The ARS and AACC jointly sponsored the 50th annual research review conference yesterday in Wooster, Ohio in the US, where the ARS' soft wheat unit received the 'best overall' award.
Finney and Gaines, food technologists at the Agricultural Research Service's (ARS) Wooster unit in the US met yesterday with fellow researchers, chemists, millers and bakers - many of whom belong to the American Association of Cereal Chemists' Cincinnati Section.
Recently, Louise Slade and Harry Levine, food polymer scientists at Kraft Nabisco and conference attendees, adapted a test developed by Finney's father to screen for a new subclass of soft wheat that can make better crackers and flat breads.
The research unit has added this test for screening about 6,000 samples of new soft wheat lines a year.
To maintain the standards for soft wheat-screening lab tests, the Cincinnati Section has held an annual testing program, since 1985, said the ARS. The soft wheat unit received the 'Best Overall' award in recognition of its achievements.
The ARS said that yesterday's conference was a mark of the close co-operation with industry that started the year the lab opened. A series of annual conferences has continued in the current format since 1953.
The scientists bake cookies, along with performing various other laboratory quality tests. The ultimate test of wheat softness is how big a cookie spreads on the baking sheet.
The Section and the ARS jointly sponsored the 50th annual research review conference at Wooster. The conference is the main way the ARS' Wooster unit interacts with the milling and baking industry.