IMPACT ON NEBRASKA AND THE GLOBAL FOOD INDUSTRY

DEPARTMENT OF FOOD SCIENCE

THE FOOD PROCESSING CENTER

SEMIANNUAL REPORT

IMPACT ON NEBRASKA AND THE GLOBAL FOOD INDUSTRYJANUARY 1 - JUNE 30, 2015

ROLANDO A. FLORES PH.D.PROFESSOR, HEAD AND DIRECTOR

UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN

NOVEMBER 2015

Advancing the value-added food manufac-turing industry by partnering on applied research and technical development from idea through ongoing market support.

DEPARTMENT OF FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY | THE FOOD PROCESSING CENTER 2

The Food Processing Center (The Center) is a multi-disciplinary resource for the food industry with its units providing a combination of consulting, educational, technical, and business support services. In the second half of fiscal year 2015, The Center brought in $327,000 in project revenue.

Developments for the second half of FY 2015 included:

• The Center earned $327,000 in income working on various projects such as shelf life studies, product development activities, and extrusion optimization and scale up.

• Better Process Control School for Acidified Foods was held for a total of 10 in-person participants (8 from Nebraska) for a net income of $4,500.

• The Food Microbiology Short Course had 16 attendees (9 from Nebraska) for a net income of $12,720.

• The Extrusion Workshop had 19 attendees (10 from Nebraska) for a net income of $14,450.

• Six National Food Entrepreneur Program (NFEP) seminars were held for 84 participants (44 from Nebraska) with a net income of $21,710.

• The online Food Processing Management certificate program had 8 new students enrolled in the course for a total of $17,050 in new income. Twenty-nine students have completed the entire program to date.

• Student education: Center Faculty advised a total of nine graduate students while the Center as a whole employed 30 undergraduate students. Ten undergraduate student workers were provided hands-on training in Dairy retail operations; five worked in product development and Center laboratories; ten were employed in the dairy plant; four in the Pilot Plants; and one in NFEP.

• Center personnel produced five publications (two research, three book chapters).

In 2008, an Advisory Board was formed to assist The Center in its pursuits of excellence. The current members of the Advisory Board are listed in Appendix A on page 16. The Center’s current organizational structure is available in Appendix C on page 18.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY


TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE FOOD PROCESSING CENTERIMPACT ON NEBRASKA AND THE GLOBAL FOOD INDUSTRY

Report Contents

I. THE FOOD PROCESSING CENTER: OVERVIEW OF ACTIVITIES p. 4 II. UNIT OPERATIONS p. 5 II.A Applied Research and Engineering p. 7

Grant Funded Research p. 7 Teaching and Student Mentoring p. 8

II.B. Educational Workshops, Short Courses and Distance Learning p. 11II.C. Pilot Plants p. 11II.D. Product Development and Sensory Innovation p. 12II.E. Retail Operations p. 13

II.F. National Food Entrepreneur Assistance Program p. 13 III. INNOVATION CAMPUS p. 14 IV. PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS p. 15

APPENDIX A Advisory Board p. 16APPENDIX B Pilot Plant Equipment p. 17APPENDIX C Organizational Chart p. 18

Key Terms:

FY 2015 Fiscal Year 2015 (July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015)FY 2015 I First half of Fiscal Year 2015 (July 1, 2014 to Dec. 31, 2014)FY 2015 II Second half of Fiscal Year 2015 (Jan. 1, 2015 to June 30, 2015)


$364

$325 $335

$387

$448

$528

$325

$428

$309$327

$0

$100

$200

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$500

$600

FY11 I FY11 II FY12 I FY12 II FY13 I FY13 II FY14 I FY14 II FY15I FY15II

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sand

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Chart 1. Semi Annual Revenue

I. THE FOOD PROCESSING CENTER - OVERVIEW OF ACTIVITIES

From the period of July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2015, The Food Processing Center (The Center) has completed thousands of projects for food industry clients worth over $6.5 million. Chart 1 presents revenue totals in six-month increments for fiscal years 2009 to 2015 (FY II).

The number of projects for the previous five fiscal years is displayed in Chart 2, which illustrates a steady increase in out-of-state projects.

