted defect in many commercial products. Lucey's research group has focused on the causes of this defect and has identified several options that could help to reduce this defect, including reducing the incubation temperature during the fermentation process. The overall objective of their work is to improve yogurt quality without adding ingredients, such as milk solids or hydrocolloid stabilizers, as these ingredients increase yogurt makers' costs and may decrease consumer perception of yogurt as a healthy food. (This story was also featured in Wisconsin Week, January 15, 2003).

Prof. Parkin's research on the health-promoting properties of beet was recently a featured news story. His group has found that the red pigments in beet (betalains) may boost levels of enzymes that help detoxify potential cancer-causing substances and purge them from the body. They are currently working on identifying the specific pigment responsible for this effect and they also want to know if it can be absorbed by the body in sufficient amounts to protect people against cancer.

Walt Brandli, the master cheesemaker for the Babcock Dairy plant, was profiled by the Wisconsin Week, December 11, 2002. Walt has been a cheesemaker for 51 years and was the son of a Swiss-born cheesemaker. He also took a short course in cheesemaking here in Babcock Hall in 1959 and things came full circle when he joined the Babcock dairy plant in 1992. He is known as an outstanding cheesemaker as countless customers of cheese from the Babcock dairy store can attest to. His own favorite cheese out of the hundreds of varieties he has made during his career is Old Amsterdam Gouda cheese.

Professor Emeritus Norm Olson is awarded the prestigious 2002 Distinguished Service Award by CALS, which is the highest honor the college bestows on its faculty and staff for meritorious service to the college and the University, to the people of Wisconsin and the world. The award was given at the 2002 honorary recognition banquet and ceremony, which was held on October 30 at the Memorial Union Great Hall. During Norm's long career at UW-Madison, spanning six decades, he distinguished himself in a wide variety of fields including teaching, outreach, research, and administration. Norm Olson managed to persuade the Wisconsin legislature to fund a dairy research center and then organized the Walter V. Price Institute in 1976. The Institute was set up to carry out basic and applied research, and to assist the cheese industry with training, improving production, and problem solving. In 1986, Norm built on his earlier success by convincing the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board to fund the Center for Dairy Research (CDR) and served as the first Director. In his research he characterized the kinetics of milk coagulation, demonstrated the cause of pink discoloration in Italian cheese, studied the physical properties of Mozzarella cheese and developed lowfat and specialty cheeses. During Norm's research career, he became one of the most influential dairy food researchers in the world. Listed as a highly cited and influential scientist by ISIHighlycited.com (one of only 7 in total from UW-Madison) (with more than 130 publications). He is a past president of American Dairy Science Association and has been active in many other dairy and food organizations.

Professor Emeritus Joe von Elbe's work on food colors was recently featured in the fall newsletter from WARF. Von Elbe's research on the color pigments in table beets has led to the development of the only U.S. beet variety that is bred and grown solely for its pigment. von Elbe runs Phytocolorants, a Madison-based company that markets this variety.

A search is currently underway for a new faculty person in Food & Bioprocess Engineering. This person is expected to develop an independent research program in the area of food engineering and bioprocessing with an appointment that is 50% research and 50% teaching. The deadline for applications is November 15th, 2002, and they should be sent to Dr. Jim Steele, Chair of the Search committee. (See the position announcement for more information).

At the July 2002 ADSA Annual Meeting in Quebec City, Canada Dr. Robert Bradley received the ADSA Fellow Award for service to the Association and to industry from Dr. John Bruhn from UC-Davis and current President of ADSA. (John Bruhn is a former student of Dr. Bradley's.)

At the 2002 ADSA meeting Dr. David Horne of the Hannah Research Institute in Scotland received the Marschall Rhodia International Dairy Science Award for his enormous contributions to our understanding of the physical chemistry of dairy foods. Dr. Horne received his award from Dr Harry Farrell (USDA) (seen here on the left). Dr. Horne was a CDR visiting scientist during the summer of 2002 and was working with Dr. John Lucey and Dr. Mark Johnson. Dr. Lucey, and Dr. Selvarani Govindasamy-Lucey are seen here (on the right) congratulating Dr. Horne on his award.

The June 2002 Food Science Newsletter is available as a PDF file.

This July the Candy-Making Short Course marked its 40th anniversary in Babcock Hall. The course is sponsored by the National Confectioners Association and features instructors from the candy industry as well as UW. This 2-week short course was a feature article in Saturday's (July 13th) edition of the Wisconsin State Journal. Prof. Rich Hartel is the coordinator of the course, which provides an in-depth study in both the theory and applied aspects of many products manufactured by this $24 billion sector of the food industry.

Congratulations to Dr. Bob Bradley (Emeritus) who was recently named as a Fellow of the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA). He will receive his award at the ADSA annual meeting in Quebec (July 21-25). The status of Fellow recognizes members of the American Dairy Science Association who have rendered distinguished service as well as exceptional contributions to the dairy industry over 20 years or more. Election to Fellow is one of the highest distinctions an ADSA member can achieve.

