On an unseasonably warm winter afternoon, three women armed with baskets and shears made their way along a nature trail in the woods of Pike County, Georgia. Peering into the underbrush, they stopped occasionally to examine spots of interest in and under the trees and around fallen logs and decaying stumps. A curious observer might wonder what they were searching for with such intent — unless they overheard the trio’s conversation. 

Nestled among cappuccinos and traditional espresso lattes, a unique, golden-hued beverage has grown increasingly popular on cafe menus over the past several years. Advertised as a caffeine-free, healthy coffee alternative, “golden” turmeric milk is a take on haldi doodh — a traditional Indian beverage often used as an at-home cold remedy. Now researchers at the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences have developed a new method to make a plant-based, instant version of the beverage.

The career world is wide open for students at the University of Georgia, a life lesson third-year student Emily Harris learned as a food science major in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Harris plans to attend the UGA School of Law to pursue a degree in food regulation and law this fall, a unique path she discovered through classes in the Department of Food Science and Technology.

A new national grant program administered by the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program will pump more than $10.2 million into research to address food loss and waste in the region. Supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the SARE Community Foods Project Food Loss and Waste Training and Technical Assistance Grants Program is seeking grant proposals from applicants working in the public sector on food loss and waste prevention.

School lunches have come a long way from square pizza and fish sticks, and students across the board are benefiting from improved nutritional standards in the cafeteria. A new study from the University of Georgia found that children from all walks of life improved their diet quality when they ate school-prepared lunches following the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act nutritional guidelines instead of home-prepared lunches.

New Creation Soda Works won the grand prize at the 2024 Flavor of Georgia food contest for their product, PECHES Georgia Peach Soda. A family-owned company based in Bishop, Georgia, New Creation Soda Works started selling their soda syrups at a local farmer’s market in 2015. Today, their product line — comprised of sodas with flavors including strawberry habanero, butter pecan cream soda and the old-time root beer that inspired the company — sells in more than 700 locations nationwide.

The door to UGArden’s herb drying room leads to an olfactory explosion — sharp peppermint, earthy tulsi, sweet calendula and floral chamomile mix into an herbal perfume that would undoubtedly have tea drinkers reaching for their kettles. Now University of Georgia students will be able to get a taste of UGArden’s chamomile tea, along with a selection of the student community farm’s other herbal teas, with their campus meals as the UGArden medicinal herb program expands into UGA dining halls this spring.

Two recently published studies by University of Georgia researchers show that the consumers surveyed believe buying local is a more sustainable option, but they also value the convenience of online shopping and prefer that retailers provide basic information about the environmental impact of local products in the digital marketplace. Driven by increasing consumer interest in buying local and concerns about the impact of agricultural production systems on a changing climate, the studies were based on data from a web-based survey about consumer interest in sustainability, information about food production and online marketing preferences.

Jim Gratzek, director of the University of Georgia’s Food Product Innovation and Commercialization Center, earned his doctorate in food process engineering from UGA’s Department of Food Science and Technology. He returned to the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences in 2022 after nearly 30 years in the commercial food industry, bringing a new perspective. In his experience, the biggest hurdle for new food entrepreneurs who don’t yet have sufficient working capital or manufacturing facilities is moving a product from concept to consumer.