The client base for The Center’s services has experienced a steady increase in the period referenced. The increase in projects and clients indicates client loyalty to Center services, measured by the number of projects per client. Both in-state and out-of-state projects have increased, but this increase has been more pronounced among out-of-state clients (Chart 2).

197 195 216 205166

173 169202 210

230

40.0%

45.0%

50.0%

55.0%

60.0%

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14 FY15

Num

ber

of P

roje

cts

Chart 2. FPC Projects by Origin

NE Projects Non-NE Projects Out of State %


A significant portion of The Food Processing Center’s operating budget is derived from revenue generated by industry projects. Currently, The Center receives a portion of its budget from the State of Nebraska. For fiscal year 2015, The Center was budgeted a total of $567,338 from the state for Research and Extension. Percentages of budgeted state, industry, and grant funding for personnel (including benefits) for fiscal year 2015 are shown in Chart 4.

There are some notable changes in the sources of funding in FY 2015 compared to the average in the previous five years (Charts 3 and 4). As can be seen from the charts, the proportion of state and grant funding has actually increased in FY 2015, compared to the average funding from this source for the last five years. Personnel funding sources for FY 2015 will be included in the next biannual report.

State36%

Industry45%

Grant/Foundation18%

Chart 3. Personnel Funding Sources FY2010 - FY2014

Chart 4.Personnel Funding Sources FY2015

State45%

Industry49%

Grant/Foundation6%

II. UNIT OPERATIONS

Chart 5 shows the revenue by Center unit for FY 2015 II (the second six months of the 2015 fiscal year) and an average of the previous ten six-month periods. The standard deviation margins for the averages are shown. Revenue is higher for the Product Development group that has several steady clients utilizing their services on a regular basis.

$104,939.98

$42,273.60 $66,104.16 $64,216.44

$87,914.13

$42,365.86

$54,955.00

$23,181.00

$116,839.75

$89,224.30

$0.00

$50,000.00

$100,000.00

$150,000.00

$200,000.00

ARE FEAP Lab Services PDSI Pilot Plants

Chart 5: Completed Project Revenues by Unit in Current Period (FY2015 II) & Average Revenue in Previous 10 Periods (FY2010 II to FY2015 I)

Avg Revenue FY10 II - FY15 I Revenue for FY15 II


The comparison of the revenue distributions between the last five fiscal years and the last six months in Charts 6 and 7 reveal similar distributions. An increase is noted in the Product Development and a decrease is seen in lab services and ARE. The ARE unit’s income is primarily quantified by grant awards which may not be directly captured as revenue.

Lab Services18%

PDSI17%

Pilot Plants23%

ARE30%

FEAP12%

Chart 6. Proportion Revenue by Unit for FY 2010 - 2014

Lab Services7%

PDSI36%

Pilot Plants27%

ARE13%

FEAP17%

Chart 7. Proportion Revenue by Unit for FY 2015 II

Revenues have remained steady in the current period for all units with the exception of Applied Research and Engineering and Laboratory Services. The ARE unit operates primarily through grant funding which is variable from year to year. Lab services experienced a large decrease in samples during the move to Innovation Campus, and in some clients switching to ISO accredited labs. Increasing the number of tests will be a high priority for the laboratory services unit in 2016, which will also be seeking accreditation.

Charts 8 and 9 depict the proportion of projects generated by Center units for the past five years and for FY 2015 II. The number of projects varies based on the nature of the work in each unit. Laboratory Services tends to have the greatest number of clients due to a variety of test samples that are submitted for analysis. Therefore, any direct comparison of the units comprising Charts 8 and 9 needs to take into consideration that the total number of clients reveals only a part of the overall picture regarding workload and revenue generation. For FY 2015 II, the Pilot Plants and PDSI units together completed 47% of the projects, however their contribution to the proceeds for FY 2015 II was 63%, as seen in Chart 7.

