Food Science Hosts Annual USDA Conference
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The College of Natural Sciences's Department of Food Science hosted a national U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) conference last month, at which five UMass food scientists presented their USDA-funded research.
The USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) holds an annual meeting for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative’s (AFRI) Novel Foods and Innovative Manufacturing Technologies program, which was launched in 2019.
The 2024 meeting, held June 17-18, was the largest gathering in the funding program’s history, bringing together more than 80 project directors, co-directors, and research scholars from across the country. AFRI administers flagship competitive grants programs to invest in and advance science and technology aimed at ensuring sustainable food and nutrition security.
Scientists overseeing projects funded from 2019 through 2022 by the Novel Foods and Innovative Manufacturing Technologies program presented their research findings and insights at the conference.
“This is a collection of more than $40 million of public investments for the advancements of food science, technology and engineering to address societal challenges, improve public health, and enhance the national economy,” Hongda Chen, USDA/NIFA national program leader, wrote in the conference program.
UMass Amherst was chosen to host the conference in part because of the stellar reputation and funding success of its food science department, says Lili He, department head, noting there was a session during the conference dedicated solely to UMass Amherst research.
“It is well recognized that the Department of Food Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is a true center of excellence,” Chen says. “Our colleagues there have demonstrated an incredible track record of success in many measures. I am most pleased that there is a special session devoted to UMass Highlights, where we can hear about the insights of their visions, strategies, and best practices in research, in addition to the reports of their funded projects.”
UMass food scientists discussing their research projects were: Eric Decker, “Predicting Lipid Oxidation Lag Phases: The Key to Determining Shelf-life and Decreasing Food Waste”; David Julian McClements, “Optimization of Soft Matter Physics Approaches for the Creation of Next-generation Plant-based Meats” and “Double-Network Composite Biopolymer Hydrogels as Next-Generation Meat Analogs”; Hang Xiao, “Functionality-guided Smart Fermentation of Soybean Meal: a Novel Approach to Producing Next-generation Meat Alternatives from a Plant-based Byproduct”; Jiakai Lu, “Innovative Structuring-Layering Technology for Large-Scale Production of Fish Analogs”; and Lutz Grossmann, “Plant Whey: Value-Added Food Ingredients from Plant Protein Precipitation Sidestreams” and “Design of Novel Post-Processing Diffusional Tenderization Techniques to Advance Anisotropic Plant Protein Textures.”
This story was originally published by the UMass News Office.