As summer ends and the Department of Food Science and Technology eagerly awaits the start of the Fall 2024 semester, I want to extend my welcome and enthusiasm for the 2024-25 academic year. We look forward to welcoming new and existing students back to the department and of course all the energy that the Fall semester brings for students, staff, and faculty.
In April, the department held the annual student awards ceremony and the J.G. Woodroof lecture. The Woodroof lecture was selected as one of the Provosts’ signature lectures and turned out to be an excellent opportunity for engagement among the FST Department with retirees, alumni and friends in the area. Thanks to our donors which include alumni and associations across Georgia and beyond, we were able to recognize 36 students for various awards.
I would also like to extend my gratitude to all the hard work our recent student graduates have put in and congratulate them on their accomplishments while at our department.
The past year was filled with many other exciting events such as the CAES Dean’s Signature Event - Flavor of Georgia Contest, which could not have happened without the help of student and staff volunteers. We also celebrated the retirement of Dr. Yen-Con Hung, whose 38 years of dedication to our department is truly inspiring. Last October, the department assisted in hosting the first annual Alumni Homecoming Tailgate with the UGA Food Science Club, an exciting event we are looking forward to continuing this year and in the future.
This summer, our department hosted an Alumni Social at the annual Institute of Food Technologists conference again and had the privilege of witnessing our students’ successes at IFT FIRST 2024 in Chicago and the International Association for Food Protection conference in Long Beach, California.
As we begin this school year, I would encourage you all to stay connected with UGA Food Science and Technology. We are very appreciative of all the support that we receive from you all and for the commitment to our department.
University of Georgia faculty and graduate students have more than double the opportunities for open access publishing, thanks to new UGA Libraries read and publish agreements with Elsevier and Springer Nature, two of the largest academic journal publishers. The transformative agreements cover article processing charges with nearly 4,000 hybrid journals across the Elsevier and Springer Nature portfolios, adding to previous UGA Libraries agreements in place with Wiley and other publishers. This expands the list of open access publishing opportunities at UGA to more than 7,000 titles.
University of Georgia food science alum Andrew Vasina leads Biospringer by Lesaffre’s North America Culinary Center, a laboratory-kitchen hybrid where his team designs prototypes and learns how to use these natural ingredients in new ways. Here, they may tackle a specific product need for a client company or develop an entirely new product for the market. Describing his role as part technical salesperson and part product developer, Vasina and his team partner with food manufacturers across North America to develop new products and taste profiles using one versatile product: yeast extract.
A baked good secured the top spot at the 2025 Flavor of Georgia food product competition, beating out a record 173 products submitted in 12 categories. Sunday Dinner Gritscuits, produced by Lady Belle, are French gougeres, or cheese puffs, stuffed with macaroni and cheese flavored grits with collard greens and smoked turkey. Lady Belle is a French-Southern fusion microbakery specializing in handcrafted Parisian style macarons, Belle (Signature) Macarons and savory Gritscuits.
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