The UW-Madison Food Science Department looks at food through three main categories.
Microbiology which includes food safety, how food is processed and packaged.
Chemistry which involves things like food colors and flavors.
Then there’s engineering which focuses on food structure.
“Mozzarella cheese, for instance, it has to melt, it has to stretch, has to shred, all these different things that cheese has to do, and that's a function of the structure at the molecular basis,” said Scott Rankin, he’s a professor and chair of the food science department.
He’s focus has been on dairy products.
“I, as an undergraduate, was hired to work with another professor who did work in dairy and I came to understand how complex dairy foods were. That became very intriguing to me,” said Rankin. “So one thing led to another, I just kind of stayed in that groove.”
Rankin says food science is not what people would consider classical nutrition, they’re not registered dietitians.
Food science is focused on how the process food goes through from the field to the supermarket.
There’s a big safety factor to it, making sure food is being manufactured in a way that follows standards and is for people to eat.
It also becomes more important as people have fewer options to get groceries or can’t make it to the store often.
“We go to Costco once a week or something like that, and we want that food to have a reasonable shelf life, whether it's milk or bread or vegetables and meats and so forth,” said Rankin. “How do you do that? Well, you food science, right? You apply the principles of food science.”
Rankin will be talking about the food science that goes into ice cream at this week’s Science on Tap Minocqua. He’ll even bring some ice cream for people to enjoy.
Rankin says ice cream is a classic comfort food in our society, which may lead people to think its completely unhealthy.
But Rankin has a different perspective.
“Ice cream has a role in helping us feel better, you know, and be happier and enjoy life and it touches on a lot of thing,” said Rankin. “It has a lot of calories, but also it has a lot of, surprisingly, it has a lot of protein, has a lot of calcium in it, because that standard of identity calls for the milk fraction to be really concentrated.”
Science on Tap is Thursday, December 4th starting at 6:30 p.m. at Rocky Reef Brewing Company.
You can also stream it online.
