AIFST - Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology

The Jack Kefford Award is awarded anually for the best paper published in food Australia for the previous year.

Full Conditions:

a)     The Jack Kefford Award for Best Paper is the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology Award that recognises the contribution to food science and technology of members of the Institute who publish research and technical papers.

b)     The Award is named in honour of Mr Jack Kefford who made an enormous input to the science and technology of food as Officer-in-Charge of the CSIRO Food Research Laboratory, as Assistant Chief of the CSIRO Division of Food Research, as a scientist of international repute, as President (1971-73) of AIFST, and as Technical Editor of Food Australia.

c)     The Award shall be made annually at the discretion of Council and presented at the Annual Convention.

d)     The Award shall consist of a certificate, plaque and a cash award as determined by Council.

e)     Eligibility of a paper for consideration for the Award is contingent upon it meeting the following criteria:

i)  it must have been published in Food Australia during the calendar year preceding the year of the Award;

ii) it must have been published as a research or technical paper;

iii)  at least one author must be a financial member of the Institute as at 31 December of the year in which the paper was published;

iv)   at the commencement of judging for the Award it must be compliant with the requirements of Food Australia for papers submitted for publication; and

v) it must not have been published in Food Australia as a result of the author(s) having been in receipt of the Award of Merit, the Food Industry Innovation Award or the Malcolm Bird Commemorative Award.

f)  Eligible papers shall be subject to preliminary assessment by the Technical Editor of Food Australia using a score out of 25 for each of the following criteria: originality, clarity of presentation, importance to field, and overall quality.

g)     A shortlist of the three (3) best papers shall also be considered by the President and the Chairman of the Editorial Board or their nominees.

h)     The President shall appoint a Convener who shall be responsible for tallying the scores of the four (4) panel members to determine the best paper.  The Convener shall advise the President of the outcome.

i)  In the event of two (2) or more papers receiving the same highest score, the papers shall be jointly recognised.

j)  The sole author of an outright best paper shall receive those rewards as outlined in Clause 6.5 (d).  Where only one of multiple authors is a member of the Institute, that author shall receive the cash award to be distributed among the authors at that person’s discretion.  All authors shall receive plaques and certificates.  Where two or more of the authors are members of the Institute, the cash award shall be awarded equally to those members with further distribution to other authors at their discretion.