September 2024 New Connections

Beers & Cheers

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

@ Dovetail in Ravenswood

Schedule & Venue

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

5:30 – 7:30 PM

6 PM Guided Tasting

Dovetail Brewery

1800 W Belle Plaine Ave, Chicago, IL 60613

Parking

Limited street parking available in the area. Nearby the Irving Park Brown Line, 80 Irving Park Bus, and 50 Damen Bus stops.

About

Join the CSIFT New Connections group for a beer tasting at Dovetail in Ravenswood! This local Chicago brewery specializes in European-style beer using traditional brewing methods to play on all the senses with their imported European malt and hops.

Registration includes a guided 5 tastes of beer along with 1 full pour of choice and heavy appetizers. Come and network with fellow food industry professionals as we close out the summer together. We hope to see you there!

Don’t be late or you’ll miss the Guided Tasting at 6 PM!

June 2024 New Connections

Date: Tuesday, June 4, 2024
Time: 5:30 – 8:00 PM
Max Participants: 65 people
Registration Deadline: May 27th
Price: $10 for Members, $15 for Non-Members
Location: Synergy Flavors
1500 Synergy Drive
Wauconda, IL 60084

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Join us at Synergy Flavors Inc. for a flavor-packed experience! Step into the world of taste with our presenter Rex Jackson, Flavor Chemist II, and our Sensory Team as they dive into the fascinating world of bubblegum flavor creation.

Discover the secrets behind describing this fantasy flavor, the artistry involved in its development, and the intriguing differences among bubblegum brands. But that’s not all!

Immerse yourself in our lab and commercial spaces with guided tours, while indulging in a delightful buffet and beverages. Get ready for an unforgettable blend of education, networking, and, of course, flavor exploration!

All proceeds of this event through the IFT Chicago Section will be donated to the Chicagoland Food Science Foundation.

Presenter and Sensory Team

Rex Jackson, Flavor Chemist II

Rex is a Certified Flavorist with degrees in Biochemistry and Chemistry from Monmouth College. With over 12 years in the flavor industry, he has expertise in flavoring beverages, confections, bakery items, and nutrition foods.

His proficiency in creating sweet flavors and experience in liquid development adds significant value to the Synergy team. Outside of work, Rex enjoys spending time with his wife and dogs, playing board games, outdoor activities, and photography.

Katie Nance – Manager of Sensory at Synergy Flavors

Katie leads a team of four in delivering high-quality sensory insights. With 7 years of IFT volunteering, she’s served in roles like the Speaker Ready room and Sensory and Consumer Sciences division.

She holds an MS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a BS from Pittsburg State University.

Before joining her current role, Katie managed a microbiology lab for a pet food company and cared for marine life at an aquarium.

Alden Riak – Sensory Scientist III at Synergy Flavors

Alden specializes in Discrimination, Descriptive Analysis, and Consumer studies. With over 5 years in IFT’s Sensory & Consumer Science Division, he’s held multiple roles, currently as Chair. He spoke at the 2023 FIRST conference and will present at the Summer 2024 FIRST conference.

Alden earned his MS from Penn State and BS from Iowa State, where he began sensory research as a freshman nine years ago. He welcomes questions, especially from students, on IFT, academia, or sensory science.

Caroline Lee – Sensory Scientist at Synergy Flavors

Caroline earned her degree in Food Science and Human Nutrition from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2022, with a minor in Business.

As co-president of the Association of Food Technologists Club, she connected UIUC students with the IFT Student Association.

May 2024 New Connections

Date: Thursday, May 2, 2024
Schedule:
6:00 – 7:00 PM Food, Drinks & Networking
7:00 – 8:00 PM Mini Golf, Drinks & Networking
Max Participants: .30 people
Price: $35 for Members, $40 for Non-Members
Price includes:
1 hour of food
1 round of mini golf
2 hours of Wine, beer, soda, coffee and tea
Location: Putt Shack
1828 Oakbrook Center
Oak Brook, IL 60523

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Swing into a sweet networking experience at CSIFT’s Mini Golf Mixer at Putt Shack!

