Baking&Snack - February 2014 - 26

2014 HALL OF FAME

Fortifying the World
Making enrichment practical for bakers led John Watson and Watson, Inc.
into fortification for nutritional improvement worldwide.
by Laurie Gorton

Bread wouldn't be the nutritional powerhouse it is today
without John J. Watson nor would the nitty-gritty activity of everyday operations at most bakeries. His grasp of
the human impact of issues specific to the baking industry - the health of the population it serves and of the
welfare of the people working in it - changed the way
nutrition is delivered.
Mr. Watson's leadership moved Watson, Inc., West
Haven, CT, the family-owned and operated company
he headed from 1968 to his death in 2008, into the future. His service enabled the progress of the American
Association of Cereal
Chemists as its chairman,
the American Institute of
Baking's Board of Trustees and Scientific Advisory Board, the American Bakers Association's
Food Technical Regulatory Affairs Committee, the
World Health Organization's International Nutritional Anemia Consultative Group, the Council
for Responsible Nutrition
and SUSTAIN (Sharing
Unites States Technology
to Aid in the Improvement of Nutrition).
For these accomplishments and his community leadership, ASB selected Mr.
Watson for induction into the Baking Hall of Fame as a
member of its class of 2014.
In the years after World War II, the baking industry
grappled with mandated enrichment of bread. Scaling the required vitamins and minerals in quantities
of grams and milligrams challenged the accuracy of
mixer operators. Similar conditions affected bakers' use
of yeast foods, brew buffers, enzymes and other dough
conditioners.
Watson, Inc. (then Watson Flour Co. and later Watson Foods Co.) entered the dough conditioner and enrichment supply field in the late-1950s, and Mr. Watson

26 Baking & Snack Febraury 2014 / www.bakingandsnack.com

directed development of the first water-soluble, edible
packaging film for batching bakery additives. Known today as the Sol-U-Pak, the clear, food-grade, heat-sealable
and cold-water-soluble packaging made of HPMC film
provides safe and virtually error-free delivery of expensive and skin-sensitive ingredients added to food formulations in small quantities. One packet dropped into the
batch eliminates the need for measuring and handling
these materials. The free water dissolves the film, and
normal batch mixing evenly distributes the contents.
Mr. Watson's baking industry career started in 1951
after receiving his degree in chemistry from Georgetown
University. He joined his father and brother at Watson
Flour Co., founded by his grandfather in 1939. Uncle
Sam called him to serve in the armed forces during the
Korean War, but he returned to the family business in
1954. He held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility, moving from sales and R&D functions into
the presidency in 1968.
The story of the Sol-U-Pak reveals Mr. Watson's forward thinking. Working with Dow Chemical, Watson
Flour began developing water-soluble, edible packaging.
Chas. Pfizer Co. noticed these efforts and contracted
with Watson to produce enrichment packs in 1958.
Pfizer later divested that division to Watson, and in
1964, Watson took over manufacturing the edible film.
Under Mr. Watson, the company continued to add to
its position in fortification, buying the enrichment business of Stauffer Chemical Co. in 1982. Sterwin Chemical
and Nopa Laboratories were also soon acquired. In 1992,
Watson purchased Dufar's nutritional pre-mix division
that served the food industry and US AID emergency
relief programs.
Mr. Watson exercised leadership in his community as
well. He served as president of the parish council at St.
Mary's Catholic Church, Greenwich, CT, and as a lector and Eucharistic minister at both St. Mary's and Our
Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church, Fairfield, CT.
He was awarded the distinction of Knight of the Holy
Sepulcher of Jerusalem. He led Greenwich's Ecumenical
World Hunger Organization as co-president and served
on the board of advisors for Fairfield College Preparatory School in Fairfield.

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Baking&Snack - February 2014

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