Celebrating Women in Food Science

http://blog.ift.org/celebrating-women-in-food-science

By Mary Ellen Kuhn

While women have traditionally been underrepresented in many STEM (science, technology, engineering, and
math) careers, that is not the case for the science of food profession. In fact, nearly half (49%) of the membership
of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) is female. And last year when IFT teamed up with colleges and
universities around the country for its Food Science Academic Knowledge Base survey, we learned that within the
11 leading food science programs that shared data on gender distribution, 70% of undergraduate food science
majors were women. Asked about the factors that led them to choose a food science major, 44% of female
undergraduates selected the response “I have always liked science.” So clearly, young women are interested in
scientific disciplines and see opportunities in the science of food.

2017 Employment & Salary Survey showed that the gap between men’s and women’s salaries is narrowing. While
women food scientists continue to earn just about 77 cents for every dollar that their male counterparts make,
that’s up from 2015, when women’s food science compensation was 75% of men’s.

In addition, women’s salaries are growing faster than men’s. According to the survey, the 2017 median salary for
women was $81,789, up 3.5%, versus a 1% increase to $106,000 for men. Bonuses for women also increased
substantially; in 2017, the median bonus for women who received them was up 25% or $1,500 to $7,500. The
median bonus for men increased by just $100, but at $15,000 was still twice the amount women received.

What is particularly exciting is the fact that younger women in the profession have achieved salary parity with
men—something that has eluded older women. For men and women in their 20s, median food science salaries
were equal at $60,000, the survey found. For women in their 30s, there was a relatively modest salary gap of 6%,
while those in their 40s, 50s, and 60s experienced larger gaps.

The survey also showed that as the salary gap has narrowed, women have begun to feel better about their career
opportunities in the science of food. Nearly half (46%) of respondents said that their opportunities were equal to
those of men—a substantial increase from the 34% who responded that way in 2015.

Entrepreneurship is an increasingly significant area of opportunity in the food and beverage world. Statistics
compiled recently for IFT’s Food Technology magazine by private capital market data provider PitchBook offered
some interesting insight into how women are faring when it comes to securing funding for their startups.
PitchBook’s analysis showed that across all industries, women-led companies in the United States received a
disappointingly small share of venture capital in the first 11 months of 2018—just 2.4%. The picture is brighter in
the food and beverage sector, however, where female-founded companies netted 8.4% of venture capital in that
time frame. The investment pattern is consistent for the years from 2012 through 2018; while female food and
beverage company founders received a share of venture funding that ranged from a low of 2.3% in 2015 to a high
of 13.2% in 2017, the share of venture capital that went to women founders industry-wide never topped 3.2%
during the same time frame.

It is gratifying to be able to share such positive improvements concerning opportunities for women in the food
and beverage industry because as an organization, IFT is firmly committed to enabling diversity, inclusion, and
equity. To that end, last year we added “Include” to the core group of strategic promises that guide our
organization. Under this banner, we are working to ensure that we consistently leverage diversity and inclusion
to advance our mission and the science of food. Holding fast to our vision of a world that is guided by these
principles, IFT is proud to celebrate the important role of women in the science of food and to acknowledge the
ways that they continue to move forward. We eagerly anticipate a time when parity in salaries and equity in
opportunities are realities for all.
Four African American Scientists and Inventors Who Changed the Food Industry

http://blog.ift.org/four-african-american-scientists-inventors-who-changed-food-industry

By Nancy Ukpe Gargula

As part of our celebration of Black History Month in the United States, we wanted to take a look at just a few of
the many African Americans who helped shape the food industry and the science of food profession.

"It is very important that we promote and leverage the many extraordinary contributions of African-American
men and women to the science of food, if in fact we intend to attract students of color to the field," says IFT
Fellow Larry Keener. "The life stories and accomplishments of American food scientists such as George
Washington Carver, Norbert Rilleux and Percy Julian are compelling in this nation's history. Their life stories are
simply amazing, and their accomplishments and innovations in food science and technology are inspirational for
students desiring careers in science and technology. It’s exceedingly difficult to see one’s self in a place or a
position in which there are no images nor history of people of similar background having succeeded previously.
History can also be a portal to the future."

Here are four African American scientists and inventors who changed the food industry:

Lloyd Hall

A true food preservation pioneer, Lloyd Hall is responsible for inventing many chemical preservation techniques
that are still in use today. In 1932, Hall discovered a method of suppressing food-spoiling nitrogen by combining
sodium chloride with tiny crystals of sodium nitrate and nitrite. He later developed new approaches to
preventing food spoilage by using chemicals like lecithin as antioxidants, and invented a way of purifying foods
from spoiling microbes by using ethylene oxide gas in a vacuum chamber.