Lab Services43%

PDSI24%

Pilot Plants21%

ARE3%

FEAP9%

Chart 8. Proportion of Projects by Unit for FY 2015

Lab Services42%

PDSI22%

Pilot Plants27%

ARE2%

FEAP7%

Chart 9. Proportion of Projects by Unit for FY 2015 II


II A. APPLIED RESEARCH AND ENGINEERINGThe Applied Research and Engineering (ARE) unit focuses on applied food science research for the food industry. ARE (Drs. Andréia Bianchini-Huebner, Jayne Stratton, George Cavender, Jason Zhong, and most recently Changmou Xu) utilizes and adapts the findings of original scientific research to meet specific industry needs. Current members of the ARE team have expertise in food safety, microbiology, mycotoxin control and detection, food engineering and processing, cereal processing, food chemistry, egg processing, and functional ingredients.

Grant Funded Research

ARE faculty continue to seek grant funding. For the past three years, Dr. Bianchini retained ongoing support from the Midwest Dairy Association. In this reporting period an additional project was awarded from the Midwest Dairy Association for $36,830. Additionally, a sub-award from Kansas State University has been received to assess mycotoxin levels in different commodities in Afghanistan. Table 1, lists completed and ongoing grant funded projects for ARE through the present time.

Table 1. Cumulative ARE Grants Awarded

The Food Processing Center

Short Title Funding AgencyPrinciple Investiga-

tor(s)Start Date End Date

Awarded Amount

Status

Risk Assessment and Interven-tion Strategies for Ochratoxin A in the US

USDAJayne Stratton, An-

dréia Bianchini-Hueb-ner

3/14/2011 9/30/2016 $124,527 UNL part complete

Improving Nutritional Value of Convenient Foods using Nebras-ka Dry-Edible Beans to Exploit Int’l Markets

NE Dept of Ag Wajira Ratnayake 9/30/2012 9/29/2015 $50,394 Complete

Global Hunger and Food Secu-rity Research Strategy: Climate Resilience, Nutrition, and Policy – Guatemala

US-AIDAndréia Bianchi-

ni-Huebner01/01/14 12/31/18 $145,501 Ongoing

Tracking Heat-Resistant, Spore-Forming Bacteria in the Milk Chain: a Farm to Table Approach

Midwest Dairy Association

Andréia Bianchi-ni-Huebner

1/1/2014 12/31/2015 $65,000 Ongoing

From the “Milpas” to the mar-ket: a feasibility study on the use of metal silos for safer and better storage of Guatemalan native corn

USDA-FASAndréia Bianchi-

ni-Huebner; Heather Hallen-Adams

4/1/2014 12/31/2016 $39,050 Ongoing

Marketing and delivery of quality grains and bioprocess coproducts: Improving the microbial safety of wheat flour through non-thermal pre-milling interventions

USDA Multistate Hatch, NC213

Rose, D., Bianchini, A. Hallen-Adams, H.E., Stratton J.

10/01/14 09/30/18 $135,664 Ongoing

Quantitative Reverse Tran-scriptase PCR Rapid Detection and Quantification Method for Viable Yeast and Molds in Dairy Products


Andreia Bianchini, Heather Hallen-Ad-ams, Jayne Stratton

1/1/15 12/31/15 $36,830 Onoing

Mapping changes in sporeform-ing bacteria contamination along the production chain


Bing Wang, Andreia Bianchini, Jayne

Stratton1/30/2015 12/31/2015 $4,987 Ongoing

Rapid Assessment of Mycotoxin in Afghanistan’s Food Value Chains” – Grant added to the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for the Reduction of Post-Har-vest Loss

US-AID (Sub-award from Kansas State University).

Andreia Bianchini 01/01/15 12/31/15. $107,500 Ongoing

Total $709,453


Grants Submitted, Not Funded

USDA-AFRI $499,864 (01/01/16-12/31/19) Quantitative source characterization of bacterial contamination in lettuce production. Bing Wang (PI), Andreia Bianchini, Jennifer Clarke, Samodha Fernando, Heather Hallen-Adams, Xu Li, Jayne Stratton, Stephen Wegulo.

USDA-AFRI $499,438 (01/01/16-12/31/19) Water Reconditioning in the Dairy Industry. Rolando Flores (PI), Jayne Stratton, Bruce Dvorak, Bing Wang, George Cavender, Christopher Neale.

