Source: WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to
2024 CONFERENCE OF FOOD ENGINEERING: ADVANCING SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING FOR SUSTAINABLE FOOD MANUFACTURING AND THE SUPPLY CHAIN
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1031758
Grant No.
2024-67017-41897
Cumulative Award Amt.
$50,000.00
Proposal No.
2023-08671
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Feb 15, 2024
Project End Date
Jan 7, 2025
Grant Year
2024
Program Code
[A1364]- Novel Foods and Innovative Manufacturing Technologies
Project Director
Sablani, S.
Recipient Organization
WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY
240 FRENCH ADMINISTRATION BLDG
PULLMAN,WA 99164-0001
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
U.S. food loss and waste represents a significant source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The effect of climate change has been felt in the United States and around the world. The need for net-zero global GHG emissions has been well recognized and is being advocated by many nations, including the United States. There is a substantial interest in the food and packaging industry, as well as in academia, to develop energy efficient food technologies, digital technologies, and sustainable materials while simultaneously reducing food loss and waste throughout the food supply chain. However, such development efforts are diverse and scattered in food companies and academic institutions. There is a need to integrate those efforts at scientific conferences to advance sustainable and eco-friendly food processing systems.The Conference of Food Engineering (CoFE) is the ideal platform to bring together food engineers, food and material scientists, industry professionals, and thought leaders to exchange the latest scientific findings, technological and material developments, and share different perspectives to identify paths forward for sustainable food manufacturing systems and the national goal of achieving net-zero GHG emissions. The theme of the 2024 CoFE is Advancing Science and Engineering for Sustainable Food Manufacturing and the Supply Chain. The conference will examine current and emerging food manufacturing practices and food distribution from a sustainability perspective with a commitment to the larger goal of achieving net-zero GHG emissions. CoFE will promote "convergence" by bringing in leading experts and thought leaders from within and outside the Food Engineering community to address sustainability issues and to also present a valuable educational opportunity for future food engineers.This conference will bring together a team of experts and professionals to discuss current and emerging food manufacturing technologies and sustainable sourcing of food and packaging materials, with an emphasis on reducing carbon footprint in the food industry. The meeting will encourage collaborations between different research communities and the industry to fill knowledge gaps and accelerate the development and adoption of eco-friendly food processing technologies and packaging materials. The conference will inspire students and young researchers to pursue eco-friendly technologies and materials that will be essential to continuously deliver safe, nutritious, and sustainable foods.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
50150102020100%
Knowledge Area
501 - New and Improved Food Processing Technologies;

Subject Of Investigation
5010 - Food;

Field Of Science
2020 - Engineering;
Goals / Objectives
The Conference of Food Engineering is the perfect platform to bring together food engineers, food and material scientists, industry professionals, and thought leaders to exchange the latest scientific findings, technological and material developments, and share different perspectives to identify paths forward for sustainable food manufacturing systems and the national goal of achieving net-zero GHG emissions. The overall goal of this project is to expand CoFE as a platform for sharing knowledge on emerging energy-efficient food manufacturing technologies, sustainable food and packaging materials, and educational tools through interactive communications beyond the food engineering community. Our central hypothesis is that sharing knowledge across different engineering and scientific communities, private companies, and regulatory agencies could accelerate the pace of ongoing efforts to develop improved and new food technologies and packaging materials while also improving supply chain efficiency.The theme of the 2024 CoFE is Advancing Science and Engineering for Sustainable Food Manufacturing and the Supply Chain. The rationale of this conference theme is to examine current and emerging food manufacturing practices and distribution from a sustainability perspective with a commitment to the larger goal of achieving net-zero GHG emissions.With this, the specific objectives of CoFE 24 are the following:Bring together a team of engineers and scientists from academia, industry, and government institutions to discuss current and emerging food manufacturing technologies and sustainable sourcing of food and packaging materials, with an emphasis on reducing carbon footprint in the food industry thus contributing to national and international goals of net-zero GHG emissions.Encourage collaborations between different research communities and the industry to fill knowledge gaps and accelerate the development and adoption of eco-friendly food processing technologies and packaging materials.Inspire food science and food engineering students and young researchers to pursue novelty in the profession, in particular about eco-friendly technologies and materials that will be essential to continuously deliver safe, nutritious, and sustainable foods.
Project Methods
In collaboration with SoFE, the CoFE 24 Organizing Committee will identify the conference venue, make conference announcements, screen technical abstracts, develop conference program, recruit session chairs and keynote speakers, and ensure the success of CoFE 24.Post-conference evaluation The conference organizing committee and SoFE executive team will conduct a comprehensive post-conference evaluation about the outcome and impacts of the conference through structured survey questions. This survey will be conducted at the end and the first two weeks immediately after the conference through online feedback forms. The approach will include:Design of survey questions: participant satisfaction with the conference topics, relevance and quality of topics covered in the conference, increase awareness of new topics included first time in this conferences, possible changes in participant's future activities after the conference including adoption of sustainable practices, measuring carbon emissions, implementation of circular economy principles, or engagement in sustainability-related initiatives, new collaborations and partnerships formed as the outcome of the conference. The conference participants will be asked to identify if new collaborations have resulted in visible outcomes such as initiation of new joint projects, sharing of resources and knowledge, etc.Summarize and append survey data in the final project report to USDA NIFA.Survey results will also be shared with SoFE and CoFE 2026 organizers to improve the outcomes and impacts of future CoFEs.

