Guelph Professor Wins Top Canadian Research Award

Leading expert in the physical properties of fats and oils

Ottawa, Ontario, March 5, 2002 – Alejandro Marangoni's highly successful decade-long professional research career has been inspired by one seemingly simple kitchen conundrum: how to make butter spreadable at refrigerator temperature.

The question has led the University of Guelph food scientist to fundamental new insights into the physical properties of fats and oils, and made him a sought-after expert by the who's who of multinational food companies. It's world-leading research for which Dr. Marangoni is being awarded a 2002 Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Steacie Fellowship – one of Canada's premier science and engineering prizes.

The award is one of six announced today by Maurizio Bevilacqua, the Secretary of State for Science, Research and Development, on behalf of Allan Rock, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for NSERC, and by Dr. Tom Brzustowski, President of NSERC.

"These winners will help Canada become one of the top five countries in the world for research and development - attracting and retaining the best and brightest minds," said Minister Rock. "This is an important part of making Canada more innovative and competitive in the global economy."

"NSERC Steacie Fellowships are awarded to Canada's most outstanding researchers," said Secretary of State Bevilacqua. "The winners continue to make a mark for themselves and for Canada on the international research scene. The NSERC Steacie will give them the opportunity and resources to develop their ideas to a new level of excellence."

In 1992, Dr. Marangoni, then a newly appointed professor, was trying to create spreadable butter in his lab. And in short order he did, by randomly changing the positions of the fatty acids that make up the milk fat in butter.

What he found most intriguing, however, was that although the randomized butter didn't quite taste like butter, it was soft at refrigerator temperature and all its key physical indicators – including melting point, solids content and crystal structure – were identical to the original butter.

"There was no explanation in the fats and oils field as to why this should be so," Dr. Marangoni says.

Dr. Marangoni began to explore what at the time was a food chemist's no-man's land: the intermediate level of structural organization between the molecular-level characteristics of fats and oils and their physical qualities as observed at the butter dish level.

In so doing, the researcher helped establish a new area of study into the so-called micro- or nano-scale structure of not just fats and oils, but other foods as well.

Dr. Marangoni demonstrated that exactly the same fat crystal structure can result in substantially different textures of, for example, butter, depending on the shape and size of the conglomerates they form and how these crystals are arranged in space – their crystal network.

His research has subsequently focused on how mixing and cooling rates affect the fat crystal networks that form. His Steacie-sponsored research will continue to quantify the relationship between food's texture and its fat crystal network, and particularly how mixing a liquid predetermines the structure of the subsequent solid.

The results will allow food processors to better predict the characteristics of their finished products.

"Whatever we do (in my lab) must somehow, sooner or later, have an application," says Dr. Marangoni. Originally from Ecuador, he notes that his work is influenced by the experience of coming from a poor country, where there is little room for basic science that doesn't produce tangible, marketable benefits.

"The science is sometimes the easy part," says Dr. Marangoni. "Take that spreadable butter, for example. It's nice and soft, but it tastes like fruit punch."

Dr. Alejandro Marangoni holds the Canada Research Chair in Food and Soft Materials Science at the University of Guelph.

Contacts:

Dr. Alejandro Marangoni, (519) 824-4120, ext. 3081, amarango@uoguelph.ca.

Arnet Sheppard, NSERC, (613) 995-5997, axs@nserc.ca.

The Prize

NSERC Steacie Fellowships are awarded to the most outstanding Canadian university scientists or engineers who have earned their doctorate within the last twelve years. Nominations are received by NSERC from universities across Canada and judged by a distinguished panel of independent experts. The award includes a payment to the University of Guelph towards Dr. Marangoni's salary, and increased research funding from NSERC, freeing him to pursue his research full-time. In addition, for the first time this year, the winning Steacie Fellows have been invited to compete for a special Canada Foundation for Innovation Career Award. The announcement of these awards will be made later.

The five other award winners this year are:

Canada's Innovation Strategy

On February 12, 2002, the Government of Canada launched Canada's Innovation Strategy, two papers that lay out a plan to address skills and innovation challenges for the next decade. The paper released by Minister Rock was entitled Achieving Excellence: Investing in People, Knowledge and Opportunity. It proposes goals, targets and priorities for Canada over the next decade to: create knowledge and bring ideas to market more quickly; ensure a skilled workforce in the new economy; modernize business and regulatory policies while protecting the public interest; and strengthen communities by supporting innovation at the local level. Today's announcement supports this strategy.

For more information about Canada's Innovation Strategy or to obtain a copy of either Knowledge Matters: Skills and Learning for Canadians or Achieving Excellence: Investing in People, Knowledge and Opportunity, please call 1-800-CANADA (1-800-622-6232) or visit www.innovationstrategy.gc.ca.