Cornell Symposium Brings Food Science and Industry Together

Representatives from 20 major food companies will be in Ithaca next week to attend the first Cornell Associates Symposium hosted by the Cornell Institute of Food Science (CIFS). The symposium, held January 14-15 at the Statler Hotel on the Cornell campus, is one of the primary methods of interaction between associate members and the 68 faculty members of CIFS.

"We expect the associates to interact as much among themselves as with us," said Mark McLellan, chairman of the Food Science & Technology Department at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva. McLellan co-directs CIFS with Dennis Miller, chairman of the Food Science Department on the Ithaca campus. "The companies share common interests, concerns and challenges, and now the symposium provides a place to gather," McLellan added.

Cornell Associates is a new CIFS program officially launched in September. Companies pay an annual $5,000 membership fee and, in return, enter into a close working relationship with CIFS scientists and staff. CIFS research projects and programs are described to member companies, and, in some respects, an Associate company may think of CIFS researchers as an extension of its own R&D staff, according to McLellan.

Associate companies span a broad cross-section of the food industry. Currently, the program's 20 members include: Campbell Soup, Canandaigua Wine, E&J Gallo Winery, General Mills, Hershey Foods, Nabisco, Pepsi-Cola, Rich's, Seneca Foods, Taco Bell, Wegman's, Land O'Lakes, and Welch's. The goal of the program was to have 20 members by the end of 1998 and 25 members by the end of the program's second year.

"This is a win-win relationship for Cornell and the Associate members," McLellan states. "By building a relationship, companies see all the research conducted at Cornell and the value of working with us. This could potentially lead to fully funded projects and collaborative partnerships which might never have happened otherwise."

Members are invited to two symposiums each year-one in January and one in the summer. Each symposium features at least six presenters who describe their programs in detail and answer questions. Presenters span the breadth and depth of CIFS expertise, which is multi-disciplinary and cross-college.

Presenters at the January symposium include: Dr. Harry Lawless, whose recent research has addressed perception issues of astringency and "hot" sensations from pepper compounds; Dr. Terry Acree, who studies the perception of food flavor and its modulation by chemical composition and human diversity; Dr. Elizabeth Earle, who works on the genetic manipulation of crop plants and horticultural analysis of the altered materials; Dr. John Brady, whose work focuses on the solution properties of carbohydrates, food proteins and triglycerides; and Dr. Michael Shuler, whose research interests include bioengineering, protein expression systems, and cell culture analogs.

In addition to the presentations, the symposium offers other opportunities for participants to interact on a one-on-one basis with Cornell faculty and students.

For more information contact Linda McCandless, NYS Agricultural Experiment Station , Jordan Hall, 30 North Street Geneva, NY 14456. Tel: 315-787-2417; Fax: 315-787-2276.