Experts in the Field of Food Safety

Bio

Ph D., food science, Alabama A&M University, 1996; joined UNL faculty 2001. Jones works as an associate professor where she teaches multiple classes about food preparation, safety and sanitation. She is also an extension coordinator with the university and she works to help improve Nebraskans understanding of food literacy; the knowledge of food, including preparation, safety, and nutrition as it relates to a healthy lifestyle. She works in depth with 4-H Foods and health and wellness, especially among minority populations and is currently working in the areas of Native American foods, local foods, 4-H foods curriculum, and social media.

Bio

Ph.D., Food Safety/Microbiology, Texas Tech University; Chaves researches and works in microbial food safety, especially the safety of foods of animal origin. He runs the Food Safety Microbiology Lab which studies the spread, detection, and control of foodborne pathogens along the farm-to-table continuum. Chaves leads more specific research on the process and product validation of physical, chemical, and biological post-harvest mitigation strategies to reduce the risk of pathogen transmission. As well as the methodologies to better detect foodborne pathogens in multiple food and animal matrices and the phenotypical and genotypical characteristics that allow pathogens to survive, multiple, and even thrive in food processing environments. His extension and outreach program focuses on working closely with the Nebraska food industry to improve microbial safety and protect public health.

Bio

Ph.D., University of Missouri-Columbia; 1983; at the university Moxley is a Charles Bessey Professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. He is the Project Director of the Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) Coordinated Agricultural Project (STEC-CAP) funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture which has a long-term goal to reduce the occurrence and public health risks from STEC O26, O45, O103, O111, O121, O145, and O157:H7 in beef using a quantitative microbial risk assessment platform. Research in his laboratory addresses the detection, prevention and control of STEC in cattle and beef. He also has projects that focus on the pathogenesis of enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) infections of swine. In 2019, he was selected as an Honorary Member of the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists.

Bio

Ph.D., dairy science, the Ohio State University, 1990; with postdoctorate training in immunology at Cornell University and in pulmonary at the University of Michigan, joined UNL faculty in 2004. He was Allergen Program Manager at Monsanto from 1997-2004. He manages the www.AllergenOnline.org database for risk assessment of genetically engineered organisms and novel food proteins. He has served as chair of the WHO/IUIS Allergen Nomenclature Sub-Committee since June 2014. His laboratory has evaluated genetically engineered crops, including bacterial blight resistant banana for Uganda, golden rice for the Philippines and phytophthora-resistant potato for the East Asian community, as well as Omega 3 fatty acid canola and fast-growing Aqua Advantage salmon. He helps train scientists in India, China, Pakistan, Peru, Argentina and Thailand about the CODEX Alimentarius Commission guideline on genetic engineering safety.

Bio

Ph.D., microbiology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Health Science Center at San Antonio, Texas, 1992; joined UNL faculty in 1996. In 2017, Benson established the Nebraska Food for Health Center, a $40.3 million collaboration among academic researchers, food and drug manufacturers and philanthropists to improve human health by linking agriculture and food production to wellness and disease prevention through microbiome research. Benson pioneered study of the gut microbiome as a complex trait, demonstrating how individual host genetic factors control microbial species that make up the microbiome. Spearheading research for the Discovery Program of the Nebraska Food for Health Center, Benson works closely with an interdisciplinary team of crop plant geneticists who use genetic analysis to define molecular components of grains that affect the human gut microbiome. He has received more than $25 million in competitive grant funding and in 2019 was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for Neogen’s genomics operations and serves as a consultant and expert witness for applications of bacterial genomics and population genetics in litigation for foodborne outbreaks and product labeling.