Food Science Facilities at Ohio StateThe Department of Food Science and Technology at OSU is housed primarily in the Parker Food Science and Technology Building. The 61,000 gross square foot, $17 million facility completed in 2002 features research and teaching laboratories in a unique interactive design. The Parker Building also contains class and conference rooms, a retail dairy store, integrated pilot plants, and a direct connection to research laboratories and the Food Industries Center in Howlett Hall.
The Department of Food Science and Technology FacilitiesOur department combines expertise in protein, lipid, carbohydrate and pigment chemistry with a powerful program devoted to new technologies in food safety and processing, such as ohmic heating, high pressure processing, ozonation, and biopreservation. Selected facilities are highlighted below describing the tremendous strength of food science and technology at The Ohio State University. Coatings LaboratoryLaboratory facilities are available to apply liquid or powder coatings by electrostatic or nonelectrostatic means. Coating equipment includes:
Analytical equipment is available to measure various physical properties including:
Ultra High Pressure Processing LaboratoryOSU houses three high-pressure machines for conducting scientific research and product evaluation. 1. QFP-6 High Pressure Food Processor from Flow Autoclave Systems, Inc. and support equipment for investigating the effects of high pressure on food. The processor has a 2-liter capacity and is capable of pressures up to 130,500 psi, and temperatures from 5 to 70° C. 2. Mini high pressure tester custom fabricated by Avure Technologies for conducting microbial inactivation of bacterial spores and other relevant high pressure sterilization studies. This unit has 20 mL sample capacity and has operating pressure up to 100,000 psi and temperatures from 5°-130° C. 3. Custom made high pressure system for property studies, from Harwood Engineering. This unit is capable of pressures up to 150,000 psi and temperatures from 5° to 120°C. This equipment is a unique tool for estimating properties of food and biological materials under pressure. Additional facilities include kitchen for freshly preparing food onsite, package sealing equipment, and analytical instrumentation for chemical, biochemical and microbiological analyses. For more information you may contact Dr. Balasubramaniam or visit the High Pressure Processing website. Food Microbiology LaboratoriesThe food microbiology laboratory facilities available for this project are housed in the Department of Food Science and Technology and located in both Parker and Howlett Halls. These facilities are certified for handling pathogens (Biosafety Level II). Facilities and equipment available include two high-performance liquid chromatographic system s (HPLC), two ozone generators (each 1 lb. ozone/day), two biological safety cabinets, four autoclaves, spiral plater, incubators, refrigerators, freezers, shaking and normal waterbath, microscopes, centrifuges, spectrophotometers, media dispensers, liquid nitrogen storage tanks and a culture collection.
The OSU Plant-Microbe Genomics Facility provides DNA sequencing, DNA microarray, quantitative PCR, proteomics and robotics services for a fee. My lab uses the DNA sequencing service a lot. Lipid and Flavor Chemistry LaboratoryLaboratory facilities are available for chemical and physical characterization of food compounds by the combination of isolation, separation and identification, reaction mechanisms. The laboratory instrumentations for the analyses of flavor and chemical compounds include:
Sensory Evaluation Laboratory
The sensory evaluation laboratory
is located in Parker Hall 122 and 130, adjacent to the Parker
Dairy Store. These facilities include:
Physical Properties LaboratoriesPrimary instruments for determining the physical properties of food include the following:
Note: All physical properties can be measured using the above instruments at temperatures as low as -80 o or -112 oF. Food Packaging LaboratoryEquipment for measuring the physical,
mechanical, and barrier properties of food packaging materials.
Equipment includes a Mocon Permatran, model W6 for measuring water vapor
permeability, a Mocon Oxtran, model 1050-5F5P for measuring oxygen
permeability, a Model 1000 Instron Universal Testing machine for testing
the mechanical properties of packaging materials and a Model 101
Oxysense tester for non destructive measuring of oxygen in sealed
packages.