Teaching and Student Mentoring

ARE has played a critical role in providing training and advising for Food Science and Technology graduate students and visiting scholars. Table 2 lists the FPC graduate students who have received their degrees. Table 3 lists those students who are currently enrolled.

Students were particularly productive the second half of FY 2015. A total of nine graduate students (four M.S., three Ph.D.) were enrolled in FY 2015 II and are working toward degrees in the Food Science and Technology graduate program and mentored by ARE faculty.

Student Name Degree

Earned

Research Topic Graduation Year

Tara Stiles M.S. High Pressure Processing of Peanut Butter 2010

Yulie Meneses M.S. Evaluation of Premitest Salmonella Serotyping Device 2010

Bismarck Martinez M.S. Internalization of E. coli O157:H7 in Wheat 2012

Lakshmi Gompa M.S. Quantitation of Ochratoxin A in U.S. Commodities 2013

Mary Wang M.S. Studies on Phaseolus vulgaris L. Var. Great Northern Bean for utilization in Food Processing

2013

Lucia Micelli M.S. Extraction of Pectin from Apples 2014

Yiwei Liu M.S. Starch-Pectin Matrices for Encapsulation of Ascorbic Acid 2014

Luis Sabillon M.S. Flour Safety 2014

Carmen Cano M.S. Antimicrobial activity of probiotics 2014

Maricarmen Estrada M.S. Thermophilic Sporeformers in Milk 2014

Liya Mo M.S. Microencapsulation of Probiotics with Alginate-Starch Matrix 2015

Shreya Sahasrabudhe M.S. Determination of Key Grain Quality Parameters to Evaluate Alka-line Cooking Quality of Corn

2015

Table 2. Students who have earned graduate degrees under FPC-ARE Faculty


Student Name Degree Research Topic Anticipated Grad-uation Year

Bismarck Martinez Ph.D. Control of Thermophilic Sporeformers in Milk 2016Yulie Meneses Ph.D. Water Reconditioning in the Food Industry 2016Rodrigo Mendoza M.S. Reduction of Post-harvest Losses in Corn from

Mold in Guatemala2016

Luis Sabillon Ph.D. Flour Safety 2017Carla Schwan Ph.D. Control of Thermophilic Sporeformers in Milk 2018Ana Arciniega M.S. Safety of Acidified Foods through Formulation

Hurdles2017

Brandon Nguyen M.S. Real time PCR detection of Spoilage Mold in Dairy Products

2017

Shengqian Sun Ph.D. The effects of HPP on the safety, quality and shelf life of refrigerated, partially cooked muscle foods

2017

Anamika Bagchi M.S. Modification of Dairy proteins via HPP for im-proved encapsulation

2016

Jhinuk Gupta Post Doc Isolation and purification of starch and other valu-able components from plant waste material

N/A

Table 3. Students who are currently working on graduate degrees under FPC-ARE Faculty

The undergraduate education experience has been greatly enhanced through workplace opportunities in The Center. The Center as a whole employed 30 undergraduate students in FY 2015 II. Ten undergraduate student workers were provided hands-on training in Dairy retail operations; six worked in product development and Center laboratories; ten were employed in the dairy plant; four in the Pilot Plants; and one in NFEP. For its size, The Center is one of the largest employers of undergraduate students on campus.

Since 2008, fifty international undergraduate and graduate students have been hosted as visiting scholars. The Center in FY 2015 II hosted one visiting food science scholar, Marcela Alvarenga, (undergraduate) from Zamorano University, Honduras from January to April, 2015. Guilherme Carbonetti from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRG), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil worked in the product development lab from January until June 2015. Patricia Juchen from Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR), Toledo, PR, Brazil spent three months interning in the laboratory. Felipe Sperotto (Graduate), from Sao Paulo State University, Brazil began conducting research in ARE in collaboration with Drs. Rose, Ciftci, and Weller to support students’ application for international exchange scholarship in Brazil. Felipe began at UNL on October 15th, 2014 and completed his research in October 2015. The Center gave these students a working experience in the area of food microbiology, including quality control, pathogen detection, molds and mycotoxins. Drs. Stratton and Bianchini directly supervise visiting undergraduate and graduate scholars who complete a research project in applied food microbiology during the time they are interning in the Center.

