Plea for more food science guidance in Guidelines
Prominent food scientists, including a member of the federal Dietary Guidelines Advisory Commmittee (DGAC), reported to the IFT last week on the process underway to revise the Guidelines. Dr. Fergus Clydedale of UMass, the lone food scientist on the 2005 DGAC, and Dr. Roger Clemens of USC, the token food scientist on the 2010 DGAC, painted a bleak picture of the use of science and understanding of food technology. Clemens noted he has been relegated to food safety issues and, implied, kept at a distance from nutrition issues.
Clydesdale and Clemens addressed the IFT session on "The evolution of dietary guidance: Lessons learned and new frontiers."
Covering the session, BakingBusiness.com quoted Clydesdale saying: "A food scientist should not be regulated to just food safety on the Dietary Guidelines, and there should be more than one." The report continued:
Dr. Clydesdale said technology has helped society in many areas. He said he doubted people would like to go back to using typewriters or that teachers would like to go back to using chalkboards.
"We’re not going to go back to 78 r.p.m.s (records)," he said.
Dr. Clydesdale said he wondered why people do not embrace technology in the food system. He said he wondered why people wanted to cook the way people did 100 years ago.
The Dietary Guidelines could use input on how food science technology may help meet the Guidelines goals, Dr. Clydesdale said.
We'd prefer an evidence-based approach rather than the DGAC's current expert opinion process. Apparently so do the experts.
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