Mission:
The mission of the Food Processing and Sensory Quality Research Unit is to develop technologies that will optimize the nutritional, functional, and sensory qualities of agricultural commodities, thus, enhancing their utilization. A multi-disciplined team of scientists are meeting these challenges by: 1) obtaining a basic biochemical understanding of the interactions of food components attributed to flavor (development and deterioration), and functionality of the food and its individual components, 2) scientifically defining and measuring sensory quality in foods before and after processing, 3) designing cost-effective, environmentally-acceptable processes for converting foods and their separated components into value-added products, and 4) developing technologies for predicting and assessing the nutritional, sensory, and processing quality attributes of foods.