CSU Animal Science - Animal Sciences’ Role in the Food Safety Cluster

Animal Sciences’ Role in the Food Safety Cluster

The Department of Animal Sciences is playing a major role in the Food Safety Cluster, a subgroup of the Infectious Disease Supercluster at Colorado State University.

The Food Safety Cluster consists of a multidisciplinary group of scientists who address national and global food safety issues through basic, fundamental and applied research, technology development and transfer, as well as with outreach education activities directed toward the industry, regulatory and public health agencies, and consumers.

Food safety is a dynamic and challenging issue, which requires generations of new information and continuous re-evaluation of existing knowledge in order to counter newly developed, perceived or recognized threats or risks, and to develop effective and economic means for their control, without adverse effects on product quality. Important food safety concerns include illness from pathogenic microorganisms including zoonotic animal pathogens, chemical contaminants, naturally occurring toxicants, and food additives. The increasing complexity of food production, processing and distribution systems, as well as the continuous development of new products in response to consumer concerns and their demands for convenience in food preparation, offer challenges for producers, processors, distributors, retailers, researchers, regulators and public health authorities to ensure exemplary food product safety and quality at a reasonable cost. Assuring that consumers worldwide have access to a dependable supply of safe and high quality food products is the mission of the Food Safety Cluster.

Major research goals, priorities and capabilities of the Food Safety Cluster are to:

Study the behavior of pathogenic bacteria (e.g., Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella and Campylobacter) in foods;
Reduce the incidence of foodborne illness by developing procedures, techniques, and effective interventions for pathogen reduction and control throughout the food chain;
Study the molecular ecology and transmission dynamics of human foodborne pathogens;
Probe the molecular pathogenesis of human foodborne diseases;
Develop techniques and biosensors for rapid detection of foodborne pathogens;
Develop and improve methodology for detection of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) specified risk material in animal products;
Develop animal identification and traceability systems for prevention/control of spread of foreign animal diseases, foodborne pathogen incidents/outbreaks and agricultural/food bioterrorism;
Evaluate international trade regulations and develop science-rooted strategies to enhance exports of high quality, nutritious and safe food products;
Outreach education activities for industry, regulatory and public health agencies, and consumers to assure that consumers worldwide have access to a dependable supply of safe and high quality food products.

Check out these Web pages for more information on the Food Safety Cluster and other Superclusters at Colorado State:
http://ansci.colostate.edu
www.listeriacentral.org
www.csumeats.com
www.superclusters.colostate.edu

Last Updated ( Friday, 28 March 2008 )

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