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Facebook!The School of Nutrition and Food Sciences aims for excellence with comprehensive, integrated, and 21st century education, scholarship, and outreach. Food science professionals train students in the quality, processing, and safety of foods for the multibillion dollar food industry. Nutrition professionals provide training in nutrition science, community nutrition, and clinical nutrition with a focus on improving health and well-being of all citizens and populations.
Scholarly and educational programs at the undergraduate and graduate level integrate the basic and applied sciences with outreach.
Our Mission
The mission of the SNFS is to prepare future professionals and support the community through discovery, didactic and experiential teaching and learning, and the development of services and products that improve the health and wellbeing of individuals, families, and communities in a complex and changing society, and to assist local, national and global food industries.
This Week in SNFS
- Link to LSU Academic Calendars
- Recordings of the diploma ceremonies will be available once all recording transcripts have been corrected. A text-only list of graduates may be found on the Commencement website.
- Celebrate your Graduation: Social media, Instagram, Gifs, and zoom backgrounds to celebrate your Tiger Pride.
LSU COVID-19 Updates & Information
NFS Training & Certification
New workshops have now been scheduled
AFDO Sanitation Control Procedures (SCP) For Fish and Fishery Products
Registration is NOW OPEN
The Sanitation Control Procedures (SCP)For Fish and Fishery Products course assists the seafood industry in developing and implementing “Sanitation Control Procedures” as mandated by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Course participants will learn how to draft SSOP's and build monitoring programs for FDA's 8 key sanitary conditions. Participants that attend the standard one-day course will receive a "Certificate of SCP Course Completion” from AFDO
For more information, and a link to the registration, go the AFDO Sanitation Control Procedures (SCP) For Fish and Fishery Products page.
Basic Seafood HACCP Training
Registration is NOW OPEN
Training in Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) is mandated for the seafood processors by the U.S. Food and Drug Admin-istration (FDA). Basic HACCP courses teach the principles of HACCP and empower processors to develop HACCP plans specific for each seafood product they handle or produce.
The School of Nutrition and Food Sciences offers a two and a half day basic Seafood HACCP training designed to educate seafood processors, packers, wholesales, importers, harvesters and warehouses about seafood safety. Participants who complete the course receive a certificate issued by AFDO, that fulfills the FDA requirements for seafood HACCP training.
See the Basic Seafood HACCP Training page for more information.
Sensory Evaluation of Foods
Registration is OPEN
This course is aimed at providing an excellent over-view of sensory evaluation of foods and its applications for food scientists, R&D scientists, QA& QC scientists, and sensory professionals who wish to conduct sensory analysis. This course is appropriate for the beginners who wish to understand basic principles behind the basic sensory tests
See the Sensory Evaluation of Foods page for more information and a link to registration.
In the News
Pearls of wisdom: Unhinging facts about oysters
(06/07/21) BATON ROUGE, La. — “He was a bold man that first ate an oyster,” said 18th-century Irish satirist Jonathan Swift. Whether enjoyed fried, grilled, in a seafood gumbo or, perhaps most opinion dividing, raw, there is no denying the oyster’s impact on both Louisiana’s culture and seafood industry.
(right) Raw oysters can pose greater health risks when consumed between May and October due to the prevalence of vibrio, according to the CDC V. Todd Miller/LSU AgCenter Photo Credit.
Oysters have been consumed by humans for thousands of years. Wealthy Greeks and Romans thought of them as a delicacy and an aphrodisiac. While the former is still true in many cultures, the latter is more debatable.
Oysters are high in zinc, with six medium-sized ones providing 32 milligrams or 291% of the daily value, according to Healthline.com. Studies have shown that zinc is important to testosterone production in males, which would lend credence to the aphrodisiac theory, but it isn’t fully known if that is the actual reason for the long-held belief.
Another oyster claim is that they are alive until shucked. Megan La Peyre, a researcher in the LSU AgCenter School of Renewable Natural Resources, said this isn’t quite accurate.
“They are alive even after they are shucked,” she said. “If you eat them immediately after shucking, you are eating them live. And if you look carefully, you can see their heartbeat.”
One adage that many agree on is that oysters should not be consumed in months that don’t contain the letter “r” in their names. This idea likely dates back to 1599 when it appeared in an English cookbook, according to a New York Times article written in 2017 by science journalist Joanna Klein. There is merit to this, said AgCenter and Louisiana Sea Grant food safety specialist Evelyn Watts.
“We know that vibrio is more prevalent in warmer months,” Watts said. “But the fact is vibrio can occur at any time of the year, and eating raw or undercooked oysters always presents a foodborne risk.”
