Those companies stock your local supermarket with applesauce, cereal, canned tuna, refrigerated luncheon meats, juice boxes, spaghetti, frozen pizza, yogurt and 30,000 other processed foods. Their methods include canning, refrigeration, freezing and aseptic manufacturing. Problems crop up in any workplace. Most problems are small in scale and risk, such as the discoloration of a bottled fruit juice. If a food processor can't come up with answers, it turns elsewhere for help.
Business depends on it.
The processors association has at least 60 scientists among its three research centers. One is at its headquarters, just two blocks from the White House. A technical assistance center in Dublin, Calif., near Oakland, doubles as home to the group's for-profit National Food Laboratory. Those scientists and the NFPA's remaining 60 to 70 staffers focus on other concerns, too, including trying to influence government policies that affect member companies. For instance, it has joined the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture on a task force studying safety measures for minimally processed fruits and vegetables.