New connections are made sweeter by Monk Fruit Corp. sponsoring the food for this event. Enjoy a night of networking, mini golf, delicious bites, and refreshing drinks—all included in your ticket.

Don’t miss out on the perfect opportunity to make new connections while having fun.

Tee up your success and secure your spot now! Spots are limited and deadline to sign up is April 24th.

May 2024 Tanner Lecture

Live Event Recording

GoToWebinar Recording

Tuesday, May 14, 2024
Schedule
5:00-5:30 PM Social Hour / Networking
5:30-6:30 Dinner – Family Style
6:30-6:45 Announcements
7:00-8:00 PM Speaker and Questions

Location
The Belvedere
1170 W Devon Ave
Elk Grove Village, IL 60007

Virtual Pricing
$15.00 Members
$25.00 Non-Members

In-Person Pricing
$25.00 Emeritus / Student Members
$50.00 Members
$60.00 Non-Members
Unemployed Members can use voucher UNEMP-1010050 to save 50%
Member Prices increase after Thursday, May 9th

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In-Person Registration

Virtual Registration

This program qualifies for IFT Certified Food Scientist (CFS) recertification contact hours (CH). CFS Certificants may claim a maximum of 1.5 CH for their participation in this program.

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Title: The Future of a Safer, Smarter, and More Sustainable Food System

Speaker: Frank Yiannas, Founder, Smarter FY Solutions

Frank Yiannas is a renowned food safety leader and executive, food system futurist, author, professor, past president of the International Association of Food Protection, and advocate for consumers.

Most recently, he served under two different administrations as the Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a position he held from 2018 to 2023, after spending 30 years in leadership roles with two industry giants: Walmart and the Walt Disney Company.

Through his career, Frank has been recognized for his role in strengthening food safety standards in new and innovative ways, as well and building effective food safety management systems based on modern, science-based, and tech-enable prevention principles.

Event Sponsors

April 2024 Trivia Night

Schedule – April 9, 2024
5:00-5:40 PM Networking & pizza
5:40-6:50 PM announcements and Trivia
6:50-7:00 PM winners announced & prizes given

Location
Flavorchem SRS Center for Taste Innovation
1429 Centre Circle
Downers Grove, IL 60515

Pricing
$25.00 Emeritus / Student Members
$40.00 Members
$45.00 Non-members
Unemployed Members can use voucher UNEMP-1010050 to save 50%
Member Prices increase after Monday, April 1st.

50% of every registration will be donated to the Chicagoland Food Science Foundation that creates awareness of Food Science and provides scholarships to students pursuing a degree in Food Science and Nutrition.

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Get ready to spice up your evening at Flavorchem’s SRS Center for Taste Innovation in Downers Grove! Join CSIFT for an exhilarating night of Food Science Trivia where the foodie enthusiasts collide. It’s not just about testing your knowledge; it’s about unleashing your inner foodie genius! Beyond the thrill of the competition, there are fun prizes up for grabs.

But that’s not all – the champions of trivia night won’t just earn bragging rights for a year; they’ll also have the honor of signing our coveted winner’s traveling lab coat, a tradition that’s as legendary as the foods we explore.

Last year, the coveted title went to an exceptional team – will your squad be the next triumphant champions? Don’t miss out on the chance to etch your names in CSIFT history! When you register, be sure to mention your stellar team members if you already have some.

Don’t have a team yet? No worries! We’ll be your matchmakers and help you find teammates to conquer the trivia together. Get ready to savor the victory – this Food Science Trivia night is set to be nothing short of fun!

