Purdue prof wins Food Prize

DES Moines--Philip Nelson, who went from helping out in his family's tomato canning business to revolutionize the packing and shipping of food globally, is this year's winner of the World Food Prize.

Nelson's pioneering developments in sterilizing and storage not only provided U.S. consumers with better tasting products but also made it possible to provide foods safe and economically to poor countries around the world.

Nelson, a long-time professor at Purdue University, is a giant and icon of the food world whose discoveries have made major contributions to the availability of nutritious foods worldwide, according to the World Food Prize Foundation.

Nelson's $250,000 prize was announced Monday in a ceremony at the U.S. State Department. The prize will be presented to him at the Iowa Capitol Oct. 18.

Many of Nelson's contributions would be invisible to the average consumer, but anyone who values their morning orange juice would appreciate one of his achievements: Nelson is responsible for making those cans of frozen orange juice concentrate obsolete.

He developed a process for sterilizing the juice so that it could be refrigerated for long periods of time and then sold in stores in the now-familiar, milk-type cartons.

Nelson, 72, grew up on a 500-acre tomato farm and canning operation near Morristown, Ind., and returned there after getting his bachelor's degree from Purdue.

But after his father sold he operation, Nelson turned to food science and drew on the lessons learned in the family's canning factory to work on solving the spoilage problems with processed foods.

His achievements would include perfecting heat sterilization and cooling methods for preserving vegetable and fruit products, designing valves to keep microorganisms out of storage containers and developing tanker ships for transporting orange juice around the globe.

Nelson's research also has contributing to solving food spoilage problems in India and to aid humanitarian relief projects in a variety of countries.

It's sort of like the pebble in the pond. I'm the little pebble. That ripple effect was more than I ever dreamed, Nelson said in an interview.

You see those big ships, big aseptic ships. To think that I started with a 100-gallon tank, it's amazing.

James Morris, former executive director of the United Nations' World Food Program, said in a letter supporting Nelson's nomination for the prize that his work had improved food safety while promoting the trade of fruits and vegetables from poorer to richer countries.

The latter achievement,helped millions of individuals and families around the world pull themselves out of poverty and hunger," Morris wrote.

Nelson, who has not yet retired from Purdue, is still at war against microorganisms, though the focus now is on preventing foodborne disease outbreaks rather than spoilage.

With money from the U.S. Agriculture Department, he and fellow scientists are testing the use of chlorine dioxide gas to kill pathogens on fruits and vegetables. Produce has been plagued recently by a series of disease outbreaks. He also is working with Iowa State University on methods of treating meat-slicing equipment.

The World Food Prize has been awarded since 1986 to recognize scientists and others for notable achievements in providing a nutritious and sustainable food supply.

Previous honorees have come from Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Cuba, Denmark, India, Mexico and Sierra Leone among other countries.