Please join Cascadia IFT (formally known as PSIFT) in-person for dinner, presentation by Gülhan Ünlü on natural antimicrobials and honoring the students who have received a scholarship from our section this year.

Gülhan Ünlü is an Associate Professor within the Department of Animal, Veterinary and Food Sciences and an Affiliate Faculty member within the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Idaho. She is also an Adjunct Faculty member at Washington State University. Her research interests are in the areas of food/dairy/meat/wine microbiology, food biotechnology, microbial food safety, food safety education, food bio-preservation, bioactive packaging of foods, fermented foods, functional foods, microbial genomics, and bioconversion of agricultural and industrial waste into value-added products. Gülhan is an alumna (2012-2013) of The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program and is an active member of the Institute of Food Technologists, where she served as the Chair for the Biotechnology Division of the Institute of Food Technologists (2014-2015). She also serves as a contributing editor for the Institute of Food Technologists’ Food Technology magazine and Associate Editor for MDPI’s Bacteria.

Over the past 30 years, there has been a major movement to produce ready-to-eat, convenient, and more “natural” foods using fewer chemicals to control microbial growth. The move to more “natural” foods has catalyzed an interest in the use of bacteriocins from lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in food. Ünlü Lab has been studying bacteriocins as biopreservatives against select foodborne pathogens for several years. In a recent publication, they compared, for the very first time, the antimicrobial activity of international artisanal kefirs against various foodborne pathogens and determined that the antimicrobial activity in is mainly due to bacteriocin production. In a recent project, they are exploring artisanal kefir-based antimicrobials as natural, clean-label biopreservatives for shelf-life protection and assuring microbial food safety in the ready-to-eat food production industry.

Gülhan will cover the following during her presentation:

• What is bio-preservation?

• Why use biological bio-preservation?

• Controlled acidification; Bacteriocins; Bacteriocin general characteristics; Bacteriocin classes; Nisin; Pediocin; Bacteriocin applications in foods;

• Bacteriocin legal status

• Research

• What does the future hold for bio-preservation?

Schedule:

5:00 – 5:30 PM: Social Time

5:30 – 5:45 PM: Welcome Message

5:45 PM – 6:15 PM: Buffet Dinner

6:15 PM – 7:00 PM: Introduction to Gülhan Ünlü and Presentation + Questions

7:00 – 7:30 PM: Scholarship Recognition

7:30 -8:30 PM: Wrap-Up

Dinner Buffet:

• House Salad

• Fresh Vegetable Platter

• Ziti Pasta with Slow-Simmered Meat Sauce, Tomato Cream and Alfredo

• Tuscan Meatballs

• Sliced Basil-Garlic Chicken Breasts

• Assorted Desserts

• 1 Drink: Soda, Water and select Beers and Wines. Spirits and additional drinks can be purchased.