Wolfing Down Food Science

Send us Fan Mail Chief Warrant Officer 4 Terrence Ward is a year 2016  alumnus of the Food, Bioprocessing, and Nutrition Sciences Department at NC State University.  He discovered his interest in food science while in the army.  Today he audits food processing facilities, and even grocery stores, to be sure the food produced and sold is safe for the US Armed Forces.  We talk about his o food scien...

Send us Fan Mail Amena Kadibhai is a Raleigh, North Carolina native and a 2011 alumna of the Food, Bioprocessing, and Nutrition Sciences Department here at NC State.  A tussle with organic chemistry made her question her pre-med career path, but discussions and classes with former NC State professors Brian Farkas and Fletcher Arritt got her back on track with Food Science.  She’s never looked back...

Send us Fan Mail Along with special guest host Health and Wellness Coach Emilize Momplasir, we unpack the joys and the challenges Dr. Lisard Iglesias has experienced in his transition from student to scientist.  His research area is the microbiome, the intersection of microbiology, food science, and nutrition.  We discuss the strategies he uses to manage the dynamic balance between work and life ....

Send us Fan Mail Happy New Year Everyone!  In this first WDFS episode of the new year and the new season on Food Science Careers, we start out talking about the many different types of job in the food science universe.  Are you into tech?  There are jobs out there.  Interested in food safety?  Absolutely.  Like the business or marketing aspects of food?  Yes, there are jobs there, too!  We outline...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Minliang Yang will be joining NC State as a professor focused on sustainability in January 2023.  Her research focuses on techno-economic and life cycle analysis in sustainability.  Taking in all aspects of sustainability from economic and social impacts to carbon footprints, Minliang shares her research and outlook for North Carolina at NC State with us. WDFS Host Keith is no...

Send us Fan Mail Adam Yee, a food scientist, entrepreneur, and host of the My Food Job Rocks!, shares his hot takes on startups, alternative proteins, supply chain, and worldwide travel.   His recent travels have taken him to Asia where he has done some exploring.  He takes some time while in Raleigh, NC to chat with us about podcasting, alternative proteins and the food business considerations wh...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Josip Simunovic, NC State research professor, entrepreneur, and science fiction fan, takes us along on his journey into microwave and aseptic processing, two technologies that are making food safer, more stable, and more nutritious in North Carolina and around the world, all without the need for a refrigerator or a freezer.  As the tale unravels, we hear about the colleagues a...

Send us Fan Mail Drs. Helen Joyner and Ty Wagoner, both alumni of NC State and employees of Perfect Day, join us to discuss precision fermentation in the food industry.  Precision fermentation can create products, like specific milk proteins, without a cow being involved in the process at all.  We discuss sustainability, the challenges of marketing a very different type of food product, and discov...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Jeremiah Johnson, an NC State University professor, is pretty excited about what he does. It’s not surprising since it is making a difference in the current state of energy usage and decreasing the carbon footprint.  By using buildings as batteries and examining the entire lifecycle of things like rentable scooters in urban areas, Jeremiah is finding more efficient and better...

Send us Fan Mail It’s been called the world’s dumbest problem.  Food waste is an environmental problem that is juxtaposed by the amount of hunger in the world.  Dr. Lisa Johnson joins us to discuss food waste and loss. With about a third of the food at the farm lost, her research, which is focused on food loss at the farm level and how to reduce it, is important to solving the problem.  For more i...

Send us Fan Mail We are back from a long break with the question: What is sustainability?  We are missing the amazing Teresa Risoli, but the show must go on.  Best of luck in all future endeavors Teresa! Sustainability is our focus for season 4.  We went to our very own NC State University students to ask how they defined sustainability in the food industry in this introductory episode.  There are...

Send us Fan Mail t's summertime!  We thought it would be a great time to rebroadcast some of our most downloaded episodes.  For this one we go all the way back to the beginning.  We hope you enjoy! Is preservative a four letter word?  We find out what preservative means to a food scientist discussing the balance of food quality with safety through preservation.  Is a compound synthesized in a...

Send us Fan Mail It's summertime!  We thought it would be a great time to rebroadcast some of our most downloaded episodes.  We hope you enjoy! One of the most frequent concerns consumers have are the chemicals in our food.  Today, we discuss the various types of chemicals and why they are present.  Some food ingredients have chemical BOGO (buy one get one free) properties, such as providing...