The ARE group’s activities, research, and other information is available at the following web site:


New ARE Faculty

In July 2015, Dr. Jason Zhong joined the Applied Research and Engineering team at The Food Processing Center. Dr. Zhong graduated with a Ph.D. in food science from University of Missouri – Columbia where he explored research in nanotechnology and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy. He developed the method to prepare vertically aligned gold nanorod arrays and proposed the Raman method to detect pesticides in fruit juice and vegetables. Before joining UNL, Jason worked for an egg processing company. He was in charge of an egg yolk fractionation project to improve the functionality of egg yolk ingredients. His research at UNL will focus on three areas:

(1) Design production process and use new processing methods to improve food safety and food functionality: (a) Improve the functionality and enhance the microbial safety of egg protein by high pressure processing (HPP); (b)

Reduce the functionality loss of heat-labile ingredients during spray drying; (c) Design non-solvent processes to remove neutral lipids from egg yolk.

(2) Fractionation of new ingredients by membrane filtration: (a) Purify functional oligosaccharides such as xylo-oligosaccharides and lactulose by nanofiltration. (b) Recover value-added ingredients from plant-based materials such as herbs, berries. (3) Nanotechnology and SERS: (a) Modify the surface of gold nanoparticles/nanorod for food safety applications; (b) Determine nanoparticle contamination in foods and their translocation behavior in food chain; (c) Design rapid analytical methods for food contamination by Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy.

Dr. Zhong’s office is located in 254 Food Innovation Center, his phone number is 402-472-1595, and his email is [email protected].

Dr. Changmou Xu joined the Food Processing Center Applied Research and Engineering team in September 2015. Dr. Xu received his Ph.D in Food Science from the University of Florida. His areas of research interest include:

(1) Functional ingredients in foods, particular interests include phytochemicals extraction, purification, identification, bioactivity assay (antioxidant, antimicrobial/antibiofilm, anti-obesity, inhibiting acrylamide or lipid oxidation, etc.), encapsulation, and their applications in food products.

(2) Advanced instrumental analysis such as spectroscopy, chromatography, scanning electron microscope, color analysis, and the application of these techniques to solve food science problems.

(3) Value-added products development from the by-products of agricultural commodities, and their economic evaluation.

Dr. Xu’s office is located in 251 Food Innovation Center, his phone number is 402-472-4635, and his email is [email protected]


II.B. Educational Workshops, Short Courses and Distance Learning

The Center sponsors educational workshops and short courses for food industry professionals to maintain and improve their skills. From July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2015, there were 1,505 participants in these workshops with 586 participants from Nebraska. In FY 2015 II, The Center offered three workshops to 35 participants for an income of $31,670. These were the Better Process Control School for Acidified Foods, the Extrusion Workshop, and the Food Microbiology Short Course. The current event manager for The Center is Jill Gifford.

An educational service offered since January 2012 by The Center is the Food Processing Management (FPM) online certificate program, which is administrated by Dr. Andréia Bianchini-Huebner. This practical distance education program covers a broad scope of key topics for food processing professionals seeking to advance their career, increase their productivity at work, and achieve superior performance in all areas of their business. The program includes topics in quality control and assurance, food safety, food processing, food product development, business growth strategies, and human resource management spread across three modules. The program is available at http://fpm.unl.edu. From January to June, 2015, the online Food Processing Management certificate program had 8 new students for a total income of $17,050. To date, 99 students have been enrolled in some capacity in the program, while 29 have completed all three modules and have graduated from the program.

II.C. Pilot Plants

The Center’s Pilot Plant staff (Thomas Dobesh, Jonathan Hnosko, Russell Parde, and Steve Weier) assists companies and entrepreneurs with tasks such as equipment trials, testing functionality of new ingredients, production scale up, or developing the process for new products. The Center, with the move to NIC received close to 1 million dollars from a grant from the Nebraska Research Initiative. These funds were used to invest in high pressure processing equipment and other important unit operations. ConAgra also donated significant equipment unique to the center. The Pilot Plant equipment is listed in Appendix B.