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, vibrio is bacteria that lives in coastal waters and is present in higher concentrations between May and October when the water is warmer. It causes vibriosis, which the CDC estimates causes 80,000 illnesses and 100 deaths in the United States annually.
In addition to the greater risk of contracting vibrio, oysters are simply less appetizing in warmer months, which is when they spawn, La Peyre said.
“Oysters reproduce in the warmer months, so they are full of gametes,” she said, “while in the winter, they are ‘fat’ and growing and tend to be sweeter.”
Former oyster fisherman and current soft-shell crab producer Daniel Edgar, of Franklin, said refrigeration techniques have aided in oysters being consumed year-round in many coastal regions, where they don’t have to travel as far to market.
(right)Daniel Edgar is a former oyster fisherman who now specializes in soft-shell crab production.V. Todd Miller/LSU AgCenter Photo Credit
“Way back when, oyster harvesters didn’t have to keep a cooler on their boat,” Edgar said. “Today, any boat that spends the night offshore or the boats that fish far away, like south of Marsh Island, have to keep one on board. This was legislated to better protect the consumer.”
Edgar also said farm-raised oysters are easier to produce now than perhaps ever before with the right setup. Essentially all that is needed is enough brackish water and room to grow.
“There’s a guy in Grand Isle that sells oyster spats,” he said. “If you put 500 in a box when they’re young, in about a month they won’t fit in that box anymore, so you’ll have to divide them up into boxes of 250 and so on.”
Edgar and today’s oyster fishermen owe a lot to those credited with developing the commercial oyster industry in Louisiana: Croatian immigrants. LSU English professor Carolyn Ware, who specializes in folklife, wrote in Folklife in Louisiana about the history of Croatians in the state.
“Many of Louisiana’s Croatian men continue to fish oysters, and some are third- or fourth-generation oystermen,” Ware wrote. “Sons often start fishing with fathers on weekends and summers as children. As adults, they frequently still fish on the acres once leased by their fathers.”
Things have changed a great deal economically from those early days. AgCenter and Louisiana Sea Grant economist Rex Caffey said oysters are the third-most lucrative seafood crop in the state, behind only shrimp and menhaden, which generally aren’t fit for human consumption and are used primarily for fertilizer, animal food and as bait for blue crab.
“Recently, oysters and crabs have switched places from year to year in terms of total value,” Caffey said. “But in 2018, nearly $76 million worth of Gulf oysters were harvested in the state.”
Megan La Peyre can be reached at mlapeyre@agcenter.lsu.edu.
Evelyn Watts can be reached at egwatts@agcenter.lsu.edu.
Rex Caffey can be reached at rcaffey@agcenter.lsu.edu.
Writer: V. Todd Miller at vtmiller@agcenter.lsu.edu | permalink
Evelyn Watts: Keeping Louisiana's seafood safe
(3/26/2021) Evelyn Watts gets to combine three of her favorite things in her job: people, seafood and traveling.
As a seafood extension specialist with the LSU AgCenter and Louisiana Sea Grant, Watts spends a lot of time meeting people who work in the industry and teaching them the best ways to process safe, high-quality seafood products.
“I help the industry understand regulations so they know how that applies to their facilities and to their processes,” she said.
She also conducts research on seafood topics. One project has involved studying how different methods of processing crawfish affect the amount of fat in tail meat. Processing has evolved significantly in the past 30 years, she said.
It once was common for crawfish to be boiled, peeled while still hot and then sold fresh in grocery stores. Now, it’s typical for crawfish to be steamed, chilled, peeled, packaged and frozen before it’s shipped to stores. Watts’ studies have found that the modern method helps preserve more fat — and flavor.
Watts said she has enjoyed developing relationships with regulatory agencies, university colleagues and those who work in the seafood industry. Many crawfish peelers and crab pickers in Louisiana speak Spanish, which is Watts’ native language.
“Whenever I walk in a processing floor, it is really nice the way that I can actually interact directly with them,” she said. “I talk with them. They are willing to help and listen to things I have to say.”
Watts never thought she would have a career in food science and food safety. She grew up wanting to have her own pet clinic and studied veterinary medicine at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala. She was required to take microbiology and food safety classes — and she ended up falling in love with that subject area.
She went on to earn a master’s degree in food safety from the University of San Carlos followed by a doctorate from LSU in food science.
She enjoys putting her skills to use while getting to explore Louisiana.
“I’m not native to Louisiana, but Louisiana is my home, and through my work, I get to enjoy the best of Louisiana — that is their people and their food,” she said.
Update: Seafood Extension Events & Research
In the December Seafood Extension Specialist Update is now available. The PDF is available for download. For additional information contact Dr. Evelyn (Gutierrez) Watts, and see the Seafood Quality Laboratory website.
