IFANCA in the field: Campus dining, global trade, and the next generation of food scientists

A campus dining conference, four decades at the food industry's largest trade show, a meeting with Thailand's halal authority, and a scholarship for a rising food scientist trace the same throughline: IFANCA's effort this summer to build halal food infrastructure, from campus dining halls to the global market.

Halal certification is often understood as a matter of ingredients and labels. It is also, increasingly, a matter of who gets to be represented, whether it be in a dining hall, on a trade show floor, in an international supply chain, or in the next generation of food science.

That question sat at the center of a session at this year's NACUFS Conference, where IFANCA's Director of Halal Market Development, Asma Ahad, joined Byron Williams, Vice President of Operations at Chartwells Higher Education Dining Services and Dr. Joe Regenstein of Cornell University to discuss building inclusive halal and kosher dining programs in higher education. The session covered practical strategies for dining programs that meet the religious dietary needs of Muslim and Jewish students, alongside student well-being, retention, and campus inclusion. It moved from food insecurity among Muslim students to implementation strategies, certification best practices, and institutional case studies.