North Dakota State University cereal science doctoral students Minwei Xu and Yang Lan were finalists in the Graduate Student Division Competition at the 2019 Institute of Food Technologists annual meeting. Xu received second place for his oral presentation in the Food Chemistry division.
Four members of the cereal science program in the Department of Plant Sciences at NDSU attended the Institute for Food Technologists annual meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, June 2-5, 2019. Doctoral students Xu and Lan, and faculty Bingcan Chen and Jiajia Rao. Prior to the meeting, Xu and Lan submitted abstracts for the Graduate Student Division Competition. They were selected as finalists out of hundreds of abstracts, and were invited to compete at the annual meeting. They are the first NDSU students chosen for this honor.
Xu was a finalist in the Food Chemistry division and received second place for his oral presentation titled “Compositional analysis of flavor attributes during germination of chickpea, lentil, and yellow pea.” He competed against five other students. Xu is advised by Chen, assistant professor for food and cereal chemistry.
Lan was a finalist in the Protein division, giving an oral presentation titled “Complex coacervation of concentrated pea protein isolate - beet pectin solution for control of food texture.” He presented a poster by the same title, as well as a poster in the Food Chemistry division titled, “Understanding phase behaviors of concentrated pea protein isolate Pectin mixture: Effect of pH, biopolymer ratio and pectin type.” Lan is advised by Rao, assistant professor for food chemistry and ingredient technology.
Rao was chosen to serve as the IFT Food Chemistry division chair for 2019-2020. She also will serve for three years as a judge for the preliminary and final reports of the IFT Student Association and MARS Product Development Competition.
The Institute of Food Technologists is a global organization committed to advancing the science of food.