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55 results found for Center for Food Safety
Produce in a grocery store. CAES News
MCR Genes
Antibiotic resistance – one of the biggest threats to global health, according to the World Health Organization – occurs when germs learn how to defeat the drugs designed to kill them. The problem of resistance threatens the efficacy of antibiotics, making simple infections untreatable.
Researchers at the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences have recently found the genetic mechanism that controls the shape of tomatoes also controls the shape of potatoes and may control the shape of other fruits as well. CAES News
Making Tomatoes Safer
When vegetable farmers harvest crops, they often rely on postharvest washing to reduce any foodborne pathogens, but a new University of Georgia study shows promise in reducing these pathogens — as well as lowering labor costs — by applying sanitizers to produce while it is still in the fields.
University of Georgia bacteriologist Govind Dev Kumar joined the faculty at the Center for Food Safety on the UGA Griffin campus in Griffin, Georgia, in September of 2018. CAES News
COVID-19 Strategies
A literature review by University of Georgia researchers has helped identify the most effective antimicrobial agents for preventing the spread of COVID-19 within the food supply chain.
UGA Professor Francisco Diez, director of the UGA Center for Food Safety, and his wife, Claudia Buzo, a ServSafe consultant who trains Hispanic restaurant workers, translated the safety video scripts and recorded the video in Spanish. CAES News
Protecting Workers
As the spring harvest approached, members of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association knew they would need assistance to provide important information about COVID-19 safety measures and food handling protocols to workers who make up the majority of the seasonal agricultural workforce, many of whom are native Spanish speakers.
As an assistant professor of food virology at the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety in Griffin, Malak Esseili has been focused on studying the microbial ecology of human viral pathogens (such as human noroviruses), and now her work includes the emerging viral pathogen SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). CAES News
Coronavirus Research
When COVID-19 was identified, Malak Esseili stopped taking her children along on trips to the grocery store and she told her sisters to start wearing scarves as makeshift masks while in public. As an assistant professor of food virology at the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety in Griffin, Esseili studied the emerging viral pathogen SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19).
"Ike" Oguadinma, a graduate student on the University of Georgia Griffin campus, is one of 15 students who received the award at the SQF International Conference held last October in San Antonio, Texas. Each student received a $3,000 scholarship and an all-expense-paid trip to attend the conference with more than 850 food safety professionals. CAES News
Scholarship Selection
University of Georgia food science graduate student Ikechukwu “Ike” Oguadinma, 27, has been awarded the Food Safety Auditing Scholarship from the Food Marketing Institute Foundation in partnership with the Safe Quality Food Institute.
Researchers at the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences have recently found the genetic mechanism that controls the shape of tomatoes also controls the shape of potatoes and may control the shape of other fruits as well. CAES News
Produce Safety Grants
Three University of Georgia food scientists are among the recipients of grants awarded by the Center for Produce Safety (CPS) as part of its $2.7 million program. The grants will fund projects focused on food safety issues related to fruits and vegetables. 
University of Georgia Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus Larry Beuchat (right) and UGA Professor Francisco Diez were recognized by the International Association for Food Protection at the association’s annual meeting held July 21–24, 2019, in Louisville, Kentucky. CAES News
IAFP Honors
Two University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences food scientists have been presented awards of excellence from the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP). Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus Larry Beuchat and Professor Francisco Diez were recognized at the association’s annual meeting held July 21–24 in Louisville, Kentucky.
An increase in illnesses that trace back to wheat products has prompted scientists in the UGA Center for Food Safety to search for ways to eliminate pathogens in raw wheat without affecting the quality or taste of the staple food. In wheat-related cases, cookie dough, cake batter and raw wheat flour are common carriers of foodborne pathogens. CAES News
Wheat Outbreaks
Consumers have long been warned against the hazards of eating raw cookie dough. As more cases of foodborne illness are linked to contaminated wheat flour, University of Georgia food safety experts are touting the risk in a louder, more forceful voice, while searching for ways to eliminate foodborne pathogens on wheat products.