Haas Chair "Functional Foods for Health" LaboratoryThe Haas Endowed Chair is supported by interest from a $4M endowment made possible by the fruit and vegetable processing industry of Ohio, one of the first in the discipline of food science. Laboratory: Fully equipped analytical laboratory for extraction and analysis of various components of fruits, vegetables and biological samples. Dr. Schwartz has laboratory space, approximately 1800 square feet, located in the Parker Food Science and Technology Building at The Ohio State University. All space is registered and approved for biohazard use. Computer: Six Pentium PC compatible computers for integration and acquisition of HPLC data. Office: 475 sq.ft., available in Parker Food Science and Technology Building. Secretarial staff will be available as needed. Analytical Chemistry - Major Equipment: Pertinent laboratory equipment includes: analytical balances, ultracentrifuge, -80 C freezer, Analytic Jena Photochem system, three Waters 2690 HPLC systems with photodiode array detectors and data acquisition systems, two HPLC systems with ESA eight channel CoulArray electrochemical detectors, Hewlett Packard 1100 Series HPLC with photodiode array detector and Chemstation software, Hewlett Packard 1050 Series HPLC with single wavelength detector, preparatory HPLC with photodiode array detector, freeze dryer, homogenizer, UV-VIS scanning spectrophotometer with data acquisition, and a Hewlett Packard gas chromatograph with mass detector. Three Micromass spectrometers, a Quattro MS-MS installed to provide LC/MS/MS capabilities and Qtof I & Qtof Premier to provide accurate mass measurements. Additionally, the Campus Chemical Instrument Center (CCIC) provides state of the art facilities for the entire campus in two areas: nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS) including QTOF instrumentation. Food Industries Center Pilot Plants The Food Industries Center at OSU is an integral part of the Department of Food Science and Technology. Three distinct pilot plants are available for new product development, process evaluation, research, teaching and demonstration. Equipment mobility permits rearrangement to desired product flow patterns. OSU has one of the few academic food pilot plants in the U.S. capable of complete end-to-end processing. Raw commodities can be processed to finished, packaged goods ready for consumption. The pilot plants can be utilized one day as a teaching and demonstration area, utilizing current processing technologies and procedures, and the next day, with minor modifications, function as a research facility probing new concepts and procedures. Food Processing Pilot Plant (6,600 sq. ft., Howlett Hall) This research and teaching facility was designed for processing of fruits, vegetables, fermented foods, snack foods, baked goods and formulated specialty products. Processing equipment includes:
Dairy Processing Pilot Plant (3,000 sq. ft., Parker Bldg.) The dairy pilot plant is equipped to process and package dairy products including fluid milk, ice creams, cheeses and fermented dairy products. Major pieces of equipment include:
Refrigeration and Freezing Capabilities Walk-in temperature controlled refrigeration and freezing systems are available in the pilot plants for temporal storage, shelf life, quality and preservation studies of food products.
Advanced Technologies Pilot Plant (3,144 sq. ft., Parker Bldg.) The advanced technologies pilot plant houses equipment for research, teaching and demonstration of new technologies in food safety and processing such as ohmic heating, pulsed electric fields, high pressure processing, and ozonation. Meat Technology Pilot Plant (5,000 sq. ft., Animal Science Bldg.) The meat technology pilot plant, run by the Department of Animal Sciences, includes a slaughter facility, chilling and holding coolers, fresh meat processing equipment and processed meat capabilities including curing, blending, smoking and packaging. The facility is fully licensed for slaughter and processing inspection under the Ohio Department of Agriculture's meat and poultry inspection program. Capabilities include: Slaughter of beef, pork, and lamb with electric stimulation capabilities Fresh meat processing for carcass fabrication, boxed meat processing and HRI or tray-ready meat preparation; equipment for grinding, mixing, forming, slicing, tenderizing and vacuum packaging for both subprimal cuts and individual serving portions Processed meats processing including injection-curing equipment, meat choppers and emulsifiers, mixers, a piston and vacuum stuffers, sausage linker, tumblers, a thermal processing unit capable of applying natural and liquid smoke, impingement oven, convection oven, steam-jacketed kettle, vacuum packaging equipment |
