2019 Food Safety Conference
The Food Safety Consortium (FSC) consists of members from across the University of Arizona as well as from the Arizona Department of Agriculture, State Health Agencies and the food safety industry. The goal of the FSC is to address food safety issues in Arizona using a multidisciplinary collaborative approach. Areas of research and interest amongst members are diverse, and span research areas from fundamental aspects of microbiology, to field-based applications that directly affect the safety of the food supply. The group also connects extension agents out in the counties to the research teams as an integral part of the information pipeline.
To promote networking and to provide educational opportunities for it’s members, the FSC hosted a Food Safety Conference in October at the Lodge on the Desert in Tucson, AZ. The conference included a wide array of speakers and attracted over 70 attendees. Following the conference guests enjoyed a poster session with a student poster competition sponsored by the Victor P. Smith Endowment in Food Safety Education.
Student Poster Session Award Winners
First Place
Pathogen Occurrence in Treated Domestic Wastewater intended for Irrigation
Sarah Abney, Christina Morrison, Justin Clark, Anna De Gresham, Alexander Ignell, Libin Zhu, Sadhana Ravishankar, Luisa Ikner, Kelly Bright, Walter Betancourt, Charles Gerba
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, The University of Arizona
Second Place
Green Sanitizers: Improved Safety and Shelf-life of Iceberg Lettuce Washed with Plant-based Antimicrobial Microemulsions
Stephanie Arellano, Bibiana Law, and Sadhana Ravishankar
School of Animal & Comparative Biomedical Sciences, The University of Arizona
Third Place
Prevalence of Cyclospora cayetanesis in irrigation water in the Southern region of the US
Breanna Salt, Kaitlyn Benally, Daniela Cabrera, Monique Torres, Gerardo U. Lopez
School of Animal & Comparative Biomedical Sciences, The University of Arizona
Honorable Mention
Cyclospora: Potential Reservoirs and Occurrence in Irrigation Waters
Kaitlyn Benally,Shaira Perez, Gloria Villa Barbosa, Monique Torres, Daniela Cabrera, Walter Betancourt, Kelly Bright, Charles Gerba, Paula Rivadeneira, Masaaki Kitajima, Gerardo U. Lopez
School of Animal & Comparative Biomedical Sciences, The University of Arizona
Dr. Sadhana Ravishankar, Food Safety Consortium Chair (r) with Dr. Bibiana Law.
Student Poster Competition Chair, Dr. Margarethe Cooper (L) and first place student poster award winner, Sarah Abney.
Second place student poster award winner, Stephanie Arellano.
Third place student poster award winner, Breanna Salt.
Honorable mention student poster award winner, Kaitlyn Benally.