Since the beginning of my career, I have been a professor in the Research Laboratories in Sciences Applied to Food and a researcher at the Canadian Irradiation Center, a unique center for excellence in the world to collaborate with the food industry in developing new technologies, ensuring safe production methods, improving food preservation time, and in improving new high-quality products. I am also working on combined irradiation treatments to improve food safety, while protecting nutritional value and reducing nutritional loss. I was involved in the development of four new technologies: 1) a new patented method of inducing "cross-linking" of milk proteins through gamma radiation, which produces a sterile, biodegradable, water-resistant packaging material, with excellent mechanical properties; 2) an edible food coating used commercially to prolong the shelf life and restrict the passage of water between the constituents of prepared food; 3) a new patented irradiation process, which combines active natural compounds (spice extracts) with irradiation treatment, aimed at reducing the irradiation doses required to eliminate bacterial contamination in ground meat and chicken and protecting the sensorial quality of the product; and 4) a new patented cross-link method for edible coatings, granules, or packaging films used for encapsulation of probiotic bacteria, polyphenolic compounds, vitamins, and minerals. This cross-link method allows a controlled release of the active compounds to the foodstuff ensuring a longer period of efficacy, the protection of the bioactivities of compounds (e.g., antioxidant properties) and the protection of the viability of probiotic bacteria. Finally I am also involved in the development of nutraceutical products, including the evaluation of the antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of secondary metabolites of plants such as the polyphenols of berries or by-products of maple syrup, and the evaluation of the efficacy of probiotic bacteria to eliminate pathogenic bacteria and stimulate the immune system. Two novel bacteriocin-producing bacterial strains have been recently isolated with promising important commercial application.

Worldwide alimentary self-sufficiency and security are the main objectives to reach in order to protect human health, reduce alimentary losses/waste, and suppress hunger and malnutrition. In spite of the development of food technologies to avoid contamination, the food loss is still high. Moreover, society has to cope with diseases resulting from the development of pathogenic microorganisms, parasites, and viruses that may be found naturally in foods and also by the production of toxic substances, such as verotoxin-producing bacteria and aflatoxin produced by moulds. Microbial contamination is responsible for a variety of alimentary diseases such as toxoplasmosis, salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis, listeriosis, trichinellosis, cholera, and many more. Food-borne infections are estimated to affect 25% of the American population each year. According to the United Nations, more than 30% of the mortality rate worldwide is caused by alimentary diseases. New methods such as food irradiation treatment, natural antimicrobial compounds, and the addition of probiotics and their bacteriocins to foods are needed to prevent the associated diseases. Due to an outbreak of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, it becomes urgent to develop natural antibiotics with a specific antimicrobial spectrum. A major healthcare trend in the last decade has also been the increased use of complementary and alternative medicine and nutritional supplements such as lactic acid bacteria and natural antioxidants (free radical scavengers). Oxidative stress by free radicals is an important event in the cell that can cause aging and human degenerative diseases including, cancer, heart diseases, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, autoimmune disease, and senile dementia. Polyphenols from plants, fruits, and vegetables having high antioxidant activities are attractive to the food industry, prompting their use as replacements for synthetic antioxidants and also as nutraceuticals, playing a role in preventing many diseases. We work precisely with these compounds and we’re able to protect them with our polymeric matrixes, in order to optimize their functionality and obtain a high level of activity.

For the next 10 years, our work will be developed and applied as major driving forces using bioactive compounds alone or in combination with emerging technologies like irradiation and compatible biopolymers to respond in a healthy way to the increasing consumer demand for: minimally processed foods, changes in retail and distribution associated with worldwide markets, new products logistics, new distribution trends (via the Internet), automatic handling systems (in grocery stores), and stricter governmental requirements to reduce food-borne disease and to assure world-wide alimentary self-sufficiency and security. Consequently, a new approach in food packaging regulations will be more and more needed in the future. Although rather limited because of the legal status on additives, the current applications of bioactive food packaging are promising, with major potential applications for meat, fish, poultry, bakery goods, cheese, fruits, and vegetables.

Realize your dreams and always focus on them. Always read the literature with a critical eye: an experimental work could be designed in different ways that have an influence on the interpretation of results. Never be influenced by outside controversy or opinion. Never be discouraged by a challenge or unexpected results; be a hard worker. Realize also that it is not necessary to work in a well-recognized institute in your field or to use the most sophisticated new technologies or equipment to have an impact in science.