Engaged Graduate Student Grants
Commercial Food Spoilage
Identifying challenges and developing and communicating intervention strategies regarding fungal spoilage of processed foods in order to minimize food waste, quality loss and consumer dissatisfaction.
The spoilage of food products by microorganisms leads to food waste, quality loss and consumer dissatisfaction. Yet most research on this issue has focused on bacterial — and not fungal — food spoilage. This project attempts to close that gap by building a culture collection of food-sourced spoilage fungi and evaluating it to identify the processing and formulation conditions that contributed to the spoilage of the food products. Abigail Snyder, a graduate student in food science, is researching how critical controls should be modified to prevent fungal food spoilage. She is communicating her findings and offering training to community partners and food manufacturers at hands-on workshops and other activities organized by the Cornell Food Venture Center, and other extension programs, that provide technical assistance to entrepreneurs and developing food companies.
The Team
- Graduate student: Abigail Snyder, food science
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Special committee chair:
Randy Worobo, Department of Food Science
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
- Community partner: Several New York State small food businesses
- Cornell partner: Cornell University Food Safety Extension