Food Processing Center to Mark 30th with Open House, Free Ice Cream June 9

May 13, 2013

LINCOLN, Neb. — The University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Food Processing Center will celebrate its 30th anniversary next month with tours and free ice cream.

An open house is planned from 1-5 p.m. June 9 at the center, in the Food Industry Complex on UNL's East Campus. Tours of the center's pilot plants will be offered, as will interactive displays on sensory testing, marketing, food safety and more.

And then there's the free ice cream. The FPC's Dairy Store is one of East Campus visitors' favorite stops, and the samples will remind open house participants why.

Nebraska was one of the first states to develop a food processing center, and its center served as an example for other states to do the same. Early successes included assistance to a group of Panhandle farmers growing and processing carrots and onions as alternatives to sugarbeets and work with the Japanese licensee of the Nebraska Sucrose Ester patents, which led to FDA approval of the product for use in the United States.

The center has a successful Food Entrepreneur Assistance Program used by business people all over the United States to help develop and expand food manufacturing businesses. Its pilot plants enable clients to perform production tests and develop new products using pilot-scale equipment. Areas of expertise in the plants include: extrusion, dairy production and research, high-pressure processing, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, dehydration and more.

Rolando Flores, director of the center, said the celebration of its history is important, but he's even more enthusiastic about the future. "We have to be more responsive, more efficient with fewer resources and more effectiveness," he said.

Flores said the center will continue to hone technologies that can be used to ensure more plentiful and safer food and break new ground in areas like functional foods, which are foods that deliver specific health benefits.

"We need to be responsive in new areas of technology, nutrition and health," he said.

Flores emphasized, "We will always give support to mom and pop organizations because it's a very important segment, but the future is the strengthening and development of our applied research."

"We cannot rest on our laurels," he added.