The Food Engineering Hall of Fame: Through scientific research, engineering, and entrepreneurial energy, these innovators have left their mark on the food industry.
Necessity is the mother of invention, they say, and nowhere is that dictum more convincing than in the arena of food.
Many regard Nicholas Appert’s discovery of the retort process in the early 19th century as the seminal event in modern food processing history. His goal: find a method of preserving food for French soldiers during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. Today, 21st century food engineers and technologists continue to develop ways of coping with more formidable challenges – hunger, food supply, quality, packaging, foodborne illness, and a wide variety of food contaminants. Their efforts to bring an enormously wide and diverse supply of economical, good-tasting, nutritious foods to the people of the world is as important to our country as its fundamental liberties.