Food Microbiology

Work in the Food Safety Laboratory is directed by. Dr. Wilbert Long III, Senior Research Scientist. Dr. Long is a seasoned food science researcher with experience in various capacities within higher education, government, and other organizations. Dr. Long’s research interests include evaluating novel methods to identify/examine current and novel washing processes and products and how they affect water quality, food safety and shelf life. One of Dr. Long’s recent laboratory projects evaluates medicinal plant extracts, which also have antimicrobial properties for application as wash additives to be used synergistically or as an alternative to currently used ready-to-eat wash additives.

The Food Microbiology & Microbial Omics laboratory is is led by Dr. Jung-lim Lee, Professor in Food Microbiology and Food Safety. His major research interests are food safety, metagenomics and commercial development. The lab focuses on developing novel DNA-based amplification methodologies for the rapid quantification of viable bacterial communities derived from foods, navigating bacterial communities and mechanisms using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), purifying and identifying extracellular enzymes from bacteria and cloning using molecular biological approaches, studying antimicrobial activity derived from natural products and resources, and developing a multi-purpose assay to assess food safety and water quality.