10/01/1998

Food Safety - Environmental Safety Focus of AU Grants

AUBURN, Ala. - Teamwork has paid off for two groups of Auburn University researchers with the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station (AAES) who have been awarded more than $500,000 to study food safety and environmental quality issues.

One team received $250,000 to develop treatments for reducing or eliminating parasites and bacteria in the processing of fresh fruits and vegetables. It will study such things as the quality of water used for washing produce and the use of irradiation to reduce pathogens. An extremely important aspect of this research will be determining how treatments affect the quality of the produce.

Faculty participating in this research include Donald Conner, Dept. of Poultry Science; Floyd Woods, Dept. of Horticulture; Christine Sundermann, Dept. of Zoology and Wildlife Sciences; and Jean Weese and Cheng-i Wei, Dept. of Nutrition and Food Science.

A second team received $280,000 to study safe and economical methods for disposing of dead poultry carcasses–a major economical and environmental problem for the industry. These scientists will determine if dead birds can be economically processed into a nutritious and biologically safe poultry feed ingredient.

Some of the grant funds will be used to purchase equipment that will allow the scientists to quickly identify bacteria and determine if the type of bacteria found in the feed product is the same as that found in bird carcasses. Researchers include Robert Norton, John Blake, Joseph Hess, and Donald Conner, all of the Dept. of Poultry Science, and Eugene Simpson, Dept. of Agricultural Economics.

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News from:

Office of Ag Communications & Marketing

Auburn University College of Agriculture
Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station
3 Comer Hall, Auburn University
Auburn, AL 36849
334-844-4877 (PHONE) 334-844-5892 (FAX)

Contact Jamie Creamer, 334-844-2783 or jcreamer@auburn.edu
Contact Leigh Hinton, 334-844-5887 or hintola@auburn.edu

10/01/98