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RESEARCHERS WORK TO PREVENT INTENTIONAL FOOD CONTAMINATION
08 July 2004 - University of Wisconsin-Madison
| The University of Wisconsin-Madison will use its share of a three-year, $15 million grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to investigate ways to detect intentional contamination of the nation's food supply. |
The work is part of the Homeland Security Center for Food Protection and Defense, a national consortium of academic, private and government partners housed at the University of Minnesota. The center will establish best practices and attract new researchers to prevent, manage and respond to intentional food contamination events. On the UW-Madison campus, College of Engineering experts in sensing technology will collaborate with College of Agricultural and Life Sciences experts on food pathogens and toxins to develop a variety of sensing systems that can respond rapidly to food contamination. Research will be aimed at improving the reliability and speed at which biological toxins and other chemical agents can be detected, as well as investigating ways to use sensors to detect when food packaging has been compromised or the contents contaminated. "It is extremely important to ensure that a food product has not been tampered with," says Michael Pariza, a professor of food microbiology and toxicology and campus principal investigator. Relying on the expertise of more than 90 investigators from universities, research facilities, state agencies and private industry, the federal center will focus its overall effort on studying areas such as informatics, scenario planning and epidemiological modeling. UW-Madison, Michigan State University and North Dakota State University are partner institutions with the University of Minnesota. Pariza, who directs the nationally recognized Food Research Institute, says the contributions from UW-Madison investigators will be substantial. "The overall product of this research is going to be safer food," he says.
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About: University of Wisconsin-Madison
In achievement and prestige, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has long been recognized as one of America’s great universities. A public, land-grant institution, UW-Madison offers a complete spectrum of liberal arts studies, professional programs and student activities. Many of its programs are hailed as world leaders in instruction, research and public service.The university traces its roots to a clause in the Wisconsin Constitution, which decreed that the state should have a prominent public university. In 1848, Nelson Dewey, Wisconsin’s first governor, signed the act that formally created the university, and its first class, with 17 students, met in a Madison school building on February 5, 1849. From those humble beginnings, the university has grown into a large, diverse community, with about 40,000 students enrolled each year. These students represent every state in the nation, as well as countries from around the globe, making for a truly international population. UW-Madison is the oldest and largest campus in the University of Wisconsin System, a statewide network of 13 comprehensive universities, 13 freshman-sophomore transfer colleges and an extension service. One of two doctorate-granting universities in the system, UW-Madison’s specific mission is to provide "a learning environment in which faculty, staff and students can discover, examine critically, preserve and transmit the knowledge, wisdom and values that will help insure the survival of this and future generations and improve the quality of life for all." The university achieves these ends through innovative programs of research, teaching and public service. Throughout its history, UW-Madison has sought to bring the power of learning into the daily lives of its students through innovations such as residential learning communities and service-learning opportunities. Students also participate freely in research, which has led to life-improving inventions from more fuel-efficient engines to cutting-edge genetic therapies. Students, faculty and staff are motivated by a tradition known as the "Wisconsin Idea," described by UW President Charles Van Hise in 1904 as the compelling need to carry "the beneficent influence of the university ... to every home in the state." The Wisconsin Idea permeates the university’s work and helps forge close working relationships among university faculty and students and the state’s industries and government. |
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