IFT Carl R. Fellers Award 2002 Citation (June 2002)

Food Technology, 2002, 56 (8), 117-118

http://www.ift.org/publications/docshop/ft_shop/08-02/08_02_pdfs/08-02-post-awards.pdf

J Ralph Blanchfield, international consultant and Adjunct Professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Michigan State University, is 2002 recipient of the Carl R. Fellers Award and the first non-US recipient. This Award is intended to honor individual members of IFT and Phi Tau Sigma who have served and brought honor and recognition to the profession of food science and technology.

With  34 years in the food industry and 22 years as consultant  Blanchfield has worked on many food products and processing technologies, involving research, product/process development, analysis, quality assurance, food safety, food hygiene, production, labeling, and food legislation.

Blanchfield has been editor and part author of the UK-based Institute of Food Science & Technology (IFST) Good Manufacturing Practice Guide, the book Food Control in Action and in 2000 Food Labeling, the first definitive book on the subject. He has taken part in many interviews and debates on TV, radio and Internet. In 1996, he received the first PROMED-MAIL Award for Excellence in Outbreak Reporting, “in recognition of his outstanding reporting of the BSE/CJD crisis". His current scientific and public focus areas are bovine spongiform encephalopathy, biotechnology. allergens, labeling, and public understanding of science.

In 1962, Blanchfield helped found IFST.  In 1964, he joined IFT and its British Section, and thenceforth his professional and public activities have focussed on IFT, IFST and the International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST). He was instigator and principal architect of the 1994 IFT/IFST Cooperating Societies Agreement.

Elected a Fellow of IFT in 1980, he has served on two IFT Task Forces, and is 2001-2002 Chair of IFT’s Committee for Global Interests. At the 1999 Annual Meeting he delivered the International Lecture  "The Several Worlds of Food Science and Technology".  In 2001 he moderated the International Division’s Biotechnology Roundtable. He has served the IFT British Section for many years in various capacities, including as Chair and Councilor.

In 1997 he was honored by Queen Elizabeth II with an MBE "for scientific services to the food industry" and also was the first recipient of IFST's Mounfield Award for "an outstanding contribution to the profession of food science and technology".