Send us Fan Mail It's summertime!  We thought it would be a great time to rebroadcast some of our most downloaded episodes.  We hope you enjoy! Teresa’s tomato molded, but why?  How do molds and other spoilage microbes get to your food and spoil appearance, texture, flavor?  Turns out, they are EVERYWHERE.  In this episode, we describe the sources for spoilage microbes and how to deal with th...

Send us Fan Mail The award winning nutrition educator, Dr. Sarah Ash, Professor of Nutrition at North Carolina State University, joins us on WDFS to discuss nutrition through the years and educating  30,000 (nope that's not a typo!) nutrition professionals.  Looking at nutritional history in the US sheds light on modern day nutrition practices.  Find out why moderation is the motto for Sarah!...

Send us Fan Mail Colin Kay at the Plants for Human Health Institute was a part of the team that was recently awarded a $20 million 5-year National Institutes of Health (NIH) Metabolomics and Clinical Assays Center (MCAC) award as part of the NIH Nutrition for Precision Health (NPH) initiative, within the NIH’s" All of Us" Research Program. The program aims to inform more personalized nut...

Send us Fan Mail AND NOW FOR A DOSE OF HUMILITY… Part 2! We are continuing our discussion about  stuff we don’t know about nutrition!  The USDA is constantly examining nutritional research to modify their guidelines.  For the humble nutritionist part 2, we are discussing the second set of 5 topics the USDA has under way. https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/work-under-way/view-proposed-scientific-que...

Send us Fan Mail AND NOW FOR A DOSE OF HUMILITY… Humility Contest! We are discussing stuff we don’t know about nutrition!  The USDA is constantly examining nutritional research to modify their guidelines.  For the humble nutritionist part 1, we are discussing the first 5 topics the USDA has under way. https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/work-under-way/view-proposed-scientific-questions First 5 Topic...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever thought about nutrition as a series of tiered services? There’s the basic plan which includes essential nutrients (not everyone gets this basic level, eg. Vitamin D). The basic plan takes into account which nutrients our bodies make and those that they cannot. The premium plan includes those non-essential nutrients. In reality that premium plan is something we are st...

Send us Fan Mail Vitamine to Vitamin... we THOUGHT we had it all figured out with macronutrients.  It turns out the little things are important.  How were vitamins discovered?  Where did vitamin F go?  And what’s up with so many B vitamins?  We discuss the discovery of vitamins and examine folic acid and iodine to see the type of public health effects that fortification can have. The discovery of...

Send us Fan Mail Reading ingredient labels is tough!  Today we will decipher what some of those ingredients are with respect to which macronutrient category they fit into . Got a questions for us?  Email us at wolfingdownfoodscience@gmail.com Please take a minute to help others find our podcast by leaving a rating and comment on your podcasting app! Got a questions for us?  Email us at wolfingdown...

Send us Fan Mail What do all the food labels tell us about the nutrition, health benefits, ingredients, and enjoyment of our food? How regulated is that food label? Today we talk about the nutrition label and the difference between romance language and legally regulated nutritional claims. Got a questions for us?  Email us at wolfingdownfoodscience@gmail.com Please take a minute to help others fin...

Send us Fan Mail We are back!  This season we will be discussing nutrition through the lens of food science! You know that feeling you get when someone you care about gives you a box of chocolate?   According to the paper ‘Stress Exposure, Food Intake and Emotional State’ indicates that occasional consumption of a sweet, indulgent treat can positively impact stress levels.  Valentine’s Day chocola...

Send us Fan Mail Just in time for Christmas:  Fruitcake!  When you think of fruitcake, do you think doors stop that will be around for years on end OR a delicious energy packed cake?  We walk through many versions of fruit cake and the food science that makes this wonder last so long on our shelves! Got a questions for us?  Email us at wolfingdownfoodscience@gmail.com Please take a minute to help...

Send us Fan Mail Eggnog and its Latin American counterparts, such as rompope and coquito, have been making the season bright for centuries.  Versions of the recipe date back at least to the mid-1600s.  Recipes usually consist of milk, sugar, egg yolks, spices, and rum, bourbon or other high octane alcohol.  Everyone knows what an egg is, but today we answer the question everyone (or maybe no one)...