CIFT recently sponsored the annual Food Industry Summit, a gathering for food manufacturers, auxiliary service providers, and other interested people. Global Impact STEM Academy instructors Jennifer Foudray and Rachel Sanders, GrowNextGen teacher leaders, were invited to attend because their school had three students receiving the Associate credential and three receiving the Specialist credential. These students were recognized at the Summit’s welcome ceremony.
An upcoming form of food technology presented at the Summit was food 3-D printers. These are being used in the food industry for things such as printing food for medical purposes/special dietary needs, for the nternational space station (NASA) project, and for decorating cookies and cakes. Food journalists talked about how the future food trends are plant-based foods and beverages.
Sanders said she will share with her students what she learned about the number of food-based companies in Ohio—over 13,000—and the different areas of food science available to study at the Ohio State University, from consumer and product testing, marketing, packaging and processing, to the engineering of new products and equipment. OSU also offers a variety of clubs and competitions for food science majors.
