About the Department

The Department of Food Science at Penn State is one of the premier food science departments in the country.

The Department of Food Science is Penn State’s home for the emerging technologies and best practices required for producing, safe, delicious, nutritious food. Our small-school atmosphere facilitates a warm, welcoming, intellectually stimulating, and professional environment.

Our work is closely aligned with the demands of industry and the needs of the community. We boast state-of-the-art facilities and world-class faculty with years of working experience in their fields.

Student success drives the department. Our undergraduate Food Science major offers students hands-on science with real-world applications, strong internship experiences, wide-ranging  scholarship opportunities, and excellent job placement.

Our graduate program offers master of science and doctor of philosophy degrees. Graduate students receive in-depth training in the core disciplines of food chemistry, food microbiology, food engineering and processing, and sensory evaluation.

Research is facilitated through core disciplines as well as following collaborative multidisciplinary signature areas: Microbial Food Safety, Food Choice, Food-Based Solutions for Enhanced Health, and the Material Nature of Foods, as well as underlying cross-cutting research themes of Food Quality and Food Fermentation. Students can participate in meaningful research from the first semester of their first year.

Meet our faculty, staff, and students, and see why we are one of the premier food science departments in the country.

Latest News

March 2, 2023

New partnership will address health and food safety challenges in Kenya

Representatives from Penn State, Meru University of Science and Technology, and Meru County in Kenya signed a memorandum of understanding in a ceremony in Kenya to formally commence their new partnership. This collaboration also will involve the Technical University of Denmark.

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March 2, 2023

Heinz ketchup bottle innovator creates food packaging program endowment

After a successful career in food packaging, Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences alumnus Doug Peck has committed $200,000 from his future estate to create the Douglas R. Peck Food Packaging Endowment in Food Science. The program endowment will support opportunities and efforts in the Department of Food Science related to food packaging programming.

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February 24, 2023

Processing, like fermentation and roasting, doesn’t cut cocoa’s health benefits

It is widely believed that when foods undergo processing, their health benefits are reduced. But that is not true for cocoa, according to a Penn State-led team of researchers, who conducted a new study using a mouse model.

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February 10, 2023

Q&A: Is chocolate healthy?

As Valentine’s Day approaches, the mind naturally turns to love — and chocolate. To learn more about chocolate and its effects on us, we spoke with Joshua Lambert, professor of food science at Penn State. Lambert’s research focuses on diet, specifically adopting dietary practices to prevent cancer, obesity and inflammation. He has worked extensively with cocoa, the key ingredient in chocolate.

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