The Center welcomed Russell Parde to the Food Processing Center’s team as an Associate Pilot Plant Manager. Russell is a 2012 graduate of the UNL Food Science and Technology program, and was a student worker in the Dairy Plant. Prior to accepting the position with the FPC, Russell worked as a Quality Assurance Lab Technician.

The Center’s Pilot Plants have continued to work with a variety of industry clients from the U.S. The extrusion pilot plant continues to be the most utilized equipment within the plants followed by the freeze drying equipment. The Pilot Plants also continue to be a resource for the faculty and students within the Department of Food Science and Technology by assisting with class demonstrations and research projects. The Pilot Plants, as a whole, have also provided a working education for four student workers during FY 2015 II, a valuable opportunity for the students to reinforce and complement the concepts that are covered in their Food Science classes.

The Center’s dairy processing plant offers student training and technical consulting work, and also produces cheese, ice cream, and other products that supplement the unit’s income. Along with its educational and production capacities, the dairy plant has been steadily increasing the amount of technical assistance provided to industry. In this period, the dairy plant produced 7,767 lbs. of Cheddar cheese, 4,960 lbs. of Husker cheese, and 7,963 gallons of ice cream (1,035 gallons for clients). This represents an increase in both cheese and ice cream from the previous six months. Historically there are slight annual increases in ice cream production in this time period while cheese numbers are generally stable from year to year.


II.D. Product Development and Sensory Innovation

PDSI offers services to the food industry and entrepreneurial clients in the areas of product development, application testing, and production of samples for potential customers and investors. Their clientele ranges from entrepreneurs that utilize them as their R & D labs to ingredient suppliers that need trials conducted to determine applications for new ingredients, or to compare their products with competitors. PDSI has a core of loyal long term clients, and new projects continue to come in regularly with referrals from satisfied customers. Many projects follow the current food trends for the industry, such as lowering sodium content in processed foods and developing high protein, or high fiber targets or other relevant healthy or novel food products.

Many PDSI clients utilize other services in the FPC either after product development or parallel to the work, since new formulas/processes and ingredient application trials often lead to sensory trials, shelf life or pilot plant scale up and processing trials.

Laurie Keeler continues to work on a variety of product and process development projects that are unique, requiring fast turnaround to enable customers to take advantage of niche markets and respond to requests and problems. A few of these more unique new projects deal with insects as protein sources, processing and applications of a new chicory flour product (grown in Western Nebraska), and a new fermented beverage project from a client in Turkey.

Several long term clients have been utilizing product development to develop and prepare finished products utilizing their special ingredients or finished products for sensory trials, making the group a “one-stop-shop” for testing application feasibility and acceptability.

Laurie currently has 5 student employees in Product Development, allowing them to gain valuable hands on application experience-and providing us with lower cost well trained assistance with projects. Over the summer they worked closely with two students from Brazil, providing excellent experience and interactions with all the students and others at the Center and Department.

Laurie Keeler coordinated and moderated a symposium at IFT with Dr. George Cavender on Insects for Foods that was extremely well attended. She also attended The Fancy Food Show in New York with all expenses paid by a client.

Laurie Keeler assisted two clients to receive DED grants for development work—Suji’s Cuisine/FDMR(second round grant) and Blue Prairie Brands (chicory from Scottsbluff).

The Product Development and Sensory Innovation (PDSI) group (Bethany Jackson, Laurie Keeler, and Julie Reiling) invoiced roughly $65,828 for FY 2015 II.

Bethany Jackson continues working on a master’s degree in the area of food allergens under advisors Steve Taylor and Joseph Baumert. She provides technical assistance for all projects from The Center’s FEAP program that require product development.

Julie Reiling continued to run sensory panels and provide nutritional labeling expertise to entrepreneurs and small companies, now in the new facility at Innovation Campus. Julie has taken over as the Teaching Laboratory Coordinator in FY 2015 and will be responsible for ordering supplies and maintaining the new Teaching labs and spaces at Innovation Campus.


