The Institute for Food Safety Biotechnology Program: a unique partnership between industry and community college

Presenter:  R. Kevin Pegg, Institute for Food Safety, Florida State College at Jacksonville, FL

Florida State College at Jacksonville’s Institute for Food Safety fills shortfalls in food testing technicians. The Phase 1 IFS is a partnership between FSCJ and Eurofins, an international analytical company.

A. S. biotech students train in shared spaces with industry personnel, a concept that puts students in an industrial setting from the first day of class.

R. Kevin Pegg, Ph.D. is lead faculty for the Biotechnology A.S. degree program at Florida State College and heads the Institute for Food Safety. His background spans 25 years in industry research positions in toxicology, chemistry and engineering. A registered U.S. Patent Agent, he also consults as an EPA technical advisor to communities impacted by Superfunds.

Tweets from @digitalbio:

R. Kevin Pegg talking about The Insitute for Food Safety at Florida State College, Jacksonville #CCD2011 #BIO2011

FDA is going to start regulating food safety to a greater extent, food safety work uses same skills as biotech

Jacksonville is major area where seafood enters US from 60 countries and gets transported elsewhere.

It used to be that seafood spent 1 month at sea and was quarantined for two months before delivery through US. 

Local companies wanted to cut the quarantine time for seafood, they started a food safety program for training technicians 

Pegg: even small family farms are going to have to meet new FSMA standards from FDA, more need for trained techs #CCD2011 #BIO2011 Sun Jun 26 19:31:53 +0000 2011