Miloslav (Miloš) Kaláb, Ph.D., was a full-time Principal Research Scientist at the Centre for Food and Animal Research, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Ottawa until August 1995. After his retirement, he continued - part time - to do electron microscopy studies of foods and foodborne microorganisms at the Food Research Program in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, while he stayed in the Ottawa laboratory.

As a native (1929) of former Czechoslovakia, Miloš obtained his B.Eng. and M.Eng. degrees in chemical engineering at technical universities in Brno and Bratislava, respectively, and his Ph.D. degree in chemistry at the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. Before he came to Canada as a National Research Council post-doctorate fellow in 1966, he had already gained practical experience as a sugar factory chemist, research chemist at a food refrigeration research institute, research scientist in the area of waste water purification at the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, associate professor at the Faculty of Medicine at Palacký University in Olomouc, and associate professor and chairman of the Department of Organic and Biological Chemistry at the same university in Czechoslovakia. Following the invasion of his native country by the Warsaw Treaty armies in 1968 while he and his family were still in Ottawa, he joined the then Food Research Institute at Agriculture Canada and has settled in the city.

He has specialized in electron microscopy of foods, particularly milk products, and expanded his interest from heat-induced milk gels to other dairy products, particularly yogurt and cheese. The American Dairy Science Association awarded him with the 1982 Pfizer Award for his contribution to dairy research. Together with 3 American scientists, Dr. S. H. Cohen, Dr. Eugenia Davis, and Dr. D. N. Holcomb, Miloš established a new scientific journal, Food Microstructure (later renamed Food Structure) published from 1982 by Scanning Microscopy International (Dr. Om Johari) in Chicago, IL, USA, and then he served as the Editor-in-Chief until 1994 when the publisher discontinued the journal.

With the other editors of Food Structure, Miloš co-organized international meetings of food microscopists for many years. In 1986 he served at the National Dairy Research Institute in Karnal, Haryana, India, as a United Nations Organization consultant, with the objective of extending there the use of electron microscopy in dairy research. In 1989, he obtained a scholarship from the government of Japan to share his expertise in food structure studies with Japanese scientists at the National Food Research Institute in Tsukuba. Later he enjoyed his work as a visiting scientist at the Department of Food Science, Utah State University in Logan.

Dr. Kaláb has published over 140 scientific and technical papers, 3 book chapters on electron microscopy of foods and cheese, 1 encyclopedia chapter on the microstructure of foods, and co-authored a book chapter on processed cheese.

For several years, he used to maintain many websites. The starting point is entitled "Foods under the microscope" at http://www.magma.ca/~scimat/, where all updates are announced. The greatest volume of information was on the server of the Department of Food Engineering at the University of Lund in Sweden which, thanks to Dr. Petr Dejmek, had generously provided Miloš for many years with space on the university server. Those websites were discontinued in 2006. He has been gradually relocating some of the more useful websites, particularly those showing electron micrographs of food-borne microorganisms.

Some of his most recent findings may be found at the website entitled Talking about Electron Microscopy of Foods with Miloš Kaláb. As of 2006, Miloš is an Honorary Research Associate at ECORC, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Ottawa, Ontario.

Miloš considers the following publications of particular interest to students of electron microscopy in food structure research. Reprints of several scientific publications on paper are still available to researchers free of charge. However, since Miloš retired in 1995, the reprints are becoming quickly depleted. Some of them are available in PDF format. He may be reached in the laboratory at Milos.Kalab@agr.gc.ca.