AgCenter scientist exploring how diet, gut health affect COVID-19 severity
(02/26/21) BATON ROUGE, La. — An LSU AgCenter researcher wants to find out whether eating a plant-based diet and having a healthy gut can reduce the severity of a COVID-19 infection.
Jack Losso, a professor in the School of Nutrition and Food Sciences, has long been intrigued by the links between what people eat and how it affects their health. When he noticed that coronavirus infection and death rates are lower in areas where people tend to have more plant-based diets, he knew he wanted to study the correlation further.
“When you take populations that are relying on plants for a lot for their diet, the rate of infections and death is very low,” Losso said.
He pointed to the Blue Zones — places where many people live longer than usual — as an example. Despite having an older population, these zones have had comparatively fewer COVID fatalities than many other areas of the world, Losso said. The Blue Zones include Okinawa, Japan; Loma Linda, California; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece; and Sardinia, Italy.
“Besides old age, some of the risk factors for COVID are obesity, diabetes and hypertension,” he said. “The rates of those conditions are low in the Blue Zones compared to most of the rest of the world.”
Losso has completed an extensive literature review and is diving into his own study of how diet affects gut health, which in turn can affect how well a person’s body handles a coronavirus infection.
“A plant-based diet helps gut microbiota,” he said. “When the gut is affected, the lungs are affected and vice versa.”
He explained that 70 to 80% of the body’s immune system is in the gut, or gastrointestinal tract. The immune system can be weakened if there is a microbial imbalance in the gut — a condition known as dysbiosis, which is common in people with diabetes and other conditions that put them at risk for more severe COVID cases.
Eating a lot of foods that are high in fat and sugar can hinder gastrointestinal health, he said. Proteins and fiber that come from plants, on the other hand, are good for the gut.
Losso wants to explore another possible benefit of certain plant-based foods: compounds that may help the body ward off infection by preventing the coronavirus from bonding to ACE2 receptors. These receptors are proteins found on the surface of cells, and they are plentiful in the lungs and gastrointestinal tract.
Some foods are known to inhibit certain enzymes, Losso said. For example, sweet potatoes, soy products, bananas, squash, zucchini and some beans contain inhibitors of trypsin, an enzyme that breaks down proteins.
Because enzymes prime the coronavirus for bonding to receptors and entering the body, it’s important to examine foods that might be able to stop that process, he said.
Even though vaccines have been developed and are beginning to be administered, Losso said, it’s still a good idea to study other methods of potentially controlling the virus. He wants to use his expertise in food science to make a contribution.
“We’re not saying people are not going to be infected,” he said. “But when you combine this with masks and social distancing and proper handwashing, maybe we can reduce the severity of infections and fatalities. And people can get better and go back to school and their occupations, and that’s what we want.”
By Olivia McClure, LSU AgCenter Communications | permalink
Dr. Erin McKinley is the 2019-2020 ASA Club Advisor
of the Year
30 December 2020: Congratulations! Dr. Erin McKinley serves as the Faculty Advisor of the Student Nutrition and Dietetics Association (SNDA). Dr. McKinley is a School of Nutrition and Food Sciences as an assistant professor and the Director of the Didactic Program in Dietetics.
For Healthy Communities, Knowledge Isn’t Enough
5 November 2020: Through the Healthy Communities initiative, led by Denise Holston, assistant professor in the LSU School of Nutrition and Food Sciences, LSU AgCenter extension agents are on the ground in every Louisiana parish inviting residents to decide for themselves how to best lower obesity rates where they live—because knowledge, Holston says, isn’t enough. See:For Healthy Communities...
Congratulations to Dr. Zhimin Xu for winning the 2020 Manfred Kroger Outstanding Reviewer Award
Congratulations to Professor Zhimin Xu of Louisiana State University, the winner of the 2020 Manfred Kroger Outstanding Reviewer Award for IFT's Scientific Journals. Some of the many accolades that can be said for Professor Xu's contributions are that he has reviewed 61 manuscripts over the past 15 years, which reflects agreeing to 98% of our reviewer requests
E. Allen Foegeding, Ph.D., Editor in Chief of the IFT Scientific Journals interviewed Dr. Xu about his experiences of being a reviewer. Dr. Xu shared the rewards of being a reviewer, his overall process, and what he would tell your researchers about reviewing. The article is available via the link below, plus a link to the PDF. Congratulations Dr. Xu!
Celebrating reviewers—The 2020 Manfred Kroger Outstanding Reviewer Award winner. Journal of Food Science, 85(6):1618
Celebrating reviewers—The 2020 Manfred Kroger Outstanding Reviewer Award winner. [PDF]
