Engineering for Food Safety and Quality

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: With an increasing demand for fresh-like, healthy, nutritious and safe food, the US food processing industry is challenged constantly. Furthermore, emerging new pathogenic microorganisms that are tolerant to conventional treatment methods create a demand for improved and new novel food process development. The industry must constantly redefine technology to assure food wholesomeness. Thus, new and existing process technologies must rise to the challenge and play a pivotal role in improving the quality of value-added food products. Without extensive research, it would be difficult for the industry to meet these demands. In addition to achieving global competence the US food industry requires the scientific knowledge, and well prepared personnel with appropriate skills, and constant dialog between academic research developments and industry needs. Collaboration among engineers, food scientists and other experts across the nation can effectively address these needs of the industry by advancing technologies through research, preparing our future work force through educating the students, and bridging the gap between research and implementation through outreach. The stakeholders impacted by this project include the food industry, federal regulatory agencies, and consumers. The expected outcomes of our research will include developing novel processing technologies with optimum process conditions, developing relevant mathematical models describing various food process operations, creating new learning modules to teach food process engineering to food science and food engineering students, developing web-site (wiki) with mathematical modeling approaches for use in the industry and develop standard food property evaluation methods to ensure consistency in research and development. We will share various developed technologies and science behind these technologies with food industry stakeholders, provide new teaching strategies/learning modules to teach food engineering (lecture materials, case studies, simulations, homework/in-class assignments). As a result of these studies, we expect that more people will be certified in better processing methods. The increased knowledge and expertise of government employees, inspectors, and trainers is vital to produce safe food for the US consumer and maintain competitiveness in overseas markets.

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APPROACH: Food microstructure is increasingly recognized as a major influence in determining physical properties and behavior of foods. Food Materials Science is an emerging field where the theory and practice of classical materials science is being applied to food systems. The study of foods as polymeric and composite materials is expected to yield a wealth of knowledge and insight into food systems behavior. We will specifically address the following question. Is the technology providing significant quality benefits over traditional processing during extended storage Information on efficacy of the various technologies in preserving food quality attributes such as texture, color, and flavor are needed. These quality attributes will be measured for selected foods. The impact of processing in degradation of various nutrients and enzymes needs to be documented. Additional molecular level studies will be conducted to understand the impact of the processing treatments on food structure and quality. Modeling of the biochemical and physical transformations in foods can significantly speed-up the development of novel, high-quality products and processes. Modeling is also a mechanism to evaluate consequences of unintended microbial or chemical contamination, as well as sabotage. We will use mathematical modeling to provide insight into processes that are critical for developing new ones, which is often not possible through experiments alone. We will share teaching materials with the lead station in the appropriate areas. The materials will be compiled to create a common format or template. We will collaboratively develop new materials. We will implement new and/or existing teaching strategies/learning modules (modules could include lecture materials, case studies, simulations, and homework/in-class assignments). We will develop assessment methods to measure the effectiveness of new and/or current teaching approaches and learning modules and their impact on learning outcomes. The following list shows the proposed main areas of outreach, including collaborative endeavors. We will share information, and presentations with other collaborating stations of this multistate project. Workshops (1-5 days; topics such as food safety, introduction to food science, community/home food preservation for canning and freezing, nutraceuticals, food processing, etc.). Presentations to industry, community stakeholders, and extension agents on emerging and innovative processes.