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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.
Position Announcement
Director of the School of Nutrition
and Food Sciences
Overview: The Louisiana State University Agricultural Center and LSU College of Agriculture seeks outstanding applicants for the Director of the School of Nutrition and Food Sciences.
The nationally and internationally recognized School seeks a dynamic leader with a clear vision for the future and an aptitude for cultivating a shared vision among teams. The School Director is an administrative position responsible for developing and implementing a strategic vision for the School, in alignment with priorities of the LSU AgCenter, LSU College of Agriculture, and LSU System. The Director will lead a diverse group of talented, multidisciplinary faculty and staff in fulfilling the research, teaching, and extension missions of a Research I, land-grant university. The School Director is a tenured 12-month fiscal year appointment with joint responsibilities between the LSU Agricultural Center (AgCenter) and the LSU A&M College of Agriculture.
Application information link: Director and Professor (School of Nutrition and Food Sciences) - East Baton Rouge Parish - R00065126
Upcoming in SNFS
- 4 July, Monday: Independence Day Holiday. LSU closed
- 22 August, Monday: Fall Semester Begins
- Link to LSU Academic Calendars
- Spring Commencement information is available on the Spring Commencement website.
LSU COVID-19 Updates & Information
SNFS Training & Certification
Upcoming Workshops
AFDO Sanitation Control Procedures (SCP) For Fish and Fishery Products
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
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.
In the News
Former graduate student of SNFS joins United Nations
Ms. Joan Pashu Pohamba, a former graduate student of Dr. Subramaniam Sathivel, joined the United Nations (UN) under the World Food Program (WFP) agency in the Program Policy Office for Biotechnology and Food Fortification under the Namibian country office.
It is a significant achievement for a young scientist to join the UN. Ms. Pohamba is a positive and determined individual who wants to help the rural African community, especially Namibia. This led Ms. Pohamba to join Dr. Sathivel’s Lab at the School of Nutrition and Food science and Department of Biological Agricultural Engineering, Louisiana State University, in 2019 to conduct a master’s study on improving the shelf life and food safety of the Namibian indigenous beverage “Oshikundu” under a Foreign Fulbright scholarship.
Despite the COVID19 restriction, Ms. Pohamba never gave up her hope of successfully completing her research. Ms. Pohamba successfully completed her thesis “Production of a Namibian Oshikundu Fermented Beverage Prototype using Lactobacillus plantarum NRRL-B-4496 and Saccharomyces cerevisia (Safeale S-33)” and returned to Namibia.
Ms. Pohamba mentioned that her thesis study had become her backbone in the current role that the UN entrusted to her to ensure zero hunger within the globe, particularly within Namibia. Ms. Pohamba’s accomplishment was well recognized by the Louisiana State University International Programs and awarded first place in the students’ category of the LSU Virtual International Research Fair. Ms. Pohamba has thanked Dr. Sathivel for believing in her as a person and her research vision. Dr. Sathivel and her fellow students at her Food and Bioprocessing Lab congratulate Ms. Pohamba on her success and wish her the best and plenty of success at the UN.
Gabriel Joined Acme Smoked Fish of North Carolina/RC Creations, LLC, North Carolina
Congratulations to Mr. Gabriel Cespedes. Mr. Cespedes has joined as Food Safety Technologist at Acme Smoked Fish of North Carolina/RC Creations, LLC, North Carolina.
Acme Smoked Fish is a smoked salmon manufacturer originating in Brooklyn, New York in 1954 and produces a wide variety of retail & foodservice cold-smoked and hot-smoked salmon and finfish products.
Mr. Cespedes received his Undergraduate Degree from the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. He is a master’s student under Dr. Subramaniam Sathivel at the School of Nutrition and Food Sciences and is planning to graduate in the Fall semester 2021. Dr. Sathivel and Gabriel’s lab mates would like to congratulate Gabriel on his new job and wish him continued success in his professional career development.
Former SNFS Graduate Student Master’s Thesis and Business Featured in Philippines News
Ms. Kriza Calumba Master's study was recognized and featured with several news appearances in the Philippines (Manila Bulletin, This Week in Asia, NextShark News, and the Chiang Rai Times) Ms. Calumba master’s thesis was also published in Food Production, Processing, and Nutrition peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Ms. Calumba was a former graduate student of Dr. Subramaniam Sathivel at the School of Nutrition and Food Sciences at LSU and was a Fulbright Scholar. In 2018, she was awarded an IFT Feeding Tomorrow Andy Rao International Division Travel Scholarship.
After completion of her master’s thesis, Kriza joined the Department of Food Science and Chemistry, University of the Philippines, Mindanao as an assistant professor. Kriza has opened a probiotic yogurt milk tea business in Davao City, Philippines. Link to Article: "Why Milk Tea can be good for you."
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
