It is with sadness that we share the passing of Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology Past President and long-term member Dr. Jim Smith in December, 2021.

Jim was very active with CIFST.  He served two terms as President, led a Governance restructuring, and together with other members from the Atlantic region oversaw the planning and delivery of CIFST’s 2008 conference, which was held in Charlottetown. He was elected a Fellow of CIFST in 2011.

Jim had recently retired from his position in October at BioFoodTech, providing professional technical services to food and bioprocessing companies. Jim was an integral part of BioFoodTech since its inception, joining the former PEI Food Technology Centre (FTC) in 1988. He successfully succeeded to the helm of BioFoodTech as our Executive Director in 2003 and led the transition of FTC into its expanded role as BioFoodTech incorporating bioscience technology into our mandate. Jim was active nationally and internationally, building collaborations and connections with significant organizations including FoodTech Canada, Innoventures Canada and Canadian Food Innovators (CFI).  As a member of CFI, he was instrumental in the organization being awarded $30 million from the Government of Canada that resulted in the launch of the Canadian Food Innovation Network (cfin-rcia.ca) in August of this year. He has been a member of the Joint United Nations/World Health Organization Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives since 2003, owing to his expertise in this area.  He was a member of the US Institute of Food Technology International Food Science Certification Commission from 2013-15.

Jim’s long-term commitment and dedication to BioFoodTech and CIFST is gratefully recognized. His contributions to the organization and to the food and bioscience community will always be valued. Jim will be missed by many in industry, government and partner organizations.