II.E. Retail Operations

Kathy Vokoun serves as the manager of the Dairy Store while general oversight of the Dairy Store and the dairy team is provided by Steve Wei-er. The UNL Dairy Store falls under the organization of The Center, and is a “fast-casual” style restaurant and retail outlet within the Food Industry Complex. The Dairy Store achieved $265,614 in net sales in FY 2015 II. The Dairy Store conducted 40 tours for 973 scheduled visitors during FY 2015 II.

II.F. National Food Entrepreneur Assistance Program™

The National Food Entrepreneur Assistance Program™ (NFEP) is widely utilized by entrepreneurs throughout the country. It is the only program in the nation to provide comprehensive assistance to individuals wishing to develop a food manufacturing business. It begins with a one-day Recipe to Reality™ seminar (Phase I) that provides entrepreneurs with the key factors to be considered with a new food manufacturing business. After the seminar, participants may choose to enter Product to Profit™ (Phase II) where entrepreneurs receive comprehensive,

individualized and confidential assistance for the development of their own business from Center food scientists and business consultants. Chart 10 shows that the number of entrepreneurs in the program has increased from FY 2014.

From January 1 to June 30, 2015 the Recipe to Reality™ seminar was conducted six times to a total of 84 individuals, with 44 registrants from Nebraska. The program averages 30 companies in Product to Profit™ at all times. Chart 10 displays the total number of clients The Center has assisted the past seven fiscal years and the percentage of which were entrepreneurs in Phase II of NFEP. NFEP clients and participants come to the program from numerous states and with diverse backgrounds.

169

196

176

143 140 147

117

11%

24% 22%16%

26%

15%21%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

0

50

100

150

200

250

FY09 FY10 FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14 FY15

Chart 10. Proportion of Entrepreneurs Out of Total Clients

Total number of clients Percentage of Entrepreneurs


The Center and FDST moved to Innovation Campus July 6, 2015 in the location that was once home to the Nebraska state fairgrounds.

The uniquely designed buildings are of quality construction that promotes positive energy, fosters interaction and stimulates ideas, collaboration, sustainability and innovation. The Center has tripled the amount of pilot plant space, and more than doubled its laboratory facilities. FDST now has three teaching labs – a food chemistry lab, a food microbiology lab, and a food grade lab used for product development. The next semi-annual report will focus on the new facilities and capabilities of the Center.

Information and updates on Innovation Campus can be accessed at http://innovate.unl.edu/.

III. INNOVATION CAMPUS


From January 1, 2015 to June 30, 2015 (FY II 2015), Center personnel had 2 research publications, 3 book chapters, 1 presentation, and moderated 1 symposium at national meetings. A complete list of these is avail-able below.

Presentations

Oral

Bianchini, Andreia, Whole Grain Summit, Portland, OR, June 24-26, 2015. Considerations for Limiting and Preventing Microbial Contamination in Whole Grain Cereal Based Products.

Poster

Meneses, Yulie (pictured left), and Rolando Flores. Poster pre-sentation at the 12th ICEF, the Sustainable Engineering session, Whey-recovered water in CIP systems: its safety and economic implications. A case study on water conservation for the dairy industry. Quebec City, Canada. June 14-18. Won the Best Poster Award.

Symposium

Keeler, Laurie, and George Cavender, Moderators: Insects for Food Symposium, IFT, Chicago, IL, July 11-14, 2015

Publications

Papers

Martinez, B., J. Stratton, A. Bianchini, S. Wegulo, and G. Weaver. 2015. Transmission of Escherichia coli O157:H7 to Internal Tissues and its Survival on Flowering Heads of Wheat. J. Food Protection 78(3): 518–524.

Bianchini, A., Horsley, R., Jack, M.M., Kobielush, B., Ryu, D., Tittlemier, S., Wilson, W.W., Abbas, H.K., Abel, S., Harrison, G., Miller, J.D., Shier, W.T., Weaver, G. 2015. DON Occurrence in Grains: A North American Per-spective. Cereal Foods World, 60 (1): 32-56.

