The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) held its Annual Meeting & Food Expo in Anaheim, California, June 5–10. More than 14,500 food scientists and other food professionals attended the show, representing a 10% increase in attendance over last year. Although the primary focus of the show is on food processing, ingredients and products, there are many technical sessions on the use of lab instrumentation in food science and safety applications. Consequently, a number of analytical instrument vendors were present at the show.

Although overall attendance was up, and the focus of the show was food technology oriented, the instruments achieving the highest throughput in the exhibit hall were clearly the attendees’ palates—many of the booths had samples to offer. The emphasis of the IFT meeting was definitely more on the food than the science. Nevertheless, the analytical vendors IBO visited with seemed generally satisfied with the show, particularly during the meeting’s first few days.

Among the new products at the show was Formulaction’s Rheolaser lab, a micro-rheometer that makes use of a novel non-contact light-scattering method to detect the motion of particles suspended in a gel or emulsion. This represents a passive method of detecting rheological properties, without applying a force to the material. Kett showed its KJT270F fiber optic NIR composition meter, a rugged online process control version of Kett’s benchtop lab system.