The Program Committee has been hard at work since our Annual Meeting in May putting together the speaker lineup for next year’s meetings.
A great number of ideas have been offered, tried, rejected, or embraced, resulting in what should be a great year for SFC programs. I hope you’ll agree and attend as many meetings as you can.
As in recent years, I have scheduled more technical speakers during our afternoon, “Education Seminar”, portion of the meeting. The original intent of these sessions was to provide our members with some useful and relevant information and this year’s programs continue that emphasis. For dinner we try to have something of a slightly more general interest with a less technical focus.

As I am sure that you’ll notice, this note only describes events at the East Coast meetings. The programs for the Midwest Meeting in Cincinnati (Omni Hotel, April 18, 2002) and the newly created Farwest Meeting in Hollywood, California (Roosevelt Hotel, January 24, 2002) are being put together separately. I am sure that as the year progresses you’ll hear more about them. There is also no speaker yet confirmed, or even contemplated, for the IFT breakfast meeting (Tues, June 18, 2002) in Anaheim, California. Any ideas in that regard would be appreciated.

September 20, 2001
Marriott Hotel, Princeton, NJ

Education: Mr. Tom Gittelman, Research Chemist, Philadelphia Suburban Water Company – Water is our most basic ingredient and often we take it for granted. At best it is odorless and tasteless but at worst, well….Most of us have had the experience of tasting water, particularly when we travel, that tasted “funny”. Our speaker is the chief sniffer and taster for Philadelphia Suburban Water Co., and has been for nearly 20 years. He came to my attention from a profile piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer and I have asked him to tell us what makes water taste bad, how it is purified, etc.
Education: Ms. Mary Raukko, Director Regulatory Affairs-Flavors, Firmenich – In 1995, the USDA issued a first draft of its proposed Organic Foods labeling rules. Due to a great deal of negative response, particularly from the producers of organic products, that proposal was withdrawn. It was revised several times to incorporate changes desired by the industry and has recently been finalized. Mary has spent a good deal of time studying the new rules and will be telling us what it says and how it can be expected to impact on our industry.
Dinner: Dr. John Lord, Professor of Food Marketing, St. Joseph’s University (Phila.) – Dr. Lord is in his third year as an IFT Scientific Lecturer and has given talks on food product development to many different groups. He will be talking to us about the “hot buttons” that drive new product development with an emphasis on flavor.

December 6, 2001
Holiday Inn North, Newark, NJ

Education: Dr. David Stark, Vice President for Industry Affairs, Monsanto – Genetically Modified Organisms, GMOs, are one of the hottest topics in the food industry. There is great concern about their safety in Europe and activists are trying, with some success, to import that concern to the US. But what are the facts? Monsanto is heavily involved with the developing science of biotechnology. Dr. Stark will share with us some of the facts and fallacies of the topic. Are GMOs boon or bane, hope or threat? Come and see what you think.
Education: Dr. Dave Moats, President of Alfrebro and Vice President/General Manager of Extracts and Aroma Chemicals for Degussa – Things are different in Europe…The definitions of Natural and Artificial, and even of flavor, can be different in unexpected ways. As many of our customers become more global it becomes necessary for us to have a working appreciation for some of the differences in food regulations “across the pond”. Dr. Moats is well informed on some of these differences and will be sharing some of his insights with us.
Dinner: Mr. Ron Triani, Senior Director Scientific Relations Regulatory Affairs in Label Compliance, Kraft Foods – Regulations on food products are not benign rules. They effect what products companies will attempt, and will not attempt, to develop. In what other ways do regulation affect the food industry? Our speaker is an expert on these matters and will be sharing some of his insights with us.

March 7, 2002
Holiday Inn North, Newark, NJ

Education: Dr. Gary Reineccius, Professor Food Science, University of Minnesota – There is a great deal of scientific literature published in the food and flavor arena. What can we learn from this that might make us better flavorists? What are some of the research techniques like Aroma Extract Dilution Analysis and what do the results tell us? Dr. Reineccius, an Honorary Member of the SFC, will be giving us some tips on finding and using some of that information.
Education: Dr. Daniel Joulain, Corporate Director of Research, Robertet – There is a compound called Davanone that, as far as I know, is only found in Oil of Davana. If you identify that compound in a GC/MS analysis of a flavor you can be sure that it contains that essential oil. Are there other compounds of similar indicative certitude? What are they? What do they taste like? Can we tell if certain components were added individually or as part of a spice oil or floral extract? Our speaker, an expert in natural products research will address these issues.
Dinner: Mrs. Jill Clark, Director of Marketing and Industrial Sales, Dutch Gold Honey – I would suspect that everyone would say that bees make honey, but explaining how it gets from the flower to the hive to the jar or drum would show the limits of our knowledge about this basic sweetener. Most of us are familiar with clover honey and many have used it in formulations. Some of us are probably familiar with, and may have used, buckwheat honey but the range of honey varieties is far greater than that. Our speaker will talk about honey production and varieties. Dutch Gold Honey packs 11 different monofloral varieties and we should get to taste a few.

May 16, 2002
Marriott Hotel, Newark, NJ airport

Dinner: Mr. Paul Cherrie, Senior Vice President Worldwide Sales & Marketing, Concord Confections – In the November 2000 issue of Food Processing magazine Diane Toops’ column featured an interview with our speaker talking about the history of bubble gum and their brand Dubble Bubble in particular. Do you know why it is pink? Do you know who created the first bubble gum? How is bubble gum different than chewing gum? Our speaker can tell us all this and much more.

So that’s our lineup for 2001-02. I hope that you’ve seen something of interest and will try to attend all of our meetings.

Any positive comments would be appreciated.

Regards,
Ed Albaugh