Tina Truong is a graduate student at North Carolina State University pursuing a master's degree in Food Science. She graduated from California Polytechnic State University–San Luis Obispo with a bachelor's degree in Food Science and minor in Packaging Science. She has industry experience focused on packaging science, cheese, physical property analysis, and commercial dairy product manufacturing. She decided to pursue a career in food science during her childhood due to her love for the show, "How It's Made."
Innovative packaging technologies that contribute to food safety include, but are not limited to, antimicrobial packaging, controlled-release packaging, nanotechnology, and biosensors. These technologies can aid in the control of not only spoilage microorganisms, which make the food product undesirable (but not necessarily unsafe), but also pathogenic organisms, which can cause illness and even death in humans. In the current economy, it may be difficult to make the decision to transition from a traditional packaging solution to an alternative; however, when product food safety is jeopardized and consumers are at potential risk, the food industry must do everything it can to prevent adverse scenarios.
