Food Science Distance Education at KSU Assists With Careers

Newswise — With about 75 students seeking bachelor’s degrees and another 50 pursuing undergraduate certificates, Kansas State University’s distance education program in food science is making its curriculum available to food industry employees and others who may not find it convenient to be a conventional on-campus student. With goals that are consistent with those of the Food Safety Consortium, KSU’s program attracts a variety of students. “They’re usually looking for some way they can stay currently employed but keep working on their education,” said Deanna Retzlaff, an assistant professor in the KSU Food Science Institute who coordinates the bachelor degree completion program. “Those students usually are working in the food industry but never finished a bachelor’s degree, or have a degree in an unrelated field.” Online courses are offered in food processing fundamentals, microbiology, principles of HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points), food defense, food safety and security, food safety risk analysis, quality assurance, and trade and agricultural health. Distance education also applies to KSU’s collaborative efforts with other universities. KSU is working with Purdue University and Indiana University to develop a national outreach program in food safety and food defense. KSU’s role is to develop modules in a distance education format for graduate students and working professionals. “We brought together stakeholders in food safety and defense and they developed key learning objectives and defined what knowledge and skill sets they thought would be needed for someone to be a food defense professional,” said Kelly Getty, an assistant professor in the KSU Food Science Institute. “We’re looking at how to take that information and create courses and modules.” In September, KSU, Purdue University and Indiana University offered a two-day workshop for the food industry professionals and graduate students at Purdue. The workshop concluded with a simulation of a hypothetical food defense scenario where participants worked as teams to address an incident of internal plant contamination. KSU also participates with three other universities to offer food safety and defense courses through distance education. KSU, Iowa State University, the University of Missouri and the University of Nebraska have formed an Education Alliance (AGIDEA, www.agidea.org) to offer graduate-level instruction. Of the nine courses offered through the alliance, five are based at KSU: multidisciplinary overview of food safety and security, food microbiology, principles of HACCP, principles of food defense for the food industry and rapid methods and automation in microbiology. KSU is also working to develop a Graduate Certificate of Completion Program in Food Protection and Defense. The certificate would be offered jointly by several institutions and would demonstrate that students attain core competencies in food defense. The National Center for Food Protection and Defense asked KSU to participate in the project. Abbey Nutsch, assistant professor in food safety and security at KSU, is serving as the lead principal investigator for this program. “We have received funding to develop this program,” Getty said. “We’re trying to leverage some of the work with Purdue and then bring in other courses with the collaborators at the National Center.”