AP Reports on USDA Grant to Improve Food Safety
The Associated Press reported the University of Maine has been awarded two food safety competitive grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), including a $4.9 million, five-year award to improve processing technologies to enhance the safety and quality of fresh produce and low-moisture foods, such as raw grains, spices, seeds and nuts. The school is among 36 universities in the country to receive a total of $19 million in grants from the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The awarded projects are led by Vivian Wu, professor of microbiology and food safety in the School of Food and Agriculture. Wu, who in addition to the $4.9 million grant, also is receiving a two-year, $150,000 grant to improve food safety through the use of magnetic resonance imaging to examine pathogens in plants. Maine Public Broadcasting Network, Portland Press Herald, seattlepi.com and WABI (Channel 5) carried the AP report.