Progress 02/15/24 to 01/07/25

Outputs
Target Audience:Students, faculty, food processing and packaging company professionals, educational technology experts, regulatory agency professionals, policy makers Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?More than 10 graduate students and one postdoctoral fellow were involved with various logistics aspects of Conference of Food Engineering and preconference workshops. These students and the postdoctoral fellow assisted with preparation of conference program, book of abstracts, uploading of PowerPoint presentations, Welcome reception, Gala dinner, registartion of participants, pre conference workshops, poster presentations. These students and the postcotoral fellow worked with conference organizers. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?A detailed conference report was prepared and uploaded on the Society of Food Engineering Websitehttps://socfoodeng.org/. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The Conference of Food Engineering 2024 (CoFE '24) was held at the Westin Seattle from August 25-28, 2024. Plenary and technical sessions (oral and poster) were organized around the theme: Advancing Science and Engineering for a Sustainable Food Manufacturing and Supply Chain. The organizers represented two Pacific Northwest Land-grant universities: Washington State University (WSU) and Oregon State University(OSU) who worked together with the Society of Food Engineering (SoFE) Executive Committeein organizing and managing the meeting. Nina Willis, Administrative Assistant at WSUassisted with various aspects of the conference including assembly of bags for the participants, at the registration desk of pre-conference workshop and the conference. She was supported by the BSE, WSU and CoFE. Six graduate students fromWSUand OSUserved as volunteers at the registration desk and provided support at plenary and technical sessions. Those volunteers were given free registration to COFE '2024 and free stay at the Westin for 4 nights. A key contributor to the success of CoFE '24 was USDA-NIFA Grant No. 2024-67017-41897, which enabled us to provide various resources to assist student and plenary speaker participation. We were also supported by industrial sponsors: PepsiCo (Platinum Sponsor), ConAgra (Silver Sponsor), Alkar Middleby and General Mills (Bronze Sponsors). Additional sponsorship resources were provided by Elsevier, Travel support for students by the APV Seligman Trust, and technical books were donated by Springer and used for Graduate Poster Competition Awardees.CoFE '24 was a major success, breaking records for the number of abstract submissions and attendance in the SoFE-organized the CoFE era. Historical data are : CoFE 2018: Number of abstract received - 223, Number of registered attendees - 204;CoFE 2022: Number of abstracts received - 238, Number of registered attendees - 222.CoFE 2024: Number of abstracts received - 305, Number of registered attendees - 260.Attendees came from the following countries: USA, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Turkey, UK, France, Italy, Ireland, India, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Austria, Australia, and Israel. Not all those who submitted abstracts were able to attend, due to difficulties in obtaining visa appointments in their respective countries.NIFA support enabled us to provide travel support to 46 students in the form of accommodation for three nights at the Westin Seattle. Thanks to the NIFA grant, we were able to provide accommodation for all students who requested support.The plenary speakers included experts from academia, industry and government.The grant also enabled the participation of plenary speakers and reimbursement of travel expenses.During the conference, a Graduate Student Poster Competition was held, with two categories, Ph.D. students and M.S. students.PepsiCo kindly sponsored 2024 SoFE Young Researcher Award in the amount of $2,500. Important additions to CoFE '24 were four pre-conference workshops on August 25, the City University of Seattle campus. This is the most extensive pre-conference activity we have ever done at CoFEs in the SoFE era. In previous CoFE meetings, we had a maximum of one pre-conference workshop. The expanded activity and attendance (total of 48 registrations, 50% were young faculty members, the rest were graduate students and industrial participants) shows the enthusiasm generated by the extra attendance catalyzed by the NIFA grant. Several students had the opportunity to attend these workshops, where the CoFE '24 student volunteers were provided with free workshop access. The conference organizing committee and SoFE executive team conducted a comprehensive post-conference evaluation about the outcome and impacts of the conference through structured survey questions. The response rate was 32% and 97% were satisfied with the scietific content of the conference. Following is the summary of survey questions and the response: Category: Content and Relevance The plenary session topics meet my expectations as being timely and thought provoking Response Percentages: Positive - 89% Neutral - 5% Negative - 6% How would you rate the technical session topics and the list of talks? Response Percentages: Positive - 96% Neutral - 4% Negative - 0% How would you rate the talks you attended in the technical sessions? Response Percentages: Positive - 95% Neutral - 4% Negative - 1% How would you rate the quality of the posters in terms of science and engineering content? Response Percentages: Positive - 48% Neutral - 42% Negative -1 0% Category: Organization and Logistics How would you rate the communication with attendees prior to conference? Response Percentages: Positive - 80% Neutral - 18% Negative -2% How would you rate the breaks and meals selected for the conference? Response Percentages: Positive - 86% Neutral - 10% Negative - 4% Do you agree with the statement "I did not miss interesting talks because of the four parallel sessions". Response Percentages: Positive - 56% Neutral - 12% Negative - 31% Category: Networking opportunities How satisfied were you with the opportunities to actively engage with the conference attendees? Response Percentages: Positive - 92% Neutral - 4% Negative - 4% Category: Technology and Tools How would you describe the technology used during the conference? Response Percentages: Positive - 89% Neutral - 11% Negative - 0% Category: Satisfaction How satisfied were you with the scientific content of the conference? Response Percentages: Positive - 97% Neutral - 3% Negative - 0% The participant feedback will help improve the outcomes and impacts of future CoFE meetings

Publications

  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Conference of Food Engineering 2024. Book of Abstracts. https://socfoodeng.org/cofe/program-at-a-glance/