A Big thank you to our sponsors

Flavorchem for the venue
Advanced Biotech for the food, drinks and Prizes
Citrus and Allied for prizes

March 2024 Cultivating Community and Learning Event

March 12, 2024 – 12:00 – 1:00 PM

Location
GoToWebinar (Link on Receipt)

Pricing
$15 Members
$25 Nonmembers

Speaker: Hannah Ackermann, COMET

As a Registered Dietitian, Hannah Ackermann uses her expertise to drive COMET’s nutrition strategy and educate consumers. Hannah oversees COMET’S marketing and nutrition affairs, including providing insights on market research and consumer trends.

Before joining COMET, Hannah worked in nutrition marketing at leading global market research and public relations firms. Hannah holds Bachelor’s degrees in Nutritional Science and Journalism, and a Masters of Business Administration in Marketing.

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This program qualifies for IFT Certified Food Scientist (CFS) recertification contact hours (CH). CFS Certificants may claim a maximum of 1.5 CH for their participation in this program.

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NEW PRODUCT OPPORTUNITIES: How the food, beverage and supplement industry can draw inspiration from the Ozempic Effect & provide real value to consumers in the year ahead.

“When one door closes, another opens…”

Love them or hate them, Ozempic and GLP-1 drugs have proven to be a massive success. They have shown that consumers are not only interested in but willing to pay large amounts of discretionary income for products that provide tangible results.

The news may sound like a door closing—quite the opposite. Many new doors have swung open for product developers who seek to capitalize on the opportunity by building complementary products to enhance and accelerate the impact of GLP-1 weight loss.

It is foreseeable that we are about to witness an entirely new category of foods and supplements that are about to be born. Weight loss is the goal, but not the Holy Grail.

Today’s consumer expects breakthrough remedies to be balanced, holistic, and sustainable. Our industry is in an ideal position to play a powerful role in delivering these benefits: a wide range of foods and supplements designed to complement and enhance a consumer’s health throughout life rather than pharmaceuticals.

The COMET team of microbiome experts has crunched the data and the prevailing market trends to shed new light on opportunities waiting to be tapped in food, beverage and supplement development.

February 2024 Cultivating Community and Learning Event

Schedule – February 27, 2024
5:00-5:45 PM Social Hour / Networking / Heavy Appetizers and Dessert
5:45-7:00 Panel Discussion
7:00-8:00 PM Networking / Dessert

Location
Coopers Hawk Winery
798 W Algonquin Rd
Arlington Heights, IL 60005

Pricing
$25.00 Emeritus / Student Members
$50.00 Members
$60.00 Non-members
Registration Includes 2 Free Drink Tickets
Unemployed Members can use voucher UNEMP-1010050 to save 50%
Member Prices increase after Thursday, February 22nd

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This program qualifies for IFT Certified Food Scientist (CFS) recertification contact hours (CH). CFS Certificants may claim a maximum of 1.5 CH for their participation in this program.

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Exploring the Frontiers of Food Innovations

Innovations in the food industry are pushing the boundaries of how we manage data, engage with the consumer, develop safe new process technologies and adopt sustainable practices for the future. The endless opportunities also provide for quicker adoption of best practices and approaches across the industry.

No matter the path or the technology, industry professionals are expected to collaborate in new ways that drive greater benefits.

Join a diverse panel of experts for a robust discussion on some of the most exciting new areas to explore and how we’ll tackle those challenges tapping into the rich diversity within the science of food community.

Moderator: Charlotte Allen, PhD. CEO, Rebel Success for Leaders

Charlotte is founder and CEO of Rebel Success for Leaders and the author of the international bestseller Rebel Success for Leaders – Lead, Grow and Sell Fearlessly. For over 20 years, she has developed leaders, led and facilitated transformational change initiatives, and advanced mission critical innovations – achieving top and bottom-line business results and increasing team engagement. She’s gifted at breaking barriers, empowering teams and simplifying complexity.

Charlotte had the good fortune during her 16 years at Kraft Foods to advance some of the most beloved iconic brands where her innovation expertise spanned product, packaging, and technology innovations. She currently works with teams in Fortune 1000+ companies, Financial Institutions and Start-Ups to develop change-savvy leaders, empower teams and innovate to lead the market.