Joseph Lee

A member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Joseph Lee created and patented several bread-related
machines. In 1895, he received a patent for a device that mechanically tore, crumbled and ground old bread to
form bread crumbs. Then, in 1902, he invented (and patented) a new machine that could uniformly knead dough,
allowing for a faster, cheaper and more sanitary way of making bread.

George Crum

Like potato chips? Then you have George Crum to thank! A chef, he invented what later became known as
“Saratoga Chips” in 1853 while working at the Moon Lake Lodge resort in Saratoga Springs. In 1860, Crum
opened a restaurant of his own—Crums House—which proudly featured a basket of potato chips on every table.

George Washington Carver

It would be difficult to make any list of American food pioneers without mentioning George Washington Carver.
Though he did not, as popular folklore would have you believe, invent peanut butter, Carver did famously come
up with more than 300 uses for peanuts. Additionally, he helped support and spread the now-widespread idea of
rotating crops to help combat soil depletion. And, in fact, his many inventions of peanut uses were aimed at
helping improve the profitability of the legume to better benefit farmers. Shortly after his death in 1943,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation to give Carver his own national monument, which now stands
proudly in Diamond, Missouri.
 The Future of Food Science Education?
http://blog.ift.org/the-future-of-food-science-education

By Kate Dockins

Balunkeswar (Balu) Nayak wants to help change the way food science students are educated.

Nayak, an associate professor of food processing at the University of Maine, and the rest of his team were
recently awarded a USDA Grant to help re-imagine the way university students pursuing degrees in food science
learn about science, technology, engineering and mathematics, thanks in large part to an idea he developed
through IFT.

The initiative began when Nayak was a member of the IFT Emerging Leaders Network (ELN), a highly selective
global leadership program established for new professionals in the science of food who are eager to expand their
leadership skills. The program is designed to bridge the gap between the participant’s academic experience and
their on-the-job training.

While participating in the program in 2016, Nayak said he learned a great deal from one of his ELN mentors:
Helen Joyner, a professor at the University of Idaho (and a past ELN participant herself).

"During that two and a half days of intensive training, Helen was very helpful in terms of understanding how we
need to approach our research and our teaching and how we can implement our research into leadership
training to guide our students,” Nayak says.

After the formal ELN program concluded, Nayak continued to regularly connect with Joyner and his fellow ELN
participants through the program’s virtual small group meetings. “It was excellent,” says Nayak, “and in the
months that followed, we pretty much discussed everything: from what projects we were working on, to helpful
techniques and tactics. And at one point, I was thinking about how we had discussed a lot about our leadership
practice and training, and it occurred to me, ‘Why don’t we apply this on a wider level?’ So, with Helen and few
other colleagues’ support, we proposed this grant.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture–National Institute of Food and Agriculture Higher Education Challenge
Program awarded Nayak and the rest of his team a grant worth nearly $750,000. With the money, they plan to
develop an evidence-based, student-centered, and interactive program that will use inter-university
collaboration to provide food science majors with effective learning methods in food processing and engineering
courses they’ll need to develop innovative ideas and solutions for the future of food.

“This is an extremely important grant for improving the teaching of undergraduate students in food science to
help them join the work force,” says Nayak. “Rather than to focus on the classic chalk and blackboard-type
course, we are trying to use some student-centered active learning techniques. We want to focus on student
engagement in the class, like group projects that aren’t focused on any single university or location.”

Nayak and his co-directors will develop a learning model that incorporates group discussions and teamwork
among students at six different land grant universities (University of Maine, University of Idaho, Washington
State University, Iowa State University, University of Kentucky and Virginia Tech.) Students at all six universities
will interact over the course of the program, sharing information about their local food systems and conditions
and collaborating on projects.
Nayak met many of his co-directors—not to mention his mentor, Joyner—through his participation the ELN
program and its subsequent forum, and he says he credits the programing with helping him develop both his
leadership skills and the project that led to this grant-funded opportunity.

“The ELN program really helped me,” says Nayak. “(And) I was really happy that ELN helped me build this multi-
state project that is going to help a lot of future food science students."

The new 2019 class of IFT’s Emerging Leaders Network program will convene with a two-and-a-half day intensive
leadership seminar at IFT19 in New Orleans, Louisiana on May 31 - June 2, where participants can expect to
establish meaningful, lifelong connections; gain new insights into scientific and technological issues; and develop
critical leadership skills needed to communicate the value of the profession. I can't wait to see what new leaders,
projects and collaborations come out of this new group!