Research

In our 178,000-sq-ft Food Innovation Center—labs, pilot plants, sensory spaces, and classrooms. The home base for FST, FARRP, and the Food Processing Center

Melanie Simpson, along with Paul Black, will direct the initiative.
Nebraska Innovation Campus
Dietary Bioactive Agents and Functional Foods

Faculty in this emphasis area work toward reducing the prevalence of preventable, diet-related disease through the development of “healthy foods”, with an emphasis on Nebraska commodities.

Food Allergens

Food allergy research and The Food Allergy Research and Resource Program (FARRP) concentrate on identifying potential food allergy dangers and ways in which those dangers can be minimized. 

Food Preservation & Transformation

Food Processing and Transformation research includes intoxin removal, preservation, easing marketing and distribution tasks, and increasing food consistency. In addition, it increases the availability of many foods, enables transportation of delicate perishable foods across long distances and makes many kinds of foods safe to eat by reducing spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms.

Food Safety

The Department of Food Science and Technology’s Food Safety Team employs hyperspectral imaging, predictive microbiology and quantitative risk assessment, develops and evaluates the efficacy of intervention technologies to mitigate the risk of biological and chemical foodborne hazards, develops rapid detection methods and researches fungal interactions with plants and the gastrointestinal tract.

Amanda Ramer-Tait (center) looks over samples with graduate students Rafael Segura (left) and Hatem Kittana in the Food Innovation Center lab.
UNL's Andrew Benson (from left) discusses cultures with Shannon Rezac and Melanie Heerman. Benson teaches a food microbiology laboratory course in the Food Innovation Center at Nebraska Innovation Campus. The class works with identifying classes of salmonella on raw food.
Biocomputing and Data Science

Our Biocomputing researchers examine the gut biome and how diet can affect it and the overall health of individuals.

Diet, Microbiome, and Host Interactions in Human Health

Our bioactives research investigates the ways in which compounds can be beneficial to human health.