Charlotte holds a doctorate from The Ohio State University and an Executive Education Certificate from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Panelists

Justin Honaman, Head, Worldwide Retail & Consumer Goods GTM, AWS

Justin Honaman leads the worldwide Retail and Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Go-to-Market team at Amazon Web Services (AWS). He is also the worldwide segment leader for Food & Beverage.

His team’s focus within Retail and CPG is on delivering supply chain, ecommerce, data / analytics and digital engagement business solutions for customers globally. Justin has spent the majority of his career in Consumer Goods and Retail both on the customer side (Coca-Cola, Georgia Pacific) as well as the technology / consulting side (Accenture, EY). In the industry and community, Justin serves on the board for the Georgia Technology Authority (GTA), Consumer Goods Technology (CGT), Western Michigan Food Marketing Association, Leadership Atlanta, and PAWS. Justin lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Lisa Saxon Reed, Senior Director, Global Sensory and User Experience, McCain Foods

Throughout her career in consumer research, sensory, design, and innovation, Lisa has dedicated herself to understanding consumers and developing tools to identify, nurture, and evaluate a range of communication, product, and packaging ideas. She’s passionate about holistic design and delivering business teams what they need to bring category-building ideas quickly to market.

In 2022, Lisa joined McCain Foods to build a sensory and user experience team globally, from scratch. Prior to McCain, Lisa was at MARS Wrigley, where she transformed the consumer insight capability in R&D/Design. During her 10+ years at MARS, she was known as a passionate advocate for consumers/end users, a transformer of global functional teams, and as a mentor to numerous associates.

Prior to joining MARS, Lisa worked at Unilever and P&G. At Unilever, Lisa experienced the power of holistic design in unleashing unprecedented global brand growth on Axe and Dove and has been a champion of creating holistic consumer experiences ever since.

Lisa completed her BA at Miami University (Ohio) and earned her MBA at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Abdullatif Tay, Director, Director, Pepsico

Abdullatif Tay has an extensive experience in food safety and process validation and currently works as a Director at PepsiCo, Inc. With over two decades of industry expertise, he has developed and executed numerous process validation strategies across various categories of ingredients and products.

Abdullatif is an active member of Institute of Food Technologist, the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) and currently serves as the Vice Chair of the IAFP Modelling and Risk Assessment PDG. He is also the President and Chair of the Institute for Thermal Processing Specialists (IFTPS), demonstrating his commitment to advancing the food safety through continued learning and sharing best practices.

Abdullatif holds a PhD degree in Food Science from The Ohio State University, as well as MS and BS degrees in Food Engineering from Middle East Technical University.

Michelle Klieger, President, Stratagerm Consulting, LLC

Michelle Klieger is the president of Stratagerm Consulting, a food and agricultural consulting firm. An economist and a business strategist, she works with the global seed industry, ag tech companies, conventional and non-conventional agriculture firms, and philanthropic foundations. Taking her around the world, her work helps industry leaders manage and grow their global businesses.

She helps clients find, access, and leverage funding and financing to support their vision of a more economically and environmentally sustainable system. Her work includes researching and understanding the underlying constraints, developing alternatives, and evaluating the economic impact of those changes.

Michelle’s passion for supporting small and medium sized producers and agribusinesses led to the creation of her podcast, The Grower & The Economist, which provides listeners with relevant and practical economic and business advice. She is the author of The Demise of Free Trade, and a professor of Economics at Bentley University. She holds a Master of Science in Agriculture Economics from Purdue University and an MBA from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.

February 2024 New Connections

Date: Thursday, February 15, 2024
Time: 6:00 – 8:30 PM
Max Participants: 25 people
Price: $40 for Members, $45 for Non-Members
Location: Lynfred Winery
15 South Roselle Rd
Roselle, IL 60172

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Come network with New connections as we sip & savor our way through a tasting at Lynfred Winery.

We will be enjoying a sampling of eight specially selected Lynferd wines paired with a gourmet cheese tray.

