• Can emerging technologies, such as nanofluids, allow commercial food processing facilities to rely less on chemical disinfectants while maintaining an equivalent standard of food safety?
• Determining the commercial feasibility of producing safe, high quality shelf-stable and chilled extended shelf life low-acid food products (such as meats) via high pressure-temperature processing.
• Evaluate if high pressure processing has an effect on the migration rate of additives or contaminates in food contact packaging materials.
• Measure migration rates of organic and inorganic chemicals (nano-particulate clays and quantum dots) within composite packaging materials to determine the food contact risk factors of these materials.
• A multi-disciplinary project to generate the supporting data needed to establish a set of minimum process conditions that achieve a minimum 5 log reduction of Salmonella for low-moisture extruded foods.
• Validating and evaluating the performance of various microwave-based applicators designed specifically for pasteurizing shell eggs.
• Determining and analyzing the efficacy of cooling methods used in school food service operations to cool leftover foods to produce recommendations on proper cooling methods in compliance with FDA Food Code regulations.

Food Processing and Packaging Research Projects

• Determination of Inorganic Chemicals Released from Polymer-clay Nanocomposite Food Packaging
• Determination of organic and inorganic chemicals released from polymer-clay nanocomposite food packaging
• Effect of High Pressure Processing on Migration Characteristics in Flexible Packaging Materials: Part II
• Detection of Botulinum Neurotoxin Using Fret-Based Quantum Dot Sensors II
• Enhancing Legacy Technologies for Pasetuerization
• Evaluation of Coxiella burnetii and Listeria monocytogenes Inactivation in Bovine and Non-Bovine Milk Pasteurization
• Factors Affecting Arsenic levels in Juices Processed by Filter Aids
• High Pressure Processing of Frozen Pet Foods for Pathogen Inactivation
• Inactivation of Clostridium botulinum Spores Using High Pressure Processing-Part III
• Migration Database of Additives and Contaminants in Food Packaging Systems for Use in Predictive Migration Models: Part II
• A New TDT Apparatus for Measuring Bacterial Inactivation as a Function of Temperature and Humidity in Spices and Other Particulate Foods
• Testing of the Low-Tech, Low Cost Sensor for Measuring Cooler Heat Transfer Rates
• Ultraviolet Light Decontamination of Coconut Water
• Understanding Migration Nanoparticles Polymer Films Semiconductor Nanocrystals (Quantum Dots)
• Understanding the Phylogeny, Subtyping and Virulence Plasmids of Selected Clostridium botulinum Strains Using PFGE, Microarrays and Whole Genome Sequencing
• Validation of High Pressure Processing to Inactivate Isolated Salmonella spp. In Buffered Peptone Water and Frozen Chicken Blend Pet Food
• Validation of HPP to achieve reduction of Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes inoculated in various food models
• Validation of HPP to inactivate Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes and E. coli O157:H7 in juices