The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) has awarded grants totaling $300,000 to two professors in Florida State University’s (FSU’s) College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences for projects focused on food safety innovation.

Hailey Kuang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Measurement and Statistics in the Department of Education Psychology and FSU’s Learning Systems Institute, was awarded $150,000 to explore the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to address global food safety challenges. She will focus on mitigating the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through the development of an AI-powered, portable sensor that can rapidly detect resistant pathogens in the food supply. Using meat and fresh produce as models, Dr. Kuang aims to create a device that can assist users with AMR testing, training, and machine learning (ML) algorithms to identify AMR, as well as validate the performance of ML sensors for AMR detection.

The project has the potential to culminate in an education program for future food safety leaders, equipping students with innovative AI, sensing techniques, and expertise for combatting foodborne AMR.

The second $150,000 USDA-NIFA grant was awarded to Prashant Singh, Ph.D., an Associate Professor of Health, Nutrition, and Food Science. He aims to develop a digital polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for Salmonella quantification in beef samples. At present, there are only three commercially available options for testing Salmonella load in food samples, which suffer from reproducibility issues and complicated DNA isolation protocols. Dr. Singh says his assay addresses these issues, and that the grant will help create a workflow that can be expanded to food commodities beyond ground beef.

Through the development of a standardized testing method, Singh hopes his assay will serve a wide user base including food processors of all sizes, federal and third-party testing laboratories, and academia.