Goals and Objectives
Overall goal
Accelerate the adoption of a sustainable food safety culture in commodity-based low-moisture food systems via an integrated, transdisciplinary, systems-based approach, with interconnected and parallel research, extension, and education activities.
Long-term objective
Reduce foodborne illnesses and product recalls linked to low-moisture foods to improve the protection of public health and the economic health of large and small entities within the industry.
Theme 1: Human factors (health, consumers, economics and culture)
- Quantify public health and economic impacts of illnesses linked to low-moisture foods.
- Evaluate consumers’ knowledge attitudes, and behaviors related to low-moisture food safety, and develop and test intervention/extension/outreach programs and strategies.
- Conduct economic analyses examining the influence of market forces, regulatory changes and novel technologies on industry stakeholders’ food safety behaviors.
- Assess barriers to adopting a food safety culture in the low-moisture food industry, especially for small companies.
Theme 2: Pathogen behavior and control
- Characterize and model pathogen persistence, propagation, transfer, survival, and inactivation through the entire low-moisture food system, from harvest-to-consumer.
- Develop improved design standards and novel technologies for hygienic design and sanitation of low-moisture food handling and processing equipment.
- Develop engineering tools and extension resources supporting to support small companies in implementing measurement systems for critical process factors.
Theme 3: Extension and education
- Develop and evaluate multi-level extension/outreach programs and resources spanning the cultural, technical, scientific, regulatory, and economic domains for industry personnel.
- Develop, implement, and assess formal educational courses in low-moisture food safety systems at the associate-degree (workforce) and graduate (scientific/technical) levels, and involve young professionals in project workshops to expand knowledge and networks.
- Develop and test decision-support tools to enhance industry adoption of optimal food safety interventions at multiple points in the low-moisture food system.
Theme 4: Integrated risk and sustainability analyses
- Conduct risk analyses that uniquely integrate and link quantitative measures for probability of illnesses, communication efficacy, and management impacts for low-moisture food systems.
- Conduct sustainability analyses of current and alternative/novel food safety interventions at multiple points in the low-moisture food system.