Congratulations to Dr. Srinivasan Damodaran who was recently named as a 2002 Fellow of the Agricultural and Food Chemistry Division (AGFD) of American Chemical Society (ACS). He will receive this honor at the Awards Dinner hosted by the AGFD at the annual ACS meeting in Boston (August 18-22). The award recognizes individual AGFD members who have made outstanding scientific contributions to the field of agricultural and food chemistry. Damodaran has published extensively on topics such as proteins at interfaces, functional properties of food proteins, protein-based industrial polymers, and enzymatic modification of food proteins.

Dr. David Horne (Hannah Dairy Research Institute, Scotland) will be here in Babcock Hall for a short (approx. 6-week period) sabbatical period. While here he will be working with Dr. John Lucey and Dr. Mark Johnson (CDR) on the physical chemistry of the melting of cheese. Dr. Horne will give a seminar on August 1 with the title "Structure and stability of casein micelles: a critical appraisal of micellar models". While he is in the US he will be attending the ADSA annual meeting where he is receiving the International Dairy Scientist Award for 2002.

Letter received by Alecia Tjoegiarto from Jaime Rudolf, IFTSA Membership Chair:

"Congratulations! On behalf of the IFT Student Association and Campbell's, I am very pleased to inform you that you are one of the recipients of the IFTSA Achievement Award.

"This award is given each year to those students who have made outstanding contributions to the success of their food science student chapter. You were nominated by your department head or chapter advisor and a student in your food science club to receive this award. The IFTSA appreciates your enthusiasm, effort and accomplishments, and wishes to recognize you at the IFT Annual Meeting in Anaheim, CA."

Congratulations to the College Bowl team which won the Mid-West regional competition held at UW-River Falls. IFT has divided the US universities offering Food Science into six regions. UW-Madison competes in Midwest region along with University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Purdue, UW-River Falls, Ohio State and Michigan State. They beat Purdue University in the first round, Ohio State in the second and Michigan State in the final round. The team is comprised of two undergrads, Deirdre Titel and Katie Torrison, and two grad students, Sofia Erazo and Ritu Mishra. They now go on and compete in the National competition, which is in Anaheim at the IFT Annual Meeting in June, and there the team will be competing with five other teams selected from their respective regions.

A successful CALS Science Expo 2002 was held on April 18th. There were about 120 high school juniors and 24 teachers from around Wisconsin. Various demonstrations and presentations were put together to show some aspects of the possible careers in the various departments in CALS. The Food Science Department had two labs which were "What keeps your yogurt from turning to mush?" presented by Dr. Lucey's group and "What do you know about antioxidants and candy chemistry?" presented by Melanie Dineen and Lee Jensen. These sessions received very favorable comments and reviews from both teachers and students alike.

On April 24th Dr. Lucey hosted various representatives from the Irish Dairy Industry that were on a study tour of the U.S. The Department of Food Science and the CDR received high praise for their extension activities and short courses.

Congratulations to Rusty Bishop who was appointed as Chairman of the United States National Committee to the International Dairy Federation (USNAC). International Dairy Federation (IDF) is an independent, nongovernmental body that promotes the image, trade and consumption of milk and milk products. It is also the technical and scientific advisor to the Codex Committee on Milk and Milk Products. This body also works with the U.S. dairy industry to identify conflicts between international and U.S. standards that could serve as international trade barriers.

Congratulations to Dr. Mark Johnson who was recently named as the 2002 recipient of the UW Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research. Mark is a Senior Scientist in the Center for Dairy Research, which is a unit of the Food Science Department, and he is also an instructor for FS550 Food Fermentations. This award recognizes Mark's outstanding research work on a wide range of topics relating to cheese technology and dairy products.

The annual Babcock Associates meeting took place on February 28-March 1. The Babcock Associates are made up of (mostly) alumni of UW-Madison that work with various food companies around the nation. This is a group that assists the Department of Food Science in maintaining its position as a leading food science program in the US and helping to tackle several long-term goals of the department.

The Department of Food Science was delighted to have Dr. Paul L.H. McSweeney, Dept. Food Science, Food Technology and Nutrition, University College, Cork, Ireland visit on February 26-27. He also presented an excellent seminar on the topic "Biochemistry of cheese ripening & flavour development", which was attended by faculty, students and representatives from the food industry.

Science Expo 2002 will be held in CALS on Thursday, April 18, 2002. The Expo is organized by CALS and emphasizes Cool Research for Hot Careers. The Food Science Department will have two sessions on "What keeps your yogurt from turning to mush?" which will be presented by John Lucey and the other session is called "What do you know about antioxidants and candy chemistry?" which is organized by Melanie Dineen and Lee Jensen. The lab sessions help high school biology teachers and their students visit the campus and do some hands-on science on a wide range of topics. This program tries to help high school students understand what are the different career options open to them if they study in CALS here at UW.

Recently, an interactive CD-ROM has been developed by IFT with creative assistance by Purdue University. The PIZZA EXPLORER teaches interested students the basics of food science and food chemistry utilizing pizza and its eight common ingredients as a model to teach various aspects of food science. Science teachers interested in obtaining a disc for their in-classroom instruction, should contact IFT.

There will be a new Short Course on Premium Ice Cream held on March 25-28. This new course will be a hands-on, intensive program of manufacturing skills for batch freezing premium frozen desserts. Program Coordinator is Dr. Scott Rankin, (608) 263-2008. This is yet another short course from an Institution that held its first short course back in 1890. Maybe this is a chance to learn some of the secrets of the delicious Babcock Ice Cream...