By Robby Edwards
Dale Bumpers College of Agriculture, Food and Life Sciences
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Nine University of Arkansas graduate students in food science combined for 10 awards for their presentations at a poster contest sponsored by the Arkansas Association of Food Protection.
FOOD PROTECTION — Gayatri Dhulappanavar, Arshpreet Khattra, Kaushik Luthra, Abass Oduola, Samuel Olaoni, Faith Ouma, Evans Owusu, Erin Ramsay and Surabhi Wason combined for five first-place awards and 10 of the top 15 spots in an Arkansas Association of Food Protection contest. (Courtesy photo)
The competition took place at the 14th Annual AAFP Conference held in September in Fayetteville.
Kaushik Luthra, Abass Oduola, Faith Ouma, Evans Owusu and Surabhi Wason all won first-place honors, while Wason claimed first- and second-place awards.
Luthra won the Post-Doctoral and Technical Staff category with "Impact of Storage Conditions and Moisture Content on Growth of Pathogenic Fungi in Rice."
Oduola won the Pet Food Safety category with "Impacts of Different Infrared Heat Intensities on Growth and Aflatoxin Production of Aspergillus flavus on Corn."
Ouma won the Interventions, Pre- and Post-Harvest division with "Deterrence of Microbes on Rough Rice using High-Power Short-Duration Microwave Heating Technology."
Owusu claimed top honors in the Other and Miscellaneous area with "Microwave-Cooking of Rice in Steam-Venting Packages: An Evaluation of Quality Attributes."
Wason won the Food Safety, Including Fundamental Understanding of Pathogens section with "Effect of Mild Heating and Relative Humidity on the Antimicrobial Efficacy of Chlorine Dioxide Gas."
Wason was also second in the Interventions, Pre- and Post-Harvest area with "Radiofrequency Pasteurization of Dried Basil Leaves Using In-Package Steaming," while Gayatri Dhulappanavar was third with "Persistence of Salmonella Javiana, Listeria spp. in Hydroponic Nutrient Solution at Different Temperatures."
In the Food Safety, Including Fundamental Understanding of Pathogens category, Erin Ramsay was second with "Survival of Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli on In-Shell Pecans Contaminated with Soil" and Arshpreet Khattra third with "Use of Monte Carlo Simulation to Calculate Kill Ratio in Milk Powders."
Samuel Olaoni was second in the Other and Miscellaneous category with "X-Ray Imaging as a Technique to Evaluate Seed Germination and Vigor of Rice Seeds."
Luthra, Oduola, Olaoni, Owusu and Ouma are all advised by Griffiths Atungulu, associate professor and agricultural engineer and director of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station’s Rice Processing Program.
Khattra and Ramsay are advised by Jennifer Acuff, assistant professor of food microbiology and safety.
Wason is advised by Jeyam Subbiah, professor and head of the food science department, and Dhulappanavar by Kristen Gibson, professor of food safety and microbiology and director of the Center for Food Safety.
Atungulu, Subbiah, Acuff and Gibson are all faculty members in the food science department and, along with their graduate students, conduct research for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.
To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu.