Student Participation Encouragedfor Annual CIFST Conference

With the annual conference fast approaching in August of this yearin Guelph, students should soon be deciding if they plan to attend. Onceagain, the CIFST has made every effort to ensure that the doors of oppor­tunity are open to its students by making a number of generous con­cessions to students' needs at the conference. These include:

I. full registration at half price for students2. full meal privileges at half price3. half-priced accommodation and accompanying breakfast4. a hospitality (student) room with cash bar. right in the middle of the

conference centre5. a special student luncheon for students only6. a special one hour discussion on "Women in the Food Industry: Is

there Prejudice and can it be Circumvented?"7. presentation of monetary awards for both undergraduate and graduate

papers (Graduate Student Award has been increased to $200 by Gen­eral Foods Ltd.)

8. a CIFST luncheon run by students with a guest speaker.For those who have never attended a national conference. a sum­

mary of last year's activities was presented in the July, 1976 (Vol. 9. NO.3.p. A52) issue of the CIFST journal and might serve as a s~ort introduc­tion. The CIFST does recogmze the strong student support It receives andreciprocates very generously. Student members certainly benefit by theconference, but often many are not able to attend because they have notmade arrangements early enough. Don't be caught in that position thisyear!

Pre-registration information is being sent out now. so be awake. No­tice that we will also receive input to this year's activities from AIC(Agrologisfs Inst. of Can.) and this should prove interesting since gradu­ates from both fields often work in the same employment areas (i.e. youmay meet some of your future colleagues).

If you require any further information contact:Gord A. Brown

Chairman. Student Affairs Comm. (76-77)c/o Dept. of Food Science

University of Guelph

Fifth International Congress of Food Science andTechnology

The Fifth International Congress of Food Science & Technology.hosted by the Union of International Food Science & Technology of Ja­pan and sponsored by the Union of International Food Science & Tech­nology. will be held at the Kyoto International Conference Hall, Kyoto.Japan from September 17 to 22. 1978. The Congress will be a major meet­109 of professionals for the international exchange of ideas and experi­ence in those scientific disciplines and technology relating to the produc­tion, processing, distribution conservation, and utilization of food foradequate nutrition, and related concerns. The steering committee and theprogram committee are already actively working on plans for the Con­gress to encompass and call public attention to major progress made inthe field of food science & technology since the previous congress, and toprovide opportunity to meet, exchange ideas. obtain stimulation for fur­ther work and promote world-wide collaboration on topics of great im­portance.

. For further information and preliminary registration blanks. pleaseWnte to:SecretariatFifth International Congress of Food Science & Technologyc/o Nippon Italy Kyoto-KaikanSakyo-ku. Kyoto606 JAPAN

Third International Symposium on Nutrition and WorkThe Third International Symposium on Nutrition and Work (Ali­

mentation et travail) will be held in Nancy. France. September 28-30.1977. Five major subjects will be treated: New technologies applied toprotein sources. Influences of processing upon nutritional value of pro­teins. processing as related to nutritional quality. New food processingmethods and new food products. Further information can be obtainedfrom: Department of Nutrition and Metabolic Illnesses. University ofNancy, 40 Lionnois Street. 54000. Nancy. France.

Can. Inst. Food Sci. Techno!. J. Vo!. 10. No.2. April 1977

SUMMARY OF 22ND MEAT RESEARCH CONGRESSThe following summary of some of the papers presented at the re­

cent 22nd annual meeting of European meat research workers held inSweden, was forwarded by Elizabeth Larmond.

Ed.

The Danish researchers, F. H. Heidemann and J. Wismer-Pedersen,of the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Copenhagen, madea study of what it is that imparts the special flavour to bacon (salted porkproducts) by examining it before and after frying. They succeeded in iso­tating 61 chemical components which contribute to the particular flavourof bacon. Twenty of these substances (including sulphur compounds. al­dehydes, ketones and furans) are new findings-their connection with fla­vour was previously not known.

The question of boar odor was elucidated by a report from OhioState University. where R. F. Plimpton. H. W. Ockerman, V. R. Cahilland E. Hilt studied the occurrence of a special boar odour in sausages(frankfurters) in order to ascertain how it varied in intensity with the ad­dition of fenne!. for example. The carcasses of slaughtered animals repre­senting five different levels of boar odor were selected by means of the so­called hot iron method for inclusion in tests where a panel judged theboar odor of the various samples. As was to be expected. the samplesclassed as having a "very strong" boar odor were perceived as unpala­table by the panel. Acceptance was found to rise sharply, on the otherhand, with a more diffuse boar odor and the addition of fennel. Productscontaining up to 75 per cent pork with a "very strong" boar odor were ac­cepted by the panel. Moreover. the researchers consider the hot ironmethod very reliable for sorting out animal carcasses with an excessivelystrong boar odor.

A report by A. J. Bailey of the Meat Research Institute. Langford.England. is of interest for meat tenderization research. It shows that thecollagen in the connective tissue of muscle differs in various types of con­nective tissue in a way which ought to have a great bearing on the agingprocess in meat. The report-entitled "Distribution of molecular speciesof collagen in muscle and the relationship to meat texture"-is an impor­tant contribution to an understanding of the meat tenderization processand a good illustration of how deep research must peer before it gains aninsight into the mechanism of tenderization. Another aspect of the agingsequence is put forward in a French work by Ahmed Ouali and ChristianValin, who studied enzymatic activity during the tenderization process.They found that contracted muscle delays aging and that enzymatic activ­ity attains an optimum at 34°C.

The possibility of rapidly chilling animal carcasses after slaughter isdesirable from both the economic and hygienic angles. However. in mostcases it is not possible to chill animal carcasses immediately after slaugh­ter. Time must be allowed for the glycogen of the muscles to decomposeand the pH to fall, otherwise there is the risk of the occurrence of thephenomenon of cold-shortening whereby the meat becomes tough. Elec­trical stimulation can now be utilized for rapidly emptying muscles oftheir glycogen supply and hence hastening rigor mortis. It thus becomespossible to chill the carcasses rapidly just an hour after slaughter. whichleads to a saving of eight hours. This is shown by experiments carried outat the Meat Research Institute. Langford (1. R. Bendall and D. N.Rhodes). The method was previously used in New Zealand where lambcarcasses were rapidly chilled without the occurrence of cold-shorteningin the muscles. The investigation referred to was carried out on cattle andholds out the promise of immense rationalization possibilities while pro­moting hygiene and the keeping quality of the meat.

Block-freezing of foodstuffs (liquid or semiliquid) takes a comparati­vely long time, as also does the thawing out process. Moreover. block-fro­zen foodstuffs lead to difficulties in the portioning of food. Two research­ers at Frigoscandia AB. Helsingborg-Goran Londahl and StureAstrom-have devised freezing equipment which enables liquid or semili­quid foodstuffs to be frozen into tablets (2-3 em pellets). This facilitatesthe portioning of various foodstuffs-one can simply sprinkle in the re­quired amount of pelletized cream. blood. spinach. egg, hashed edible of­fal or whatever else. The invention will particularly find application in thelarge-scale catering sector. restaurants and hospitals. There are manyareas of application. The bakery sector. for example. has shown interestin the possibility of portioning egg in tablet form. The mixing of summercream and winter cream so as to attain a more even quality the wholeyear around has also been tried out. A clear improvement in the qualityof sensitive products like blood and cream has resulted from the rapidfreezing made possible by the pelletizer.

The more effective utilization of abattoir products is enjoined by aseries of reports by various meat researchers-for example. the invest i-

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