ARS Chemist Wins Outstanding Scientist
Award By Jim
Core
February 13, 2002
BELTSVILLE, Md., Feb. 13, 2002--Research Chemist George E.
Inglett of the Agricultural Research
Service has been named an “Outstanding Senior Research Scientist of
2001" by ARS, the chief scientific research agency of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Inglett works at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization
Research’s Cereal Products and Food Science Research Unit, in Peoria,
Ill.. He is being honored for creative research and for transferring technology
that improved foods and offered greater health benefits to the people of
America and the world. “Dr. Inglett is regarded as one of the
foremost experts in food science and technology,” said Edward B. Knipling,
ARS acting administrator. “His publications and patents have had a very
substantial impact on the science and technology of value-added coproducts from
agricultural crops.”
Knipling will present a plaque to Inglett at a 1 p.m. ceremony
today at the agency’s Henry A. Wallace
Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. He and other honorees will also
receive cash awards and an additional $25,000 support for his research program.
Inglett is the Outstanding Senior Scientist of the Year for ARS’ Midwest
Area, which includes laboratories in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan,
Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Inglett has served as an ARS chemist since 1967. He has authored
or co-authored 388 publications in his career.
Inglett’s impact on food science and technology stems from
the creation of three hugely successful patented technologies--marketed under
the product names Oatrim, Z-trim and Nutrim.
He discovered and developed the fat replacer Oatrim from
enzyme-treated oats and barley and found they had unique fat-like properties.
It was formulated into many low-fat foods because it has only about 10 percent
of the calories as fat. Oatrim was being offered in the marketplace less than
two years after its development. Oatrim production was estimated to be in
excess of 20 million pounds in 1999, resulting in more than one billion dollars
in retail sales.
Next, Inglett devised a method of thermomechanical shear to
degrade common agricultural byproducts into cellulosic gels. The result was a
fat replacer called Z-trim that was pleasing to the palate without adding a
single calorie. The disclosure of the invention, dubbed “Fake Fat,”
generated great interest in 1996.
Inglett’s next discovery, a new class of natural
hydrocolloid ingredients made from oat and barley grains, resulted in the
product known as Nutrim in 1998. Its creation opened the door for functional
and healthful products in the marketplace. It contains beta glucan and is
beneficial as a substitute for saturated fats in food. It contributes to lower
total blood cholesterol levels and weight reduction, adds a beneficial insulin
and glucagon response for diabetics, and contributes antioxidant benefits.
Most recently, he created a fourth composition called Soytrim.
It contains the important biologically active components from soybeans and
oats. Inglett studied the feasibility of its use in Thailand for the Asian food
market. It was determined it could partly replace soymilk, coconut milk and
tofu as ingredients in certain foods while reducing saturated fat and
increasing soluble fiber.
Inglett was raised in Mount Vernon, Ill., and received his B.S.
in chemistry in 1949 from the University of
Illinois and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the
University of Iowa in 1952.
Among his numerous honors, the Institute of Food Technologists presented
Inglett with the Industrial Scientist Award for his pioneering research and a
Babcock-Hart Award for improving public health through nutrition research in
2000. The institute named him a Fellow in 2001. |
Printable Version
E-mail this page
