Food Processing - August 2008 - (Page 37)

An Oreo bread pudding was among the delectables served in the Kraft Food Ingredients booth. IFT’s Tasty Return to New Orleans T By Dave Fusaro and Diane Toops The heat and humidity of the Big Easy could not wilt the innovation of the annual food show. he Institute of Food Technologists’ Annual Meeting & Food Expo returned to New Orleans June 29-July 2 for the ﬁrst time since beating Hurricane Katrina by just a month in 2005. Beauty from within, healthy bones and healthy hearts were the primary messages we heard at a quieter IFT Food Expo this year. Omega-3 fortiﬁcation, ﬁber fortiﬁcation and antioxidants in superfruits were at the forefront again. e conversation was about escalating prices of both ingredients and food and how it will become more diﬃcult to innovate in a slowing economy. In addition to the usual IFT programming surrounding the show, there were three charitable events planned to help the struggling city and its citizens. Kerry Ingredients planned to put show-going volunteers to work Saturday before the expo started in New Orleans neighborhoods that still need work rebuilding, but that event was canceled. A spokesperson said apparently not enough people were arriving in the Crescent City early enough to take part. Instead, Kerry made a monetary contribution to the organization involved: Beacon of Hope. ABF Ingredients and its subsidiary companies – AB Enzymes, FOODPROCESSING.COM Abitec, Ohly, PGP International and Protient – held a dinner cruise on the Creole Queen riverboat. A silent auction and raﬄe raised $12,000 split between Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation, a New Orleans home-building charity, and Cecily’s Fund, which helps educate Zambia’s children orphaned by AIDS. e IFT association had its own program the day before and the day after the show. Volunteers worked with America’s Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana to sort and repack surplus and donated food or deliver food packs to needy residents. IFT oﬃcials termed the show a success, despite attendance of just over 15,000 (down from the 2007 Chicago show’s crowd of 23,296, the second biggest IFT Show ever) and 951 exhibiting companies. Chicago, which is the venue every third year, always draws heavier crowds than New Orleans, Orlando, Fla., or Anaheim, Calif., which also regularly host the show. Technical sessions included: organic and natural certiﬁcations, food safety, essential fatty acids, newer sources of ﬁber, consumer research, the safety of imported foods and ingredients and functional foods (reports on all those subjects are available on the IFT web site: www.ift.org). e two days preceding the food expo, IFT held its International Food Nanoscience Conference. All the right ingredients Putting aside the association meetings, technical conferences and after-hours activities, the core of the annual event is the Food Expo, at which many of those 951 exhibiting companies introduce new products, with heavy emphasis on the ingredient side of the house. Leavening agent Levona (now renamed Levona Opus) was introduced to the ICL Performance Products portfolio in 2006. At this year’s show, Levona Brio debuted. Although primarily a leavening agent, its replacement of sodium acid pyrophosphate with calcium pyrophosphate helps food processors formulate products with “low sodium” and “good source of calcium” claims. AUGUST 2008 FOOD PROCESSING • 37 http://www.ift.org http://FOODPROCESSING.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Food Processing - August 2008

Food Processing - August 2008 Contents Editor’s Plate NewsBites Special Report Rollout Food Biz Kids The Top 100 Ingredients Show Report Plant Operations MRO Q&A Case History New Supplier Products Toops Scoops

Food Processing - August 2008

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