Come wine down your day as we network in a relaxing atmosphere of the VIP room.

We want to give a big thank you to Advanced biotech for sponsoring the VIP room for us to network in.

Space is limited so be sure to sign up early.

Room Sponsored By

January 2024 New Connections

Date: Wednesday, January 17, 2024
Time: 5:30 – 7:30 PM
Max Participants: 35 people
Price: $25 for Members, $30 for Non-Members
Location: Noon Whistle Brewery – Lombard Barrel room
800 E Roosevelt Rd
Lombard, IL 60148

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Did you know playing games can help ease stress and improve one’s mental well-being. Join new connections at Noon Whistle Brewing for an evening of networking and fun.

We will be in the back room having a barrel of fun while we network and play some board games. We have some fun board games that we can enjoy while making new connections.

Food and games will be provided for this event. If you have a game you want to bring feel free to bring it. This game night helps generate a get-together for colleagues and new connections that promotes fun activities for everyone.

All are welcome to attend. We hope to see you there. Don’t know how to play? Don’t worry – we will have board game guides on-site to help us learn the rules!

January 2024 Cultivating Community and Learning Event

January 16, 2024 – 12:00 – 1:00 PM

Location
GoToWebinar (Link on Receipt)

Pricing
$15 Members
$25 Nonmembers

Dr. Arun Krishnamurthy, NMR Spectroscopist, Purity-IQ Inc.

At Purity-IQ, Dr. Krishnamurthy oversees analysis of product test samples through NMR metabolomics.

His expertise is in the field of NMR spectroscopy with a focus on the structure elucidation of small molecules, metabolite screening and multivariate statistical analysis, qNMR, and structural characterization of inorganic materials.

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This program qualifies for IFT Certified Food Scientist (CFS) recertification contact hours (CH). CFS Certificants may claim a maximum of 1.5 CH for their participation in this program.

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Join Us at 12 PM on Tuesday, January 16 for a Lunch & Learn - Harnessing the Power of NMR Spectroscopy

Amidst growing concerns to food safety, adulteration has emerged as a severe threat, to which NMR spectroscopy is a best-suited tool due to its high sensitivity, inherently quantitative nature, untargeted chemical profiling ability, and versatility in testing different food products of different types and matrices.

NMR-based methods have been accepted as an industry standard for chemical profiling of food products, determining chemical structures of biomolecules and their quantification, authenticity testing and product validation, detection of adulterants, among others.

Moreover, NMR-based chemometric methods can deliver these testing aspects simultaneously, thereby ensuring consumer safety and maintaining the integrity of the food industry and addressing the need for a versatile and robust analytical tool.

A brief abstract of how NMR-based methods can be used in authenticating food products and probe the above-mentioned qualities will be presented.

Beers & Cheers

Schedule & Venue

Dovetail Brewery

Parking

About

Presenter and Sensory Team

Title: The Future of a Safer, Smarter, and More Sustainable Food System

Speaker: Frank Yiannas, Founder, Smarter FY Solutions

Event Sponsors

A Big thank you to our sponsors

Speaker: Hannah Ackermann, COMET

NEW PRODUCT OPPORTUNITIES: How the food, beverage and supplement industry can draw inspiration from the Ozempic Effect & provide real value to consumers in the year ahead.

Exploring the Frontiers of Food Innovations

Moderator: Charlotte Allen, PhD. CEO, Rebel Success for Leaders

Panelists

Justin Honaman, Head, Worldwide Retail & Consumer Goods GTM, AWS

Lisa Saxon Reed, Senior Director, Global Sensory and User Experience, McCain Foods

Abdullatif Tay, Director, Director, Pepsico

Michelle Klieger, President, Stratagerm Consulting, LLC

Room Sponsored By

Dr. Arun Krishnamurthy, NMR Spectroscopist, Purity-IQ Inc.

Join Us at 12 PM on Tuesday, January 16 for a Lunch & Learn - Harnessing the Power of NMR Spectroscopy

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