Institute of Food Technologists AI policy

For applicants

• In the IFTSA and Mars Snacking Product Development Competition, AI tools may support idea generation, research, outlining, and grammar or spelling review, but should not be used to generate or substantially write the final proposal.[1]
• In that competition, generative AI used to create or modify images, illustrations, or graphics in the presentation slides must be clearly disclosed.[1]
• In the IFTSA Graduate Research Video Competition, generative AI may be used during research and planning (such as general-knowledge questions and idea development), but not to create any part of the final video, including narration, voiceover, footage, or animations.[2]

Sources

1. [1]

   The 37th Annual IFTSA and Mars Snacking Product ...

   Institute of Food Technologists

   “AI tools may be used to support idea generation, research and understanding, outlining, and grammar or spelling review. However, it should not be used to generate or substantially write the final proposal submitted for the competition. The final proposal must reflect the students' own ideas, analysis, reasoning, and writing.”

   “If generative AI is used to create visual content or modify image, illustration sor graphics used in the power point slides, it must be clearly disclosed for example “generated using XX AI tool”.”

2. [2]

   graduate-research-video-competition-rules-and-guidelines-2026-2027.pdf

   Institute of Food Technologists

   “Generative AI tools may be used during the research and planning process for purposes allowed under the IFT AI policy, such as general-knowledge questions, improving understanding of a topic, and idea development. However, it may not be used to create any part of the final video submission including narration or voiceover, video footage, animations or other generated audiovisual content.”