1. Kaláb M: Practical aspects of electron microscopy in cheese research. In: Chemistry of Structure-Function Relationships in Cheese. Malin, E. L., Tunick, M. H. editors, Plenum Press, New York, 247-276 (1995).
2. Kaláb, M., Allan-Wojtas, P., Miller, S. S.: 1995. Microscopy and other imaging techniques in food structure analysis. Trends in Food Science & Technology 6, 6:177-186 (1995).
3. Kaláb M: Practical aspects of electron microscopy in dairy research. Food Struct. 12(1) 95-114 (1993).
4. Caric M, Kaláb M: Processed cheese products. In: Cheese: Chemistry, Physics and Microbiology. Volume 2. Major Cheese Groups. 2nd ed., P. F. Fox (ed.), Chapman & Hall, London, UK, 467-505 (1993).
5. Kaláb M: Food structure and milk products. In: Encyclopedia of Food Science and Technology. Y. H. Hui (ed.), Wiley Interscience, New York, 1170-1196 (1992).
6. Kaláb M, Caric M, Milanovic S: Composition and structure of demineralized spray-dried milk permeate powder. Food Struct. 10(4), 327-332 (1991)
7. Kaláb M, Modler HW, Caric M, Milanovic S: Structure, meltability, and firmness of process cheese containing White cheese. Food Struct. 10(3), 193-201 (1991).
8. Kaláb M: Microparticulate protein in foods. J. Am. Coll. Nutr. 9(4), 374-387 (1990).
9. Kaláb M, Caric M: Food microstructure - evaluation of interactions of milk components in food systems. Proc. XXIII Internatl. Dairy Congress, Montreal, Vol. 2, 1457-1480 (1990).
10. Veliky IA, Kaláb M: Encapsulation of viscous high-fat foods in calcium alginate gel tubes at ambient temperature. Food Struct. 9(2), 151-154 (1990).
11. Modler HW, Yiu SH, Bőllinger UK, Kaláb M: Grittiness in a pasteurized cheese spread: A microscopic study. Food Microstruc. 8(2), 201-210 (1989).
12. Gavaric DDj, Caric M, Kaláb M: Effect of protein concentration in ultrafiltration milk retentates and the type of protease used for the coagulation on the microstructure of resulting gels. Food Microstruc. 8(1), 53-66 (1989).
13. Kaláb M, Caric M, Zaher M, Harwalkar VR: Composition and some properties of spray-dried retentates obtained by the ultrafiltration of milk. Food Microstruc. 8(2), 225-233 (1989).
14. Tamime AY, Kaláb M, Davies G: Rheology and microstructure of strained yoghurt (Labneh) made from cow's milk by three different methods. Food Microstruc. 8(1), 125-135 (1989).
15. Kaláb M, Gupta SK, Desai HK, Patil GR: Development of microstructure in raw, fried, and fried and cooked paneer made from buffalo, cow, and mixed milks. Food Microstruc. 7(1), 83-91 (1988).
16. Harwalkar VR, Kaláb M: The role of b-lactoglobulin in the development of the core-and-lining structure of casein micelles in acid-heat-induced milk gels. Food Microstruc. 7(2), 173-179 (1988).
17. Kaláb M: Encapsulation of viscous foods in agar gel tubes for electron microscopy. Food Microstruc. 7(2), 213-214 (1988).
18. Kaláb M, Yun J, Yiu SH: Textural properties and microstructure of process cheese food rework. Food Microstruc. 6(2), 181-192 (1987).
19. Caric M, Kaláb M: Effect of drying techniques on milk powders quality and microstructure: A review. Food Microstruc. 6(2), 171-180, (1987).
20. Kaláb M, Palo V.: Development of microstructure in Olomouc cheese cakes: Electron microscopic study. Milchwissenschaft 42(4), 207-211 (1987).
21. Harwalkar VR, Kaláb M: Relationship between microstructure and susceptibility to syneresis in yoghurt made from reconstituted nonfat dry milk. Food Microstruc. 5(2), 287-294, (1986).
22. Caric M, Gantar M, Kaláb M: Effects of emulsifying agents on the microstructure and other characteristics of process cheese - A review. Food Microstruc. 4(2), 297-312, (1985).
23. Harwalkar VR, Kaláb M: Thermal denaturation and aggregation of b-lactoglobulin in solution. Electron microscopic study. Milchwissenschaft 40(2), 65-68 (1985).
24. Kaláb M, Modler HW: Milk gel structure. XV. Electron microscopy of whey protein-based Cream cheese spread. Milchwissenschaft 40(4), 193-196 (1985).
25. Kaláb M, Modler HW: Development of microstructure in a Cream cheese based on Queso Blanco cheese. Food Microstru. 4(1), 89-98 (1985).
26. Kaláb M, Allan-Wojtas P, Phipps-Todd BE: Development of microstructure in set-style nonfat yoghurt - A review. Food Microstru. 2(1), 51-66 (1983).
27. Modler HW, Kaláb M: Microstructure of yogurt stabilized with milk proteins. Journal of Dairy Science 66, 430-437 (1983).
28. Kaláb M: Electron microscopy of foods. In: Physical Properties of Foods, M. Peleg and E.B. Bagley (eds.), AVI Publishing Co., Inc., Westport, Connecticut, USA, 43-104 (1982).
29. Kaláb M, Lowrie RJ, Nichols D: Detection of curd granule and milled curd junctions in Cheddar cheese. Journal of Dairy Science 65, 1117-11221 (1982).
30. Lowrie RJ, Kaláb M, Nichols D: Curd granule and milled curd junction patterns in Cheddar cheese made by traditional and mechanized processes. Journal of Dairy Science 65, 1122-1129 (1982).

E-mail:
scimat@magma.ca