By Maggie Neer, FAPC Communications Assistant

(Stillwater, Okla. – Feb. 26, 2016) Oklahoma State University’s Robert M. Kerr Food & Agricultural Products Center held its FAPC Research Symposium highlighting food and agricultural products research conducted by FAPC and other researchers.

The 16th annual event, sponsored by the Institute of Food Technologists-Oklahoma section and DuPont Nutrition and Health, drew the largest crowd to date with 130 research enthusiasts, industry representatives and students gathering in FAPC on Feb. 16 for a day filled with oral and poster presentations, a keynote speaker and lunch with the keynote.

“As part of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, we feel it is important to provide an opportunity for students to make presentations of their work and for researchers to network with others in the food and agricultural field and possibly foster future collaborations among colleagues,” said Peter Muriana, FAPC food microbiologist and chair of the symposium.

This year’s symposium included six oral presentations and 16 poster presentations with student awards presented in both categories. The top student winners were Justin Brooks and Kendra Wills in the oral and poster presentations, respectively.

Additional winners were Chris Timmons, second place, and Blanchefort Djimsa, third place, in the oral category and Joyjit Saha, second place, and Manish Aryal, third place, in the poster category.

The IFT-Oklahoma Section and DuPont Nutrition and Health provided monetary awards for the winners. First, second and third place winners in both categories received $250, $150 and $75.

In addition to the student competition, the symposium featured keynote speaker Jairus David of ConAgra Foods Inc. During his presentation on application of natural antimicrobials in food, David reassured the crowd, “Quality is in everything I do, and safety is an utmost importance to me.”

Chuck Willoughby, FAPC manager of business and marketing relations, said it was great to have a record-setting number of attendees at FAPC to hear David’s keynote presentation.

“We were very excited to have Dr. David discuss important industry-related topics,” Willoughby said. “The event was beneficial for students, faculty and staff, as well as the industry representatives who were able to attend and network with Dr. David.”

As the senior principal research scientist at ConAgra Foods Inc., David leads and manages the company’s natural antimicrobial program and has responsibilities that include science leadership and development of intervention technologies, process and quality optimization. Beyond natural antimicrobials, his 30-plus years of food industry experience also include innovation, aseptic technologies, microbiology, thermal processing, food safety and risk mitigation.

“He is an excellent microbiologist having experience in both academics and multiple industry operations, as food microbiology is very much an applied science,” Muriana said. “I was happy to see our student body, plus students from Langston University, the University of Central Oklahoma and high school students from Vinita, Oklahoma, take advantage of his visitation, especially on the heels of our new undergraduate food safety option curriculum in the department of animal science.”

An IFT Fellow and recipient of IFT’s prestigious Industrial Scientist Award, David is recognized for developing and influencing public health food safety policy on use of honey in cereals and bakery products for prevention of infant botulism in infants under 12 months of age.

“Dr. David is no stranger to centers such as ours, as he is on the advisory board to both the Food Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the Center for Food Safety & Quality Enhancement at the University of Georgia at Griffin,” Muriana said.

More information about David plus his slideshow presentation are available online at http://fapc.biz/workshops/2016-research-symposium/researchsymposium.

Tom Coon, OSU vice president for agricultural programs, said the FAPC Research Symposium is an example of the division’s commitment to providing students with relevant and timely educational experiences.

“Our land-grant mission is to develop and disseminate science-based knowledge that improves the quality of life for the people of Oklahoma and beyond,” he said. “The symposium allows students to gain firsthand insights about how applied research moves from the laboratory to a point where it can provide significant benefits to clients and consumers.”

The FAPC Research Symposium was held in conjunction with OSU Research Week, which ran Feb. 16-20.

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Oklahoma State University is a modern land-grant university that prepares students for success. OSU has more than 36,000 students across its five-campus system and more than 25,000 on its combined Stillwater and Tulsa campuses, with students from all 50 states and around 120 nations. Established in 1890, Oklahoma State has graduated more than 260,000 students who have been serving Oklahoma and the world for 125 years.