Book chapters:

Gourama, H., Bullerman, L.B., Bianchini, A. 2015. Toxigenic Fungi and Fungal Toxins. In: Y. Salfinger and M. L. Tortorello (Eds.). Compendium of Methods for the Microbiological Examination of Foods. APHA Press, Chap-ter 43.

Bianchini, A. 2015. Lactic Acid Bacteria as Antifungal Agents. In: W. H. Holzapfel (Ed.). Advances in Fer-mented Foods and Beverages. Elsevier Ltd, Academic Press, pp. 333-353.

Cavender GA. 2015. Food Processing and Packaging. In: Neff, R. (editor). Introduction to the US Food Sys-tem: Public Health, Environment, and Equity. John Wiley & Sons. p. 317-344.

IV. PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS


NAME COMPANY/BUSINESS

FLORES, Rolando The Food Processing Center, DirectorGARBACZ, Stan, Chair NE Agricultural Trade RepresentativeGONZALEZ, Ricardo ConAgraHISER, Greg Nestle Purina

KOHLES, Micah Oxbow Pet Products

MANINGAT, Ody, Past Chair MGP Ingredients Inc.MESSINEO, Michael Valentino’s PizzaPARK, Suji Suji’s Cuisine USA

RAO, Sam Svenka Consulting, LLCRICE, Dan Prairieland Dairy, LLCSOEJOTO, Kenny, Past Chair American Laboratories, Inc.WILLIAMS, Rick Oat Tech Inc.

APPENDIX A

Advisory Board (2015)


APPENDIX B

Pilot Plant Equipment

Extrusion Twin Screw Cooking ExtruderSingle Screw Cooking ExtruderVemag Forming ExtruderRibbon MixerGas Fired Belt DryerLiquid Pump StationCooling ConveyorWire Mesh Cooling ConveyorBatch Tumbler CoaterColor pumps

High Pressure ProcessingStandsted (2L) HPPHiperbaric (55L) HPPStandsted continuous HPP

Baking EquipmentReel OvenGas Impingement ovenElectric Impingement ovenHobart MixersDough MixerSheeterPortable SheeterKookEking depositorSmall Pin MixerSmall bread sheeterPup Loaf ovenPup Loaf proofing boxDough Divider

Filtration/ SeparationUF/RO Filtration UnitVibratory SieveParticle Size Analyzer

Dehydration/ Drying EquipmentGas Fired Belt DryerVibrating Fluidized Bed DryerSpray Dryer HenningsenSpray Dryer APVDrum DryerVacuum PanFreeze Dryer 6 ft2Freeze Dryer 40 ft2

Other EquipmentCanning EquipmentConfectionery EquipmentPackaging EquipmentEnvironmental ChambersVegetable ProcessingLiquid ProcessingMilling EquipmentFiltration/ SeparationPasta EquipmentMeat Processing


The Food Processing Center

Rolando Flores, PhDThe Food Processing Center, Director

Department of Food Science and Technology, Head

Administrative UnitWanda Bowder

C. GebhardtJ.Lewis

S. Roberts

Business and Finance

Kathy EllisBusiness Center Staff

Applied Research & EngineeringJayne Stratton

A BianchiniG. Cavender

C. XuZ. Zhang

Laboratory Services

Jayne StrattonR. Krokstom

Graduate Students

National FoodEntrepreneur Program

Jill GiffordB. Jackson

FPC Advisory BoardStan Garbacz

Ricardo GonzalezGreg Hiser

Micah KohlesClodualdo Maningat

Michael MessineoSuji ParkSam RaoDan Rice

Kenny SoejotoRick Williams

SupervisorCoordinator

THE FOOD PROCESSING CENTEROrganizational Chart

Pilot Plants, Dairy Store& Retail Services

Steve WeierJ.HnoskoR. Parde

T. DobeshK. Vokoun

Product Development& Sensory Innovation

Laurie KeelerJ. Reiling

B. Jackson

November, 2015

UNL does not discriminate based upon any protected status. Please see http://www.unl.edu/equity/notice-nondiscrimination.

APPENDIX C

Documents

IMPACT ON NEBRASKA AND THE GLOBAL FOOD INDUSTRY