Contact: Aga Haupt
Food science and technology majors at Mississippi State during the 2001-02 school year are bringing home two major awards from recent national competition sponsored by the Institute of Food Technologists.
Stephenie [cq] L. Drake of Wenatchee, Wash., placed second in the undergraduate research category at the IFT's national conference held this year in Anaheim, Calif. Doctoral student Hyun-Gyun Yuk, a South Korean native residing in Starkville, finished third at the graduate level.
Founded in 1939, the Chicago-based institute represents some 28,000 professionals in food science, food technology, and related fields in industry, academia and government. The reports of both MSU students at the IFT gathering dealt with the importance of properly cooking and preparing food.
Drake, who graduated summa cum laude in May and begins graduate school at North Carolina State University this fall, was one of six undergraduate competitors. Examining incidences of Listeria-contaminated catfish fillets obtained from a processing plant and selected commercial retail outlets, she found bacterial counts at the plant to be quite low (2.5 percent) while those from retail outlets to be quite high (91 percent).
"Commercially produced catfish never have been involved in an outbreak of food-borne illness," said Douglas L. Marshall, professor of food science and technology and Drake's research supervisor. "Stephanie's research shows that the industry is doing a great job of producing a safe product."
Temperature abuse, poor sanitary practices and lengthy refrigerated storage at the retail level may explain the higher incidence of bacterial contamination, he added.
Yuk, one of 38 graduate students presenting reports at the meeting, attempted to answer the question of whether stressing a microorganism without killing it--applying high temperatures, for instance--can make it more dangerous.
"This project shows that if the product isn't properly cooked and some of the E. coli survives, it may cause more health problems than eating the product raw," Marshall said. "That is why food should be cooked to at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit to kill the bacteria.