A Young Scientist's World Congress Impressions

By Lili He, IUFoST Young Scientist Award Winner

My name is Lili He. I’m currently the new Assistant Professor in the Department of Food Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA. I received a Young Scientist Award from The International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) when I was still a postdoc researcher associated with the Department of Food Science, University of Minnesota in St Paul, Minnesota. It’s indeed my honor to receive this award and be invited to attend the 16th World Congress of Food Science and Technology held in Iguazzu Falls, Brazil. IUFoST is the global scientific organisation for food science and technology supporting programs and projects to increase the safety and security of the worlds food supply.  The theme of this World Congress was world hunger and security.

My first impression of the Congress is the large number of attendees, posters and presentations. Those posters and presentations were organised very well. By visiting these posters and seminars, I learnt the frontier research in the field, new regulations and policies of government agencies, current needs and challenges for food industries, current situations and future perspectives of the world hunger, food security and food safety issues. Those reports broadened my view of the whole picture of food science and greatly inspired my research interests. Examples of great presentations that interested me are: Prof. Pingfan Rao’s presentation on the topic of “Meet the Leaders of Today and Tomorrow” and the “Globesity” talk by Prof. Mary Schmidl from University of Minnesota.

One of the major focuses of the 16th IUFoST World Congress was the involvement of young scientists and students. On the website, it says “These individuals represent a wide variety of international organisations, universities, governments and industries which provide a number of new and different perspectives in the discussions of food science and technology.  Having the opportunity to speak to some of these Young Professionals was important in understanding how the World Congress was able to influence them both on a professional and personal level. As a young scientist, I felt particularly the efforts of the Congress in putting together different young scientists from all over the world and giving us the opportunities to share experiences and present to the world. For example, it was great to put all the young scientists in one hotel, so that we had many opportunities to meet other young scientists. I had a great time talking with other young scientists. We shared a lot of research interests and experiences with each other, even talked about some future collaborations. The special seminar sessions and lectures for the young scientists brought all the young scientists together to present and discuss each other’s work. I was so pleased to have the opportunity to present my research work, titled “The use of SERS to detect adulterants in foods” (see abstract below). It’s an incredible experience for me to present in front of so many professionals all over the world. One day after the Congress, I got an email form my postdoc advisor Professor Ted Labuza at University of Minnesota, who said he got some emails from his colleagues tha my presentation was wonderful.

During the Congress, I had the chance to meet professionals from all over the world and have built many new connections with people from different research areas as well as different countries. These connections are invaluable for a new staff member like me. In addition to the scientific part, I enjoyed a lot of the Brazilian food and culture, and visited the world famous Iguazzu falls, which was a wonderful life experience.

As a junior faculty member at the University of Massachusetts, I really appreciate the great opportunity given by IFT and IUFoST. It is my first time to attend the IUFoST World Congress. It is my first time in Brazil. It is my first time to receive an international award. It is my first time to present my research work in front of an audience of more than 100. I look forward to future opportunities from IUFoST to lead the world food science and technology and support young scientists.

Poster Abstract

Rapid Detection of Food Contaminants Using Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS)

Lili He and Theodore P. Labuza

University of Minnesota, St Paul, Minnesota, USA

Food contamination problems have become globalised and are the cause of many health problems and economic crises. There is an increasing need for rapid detection of food contaminants in foods and on food processing surfaces, as traditional detection methods such as plating for microbes and HPLC-MS for chemicals are usually time consuming. Here we demonstrate the superior capacity of Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) for rapid detection of food contaminants, such as pesticides, allergens, and bioterror agents in foods within 30 min, research  funded by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the US Department of Homeland Security. SERS is a combination technique of Raman spectroscopy and nano-techniques. The use of nanostructures like silver dendrites increases the Raman signals by more than 106. Contaminants can be either extracted from the foods or captured by specific antibody or aptamer agents, then rapidly measured using a Raman instrument. Our results show SERS can detect 2 ppm thiabendazole on an apple surface, 1 ppm egg allergenic protein in milk and 5 µg egg protein on a stainless steel surface, 0.25 ppm ricin in milk , 0.1 ppm ricin in orange juice, and 2000 Bacillus anthracis spores in milk and orange juice. All detections can be done within 30 min including the sample preparation. In summary, the use of SERS shows great success in rapid detection of various food contaminants.

Dr Lili He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Food Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA; E-mail:  lilihe@foodsci.umass.edu