IN MEMORIAM

Fred Billings The institute regrets the passing of Fred Billings, who was

a long-time member of the CIFST, and the CIFT before it. He also was active in a number of other professional and trade organizations, including the Chemical Institute of Canada, American Chemical Society, Canadian Animal Health Institute, the Canadian Feed Industry Association, Nutrition Society of Canada, Agricultural Institute of Can­ada, and I'Ordre des agronomes de la province de Quebec.

Fred was a recognized authority on biotin and was known for his encyclopedic knowledge of all the vitamins. He put together a two volume annotated bibliography on biotin which he updated just prior to his death. The bibliographies (published by Roche Basle) are in great demand by research­ers and libraries throughout the world.

George Laird George Laird passed away on March 14, 1980, after a

lengthy illness. Born December 12, 1916, George had resided in St. James

and Winnipeg all his life. After graduation from the Univer­sity of Manitoba with a Bachelor of Science and from the faculty of Education, he taught for one year at Kenwood and one year at Crystal City before retiring to his first love; that of Science. He joined Canada Packers and was with them for 37 years, retiring due to m health in October 1978. He held the position of Plant 'Chemist and Quality Assurance Manager.

George was a member of the Institute of Food Technolo­gists (International) and a founding member of the Win­nipeg section of the Canadian Institute of Food Scientists and Technologists (CIFST). He was also a past member of the CIC, Chemical Institute of Canada, and always keenly interested in all advancements in the field of Food Science.

NATIONAL COMMITTEE REPORT National Conference Committee

According to CIFST by-laws, this Committee is ". responsible for formulating broad policies and making recommendations to Council regarding any aspects of the plans and conduct of ... (CIFST) Conferences. It shall also receive and review the consolidated reports of the Annual Conference Chairman and use them to provide guidance for succeeding (local) Conference Committees." The Commit­tee Chairman is appointed every year by the incoming CIFST President; the Chairman in turn appoints any new

A22/Institute Affairs

Committee members replacing those whose terms (usually 3 years) expired. Normally, Committee members are appoint­ed from CIFST members who have actively participated in a CIFST Conference organization on the local Committee level. The 1979-80 Committee members are: R. Dupuis (Quebec City), P. Jelen (Edmonton; Committee Chairman), T. McEwen (Winnipeg), and D. Schroder (Halifax, now Edmonton).

The current activities of the Committee are: (I) Development of procedures for selection and evalua­

tion offuture Conference sites, with a particular empha­sis on the feasibility of holding Conferences in smaller sections;

(2) Recommendations to Council regarding the involve­ment of the CIFST Executive Director in Conference planning and operation;

(3) Updating the guidelines for local Conference organizing Committees; and

(4) Othertasks,suchasassistanceto 1981 and 1982 Confer­ence Committees.

In the past year, the Committee made two recommenda­tions to the Council. Regarding the feasibility and desirabil­ity of holding our Conference on a University campus, the recommendation was essentially negative, unless special cir­cumstances arise. The second recommendation was to create a position of a CIFST Conference Manager, to be responsi­ble to the Conference Committee (analogous to the Journal Editor-Publishing Committee relationship). The Confer­ence Manager was envisioned to be a volunteer position with responsibilities in the technical (and thus repetitive) aspects of the Conference organization, such as enforcing mailing deadlines, developing and updating mailing lists for exhibi­tors and publicity, standardization of registration proce­dures, etc. It is now anticipated that the CIFST Executive Director may assume these responsibilities.

Other areas that appear to require attention of future National Conference Committees include development of policies regarding CIFST publication rights to papers presented at our Conferences, technical conduct of paper presentations, Conference exhibits procedures, procedures regarding call for papers, etc.

OUTLOOK FOR FOOD PRICES IN 1980

P. Jelen Chairman

Editorial Note: The following article is taken from Food Market Commentary, Vol. I, No. 2, pp. 1-16, published by the Food Markets Analysis division of the Policy, Planning and Economics Branch, Agriculture Canada.

F.R.V. Acting Editor

Food is the second most important component of the Con­sumer Price Index (CPI). It has a weight of 21.5 percent in the Index while that of housing, the largest component of the CPI, is 34.0 percent. The CPI measures the percentage change through time in the cost of purchasing a constant "basket" of goods and services. It does not allow for changes in relative quantities of commodities purchased and changes in consumer tastes. A lO-percent increase in the CPI, there­fore, does not necessarily mean that the average consumer spends 10 percent more for food.

J. Inst. Can. Sei. Teehnol. Aliment. Vo!. 13. No. 3, Juillet 1980