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Food Science Kicks Off 100th Anniversary Celebration at Thailand Conference
The food science department began the celebration of its 100th anniversary this year at an international conference, “Foods for Health: Meeting the needs of future generations,” in Thailand on Jan. 10-12 at the Novotel Bangkok.
Department head Eric Decker says that of the 85 participants registered from the United States, Canada, Australia, southeast Asia, China, Japan and Korea, at least two-thirds were graduates of the food science department.
“It was like an alumni weekend,” he notes. “We have 35 alumni from Thailand alone, and there were several Thai professors, Withida “Joop” Chantrapornchai, Wilailuk “Tuk” Chaiyasit and Ketinun “Get” Kittipongpittaya who were essential in the success of the conference. The dedication of our Asian alumni to the department is really quite humbling. It was exciting to bring these people back together because they haven’t seen each other in a while.”
“What really made this happen is alumnus Yongjing Li, the regional president of Asia Pacific DuPont Nutrition & Health, the main sponsor of the meeting and a member of our departmental advisory board,” Decker adds. “There is a real feeling of family among our alumni. Our Asian alumni have been a huge part of the success of UMass food science not only from the work they did as students but also the promotion of the department internationally and by sending their students here to become part of the UMass team.”
Eight food science faculty attended the meeting and gave presentations. Sessions included “Improving gut health with foods,” which featured presentations by functional food expert professor Yeonhwa Park of UMass Amherst, plus others from Australia, Japan and China.
Another session, “Improving the efficacy of food bioactives,” featured talks on gut microbiota-mediated biotransformation of food components by associate professor Hang Xiao and scientists from China. Professor Julian McClements, award-winning expert on food biopolymers, colloids and the development of food-based structured delivery systems for bioactive components such as vitamins and nutrients, gave a presentation on biopolymer microgels in food delivery systems in a session titled “Natural solutions for better foods.” Other speakers were assistant professor Maria Corradini and researchers from China, South Korea and Germany.
Professor Lynne McLandsborough spoke on “Antimicrobial delivery systems,” assistant professor Lili He gave a talk on “Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for food safety applications,” and new faculty member Matthew Moore spoke about “Emerging foodborne pathogens: Topics and techniques” in a session on advances in food safety.
In addition, Decker moderated a panel discussion titled “The Future of Food,” with panelists
Pavinee Chinachoti, who is president of the Food Science and Technology Association of Thailand, Yongjing Li; Zhenyu Chen of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and associate editor of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, and Akkharawit Kanjana-Opas, CEO of Food Innopolis, Thailand.
Decker says the department will celebrate its 100th anniversary more formally Sept. 28-29 on campus during its regularly scheduled Alumni Weekend with speeches by local dignitaries, tours of the Pilot Plant in Chenoweth Hall and activities such as apple processing.