Progress 07/01/22 to 06/30/23
Outputs
Target Audience:We have reached undergraduate and graduate students of agriculture and food science at WKU, WVU, and WSU.We also have reached to high school students in Kentucky. We have reached meat and poultry consumers, and meat and poultry vendors from the states of Kentucky, West Virginia, and Michigan. Changes/Problems:Due to the delay in setting up the subaward account by WVU-OSP, the advancement of the grant activities experienced an impact. Nevertheless, we exerted our utmost efforts to make up for the lost time. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?At WKU, we have provided training, mentoring, and financial support for two graduate students, five undergraduate students, and three high school students. The students helped in conducting literature review and in the development of the questionnaires and are currently administering them at farmers' markets. Dr. Khouryieh and Co-PI Dr. Silva conducted an eight-week summer research training in food science for two undergraduate students and three high school students (3 females and 2 males). The primary objective of the student summer research training was to foster students' research interest in the emphasis areas and to encourage students to pursue advanced degrees in agriculture and food sciences. The students had hands-on experience in conducting research and gained food science knowledge and skills while earning academic credits for their learning. Training activities included making research plans, completing supervised research experiments, data collection, statistical analysis, and contributing to conference abstracts. Dr. Khouryieh provided educational workshop about Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Point (HACCP) for small meat and poultry vendors. At WVU, Co-PD (Dr. Shen) provided training, mentoring, and financial support for one PhD student. Dr. Shen gave two remote training short courses for improving microbial safety of WV local small poultry producers using mobile poultry processing facility. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have conducted a HACCP training workshop for KY small meat and poultry vendors. Some of the research results have been disseminated at the Kentucky Academy of Science Conference in November 2022. The surveys' results will be disseminated at International Association of Food Protection and Institute of Food Technologies conferences on July 2024. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue administering the surveys at farmers markets. Once the data collection is complete, we will analyze the surveys data and disseminate the results at reginal and national conferences. We will conduct research to isolate and identify bacteriophages and test their efficacy by an electrostatic sprayer on chicken meat. We will conduct summer research training in food science for undergraduate students and high school students. We will conduct HACCP workshops targeting small farm vendors of meat and poultry. The main purpose of these workshops is to educate small meat and poultry farmers and other stakeholders on the use of food safety practices to minimize microbial food safety hazards. By participating in the workshop trainings, small meat and poultry processor, farmers' markets vendors, Extension agents, educator and other stakeholder groups in the food industry will be provided the appropriate resources and information to aid in implementing HACCP program.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
For objective one, we have created a three-credit course in food safety. The food safety course was taught by Dr. Khouryieh at Western Kentucky University (WKU) with 25 students enrolled in it. PD Drs Shen and Zhang published a second edition of food microbiology lab textbook with Publisher Springer-Nature. This lab-based textbook will not only be used as a major textbook for training undergraduate and graduate students at WKU, WVU and WSU, but also will establish a foundation for the PDs' team for further writing a new general microbiology textbook for food science and human nutrition students. Co-PD Dr. Shen will contact Springer-Nature Publisher this summer to submit this book proposal. To provide students and faculty of agriculture at WKU with suitable and modern equipment that involves them in work essential for food and agricultural sciences education and research programs, Dr. Khouryieh has purchased instructional and laboratory equipment, including a texture analyzer to evaluate the quality properties of food and food products such as meat tenderness. Dr. Khouryieh and Dr. Silva have conducted an eight week summer research experience for high school and undergraduate students at WKU. Three high school students (two males and one female) from the Gatton Academy of Science and two undergraduate students (two females) from the Department of Agriculture and Food Science at WKU were participated in the summer research training. The primary purpose of the student summer research training was to foster students' research interest in food science and to encourage students to pursue advanced degrees in agriculture and food sciences. The students gained hands-on experience and conducted food science research that engaged them in making research plans, conducting literature reviews, completing supervised research experiments, collecting and analyzing data, and contributing to conference abstracts and peer-reviewed journal manuscripts in a scientific manner. For objective 2, due to the delay in setting up the subaward account by WVU-OSP, the progress of the grant activities was affected. Mr. Corey Coe was recruited as a PhD student in Division of Animal & Nutritional Sciences at WVU and he is conducting the outreach survey work for WV Farmers Market Poultry Meat Vendors. He will conduct research to isolate and identify bacteriophages and test their efficacy by an electrostatic sprayer on chicken meat. For objective three, we have created a questionnaire to determine knowledge and food safety practices among small poultry and meat processors and vendors. The questionnaire consisted of four main sections: 1) demographic questions included the gender of the respondent, size of his/her farm, vendor profile, and types of meat and poultry grown and methods of sale, 2) questions measuring requirements and current farming practices will focus on the requirements set by meat and poultry buyers and distributors, employee training, and transportation logistics, 3) questions focus on future participation and interests, and these will probe the respondents' interest in meat and poultry workshops and other educational methods for food safety on the farm, and 4) space for small poultry and meat vendors and processors to elaborate on their perception or experience with phage technology and Food Safety Plan/Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points(HACCP), and more specifically, their perceived drivers and barriers for adoption. The survey was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of WKU and WVU. The questionnaire was pre-tested at one farmers' market in each state. The questionnaire was also distributed to selected industry professionals, extension agents, and academic faculty for review and comment.One graduate student from the Department of Agriculture and Food Science at WKU was recruited to administer the survey at Kentucky farmers markets meat and poultry vendors. One graduate student from WVU was recruited to administer the survey at WV farmers market poultry meat vendors. For objective four, we have created a questionnaire to assess consumer perceptions of locally processed meat and poultry that sold at farmers' markets. Section one of the survey focused on purchasing habits, pathogens on poultry products, and knowledge on current pathogen control strategies. Section two contained questions about perceptions of food safety risks in poultry products and consumers' attitudes toward meat and poultry products sold at farmers' markets. The last section of the questionnaire contained questions about the socio-demographic information of the respondents. The survey was approved by the IRB committee at WKU. The questionnaire was pre-tested at one farmers' market in each state. The questionnaire was also distributed to selected industry professionals, extension agents, and academic faculty for review and comment to ensure the survey is clear, fair, and informative. The feedback from the pretesting study was incorporated. One graduate from WKU was recruited to administer the survey at Kentucky farmers markets. For objective five, PD Dr. Khouryieh conducted an educational workshop about Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Point (HACCP) for small meat and poultry at WKU. Co-PD Dr. Shen gave two remote training short courses for improving microbial safety of WV local small poultry producers using mobile poultry processing facility.
Publications
- Type:
Books
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Cangliang Shen and Yifan Zhang. Food Microbiology Laboratory for the Food Science Student: A Practical Approach Second Edition. 2023. Springer. ISBN 978-3-031-26196-1.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Hanna Khouryieh. 2023. Perceptions of non-thermal food processing technologies used by the food industry. Kentucky Academy of Science Annual Meeting, November 11-12, Morehead, Kentucky.
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