CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE : Food Center to Do Fat Research
A nutrition and dietetic center under construction at Cal State Northridge will be the headquarters for research into a Japanese fat substitute known as Konjac.
The center is called the Marilyn Magaram Center for Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics in memory of a former CSUN home economics department faculty member who died in a river-rafting accident in 1989. Her husband, Philip Magaram, was instrumental in securing a $400,000 grant from the Joseph Drown Foundation to build the center. He also contributed $100,000 in his wife’s memory to be matched by public and private donations.
Scheduled to be dedicated by the end of June, the center will include a food science lab equipped with industrial, commercial and residential kitchens; a lab with an advanced computer system to conduct market research on new products, and a food chemistry and nutrition lab with state-of-the-art equipment for teaching food composition.
The center, one of the only facilities of its kind in Southern California, is scheduled to be completed in March, said Tung-Shan Chen, center director and supervisor of the Konjac research.
Chen said the staff and students will examine food and its effect on people of all ages, the physical changes food undergoes in processing and preservation, and the behavioral aspects of food consumption. The center will be self-supporting through donations, grants and contracts from public and private organizations, Chen said.
Terri Lisagor, CSUN home economics professor, is heading the Konjac research project for a Japanese food company. She said she will try to determine how to use the plant root, which resembles a giant potato, in favorite American foods such as hamburger, chocolate chip cookies and other dishes. Konjac, which is grown in Korea, China, Taiwan and Japan, has no calories and can be made into a block of gel-like tofu-and shredded or cubed.
As a fat substitute, Konjac can be used to eliminate oil and fat and increase fiber content, Lisagor said.
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