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Saturday, February 04, 2012
Regional Focus: March 2009
Of Rice and Dreams
One food chemist’s whole grain quest
Story by Joanna Corman
The late William Mitchell developed foods at General Foods Corp. that are familiar to many of us: Pop Rocks, Cool Whip and quick-set Jell-O. His youngest daughter, Cheryl Mitchell, embraced her father’s love of food science. But instead of working with indulgent foods, Mitchell’s focus has been on nutrition.
Mitchell is the founder, owner and president of Creative Research Management, a bulk ingredient manufacturer in Stockton, where she is, among other things, turning whole grains into milk.
“She’s clearly one of the top innovators in the United States for new food products that are good for you,” says Sharon Shoemaker, executive director of the California Institute of Food and Agricultural Research at UC Davis. Shoemaker has known Mitchell for 15 years.
Whole grains, such as brown rice and oats, are typically found in pastas, cereals and breads. “What if you changed the form of whole grains so that you could put it in beverages, ice creams, icings, yogurts — places where you would never imagine seeing a whole grain?” Mitchell asks. “We’ve done it all, and all I did was change the form of [the] whole grain.”
At CRM, she discovered a way to separate whole grains and recombine them without creating the “pulpy mess” that cooking would create. The result, she says, is a milk that is “smooth as silk.” The milk can be ingested on its own or turned into a powder or concentrate to use in other products as a substitute for dairy milk, oil, refined sugar or lecithin, a natural emulsifier.
Besides providing ingredients to food manufacturers, Mitchell develops products and often finds another company to make them. Her ingredients can be found in more than 300 products, she says. Although the company rarely divulges the products it works on, it’s working with 6 of the top 10 major food companies, says Rick Ray, CRM’s vice president of sales and marketing.
Mitchell has devoted much of her career to working with whole grains. In the early 1980s, with Robert Nissenbaum of Imagine Foods, she co-invented Rice Dream, a milk found in supermarkets nationwide that’s made from rice. She developed the patent at her former company, California Natural Products, which she started with her then-husband, father-in-law and father. Rice Dream appealed to consumers who wanted a milk substitute that resembled dairy milk. Making it drinkable, however, meant sacrificing the fiber, protein and much of the nutrition, Mitchell says.
In 2000, she sold her share of the company to her ex-husband and started Creative Research Management where she has been working on improving the Rice Dream patent.
The food science industry traditionally focuses on isolating parts of the whole grain such as the fiber or the antioxidants, Mitchell says. But eating the entire whole grain is critical for nutrition. Whole grains contain minerals, vitamins, antioxidants, healthy oils, carbohydrates, fiber and protein.
Mitchell developed ryza, a brown rice milk that delivers a serving of whole grains with each serving. According to Mitchell, it entered the Canadian market in 2006 and the U.S. last June.
Kara Berrini, program manager for the Boston-based Whole Grains Council, says whole grains offer many health benefits, even when they’re added to foods that normally don’t have them. The council issues a whole grain stamp, which has grown in use since its debut in 2005. In July 2007, the stamp was on nearly 1,400 whole grain products. By November 2008, it was on almost 2,300 products worldwide, including some of Mitchell’s.
Mitchell uses her experience and knowledge to guide students through the industry. She has mentored UC Davis graduate students, lectured in product development classes and hired students. She’s donated at least $150,000 for research projects. Mitchell is so well-respected in her field that regulators and inspectors seek her advice. “She’s pushing the envelope” in terms of food processing, Shoemaker says.
Mitchell hopes one of her whole grain ingredients will become part of California school breakfasts and lunches later this year. Several companies are using it in a drink that contains the four food groups. The companies, which she can’t reveal, are expected to start targeting schools and supermarkets this spring. Many of these companies’ sales suffered after the Legislature passed Senate Bill 965, Mitchell says. In 2007, the law cut the amount of soda that could be sold in schools in half, completely removing it July 2009.
Mitchell says these companies are looking for a way back in and one of her whole grain ingredients, mixed into a drink, is the perfect solution.
