In the Spotlight
Fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology
Supervisory Microbiologist Vijay K. Juneja, ARS Residue Chemistry and Predictive Microbiology Research Unit, Wyndmoor, PA, has been elected to Fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology, for his significant contributions to multiple areas within the broad discipline of food safety microbiology, including a series of ground breaking publications on microbiological safety of minimally processed foods and predictive microbiology. Academy Fellows are eminent leaders in the field of microbiology and are relied upon for authoritative advice and information on critical issues in microbiology. Dr. Juneja will be recognized at the 113th American Society for Microbiology General Meeting on May 21 in Denver, CO.
Congratulations Dr. Juneja!
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Turning agriculture into oil, bio oil, that is
The process dates to ancient Egypt. Now, it’s being studied here by the USDA as a way to fuel farms.
Pour a few handfuls of chopped- up corn stalks or switchgrass into a hopper. Heat rapidly. Funnel the resulting mixture through an intricate network of metal pipes and canisters.
Chemical engineer Akwasi A. Boateng holds up a sample of oil produced by the process called fast pyrolysis.
Out the other end — drip, drip — comes a thick brown liquid that looks an awful lot like oil.
Called bio oil, it is not quite the same as what comes out of a well. But it is close enough that government scientists think the process, called fast pyrolysis, is a promising way for farmers to enhance energy security.
The room-size network of pipes and canisters is a pilotscale reactor in Wyndmoor, at the eastern regional research center of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Scientists there are confident that, with some tweaking, they can turn any “biomass” — even manure — into oil that can be refined into gasoline or diesel fuel.
“We want to engineer this for the farm,” said Akwasi A. Boateng, the chemical engineer who is leading the effort for the Agricultural Research Service.
Click here to read more.
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ERRC Participates in the 2013 Farmshow - Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
(Left to Right): Butch Scullen, LiMei Yun, Kenyetta Chaney, Bernadette DiAndrea, Dr. Michael Haas
Pennsylvania is proudly hosted the largest indoor agricultural exposition in the country, with nearly 6,000 animals, 10,000 competitive exhibits and 300 commercial exhibits. This was the 97th Pennsylvania Farm Show to celebrate agriculture – Made in PA. It makes a difference. The 2013 show ran Jan. 5-12, 2013.
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USDA Announces Investments in Bioenergy Research and Development to Spur New Markets, Innovation, and Unlimited Opportunity in Rural America
On January 11, 2013 Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the funding of a $6.9 million Biomass Research and Development Initiative grant for the Eastern Regional Research Center’s Sustainable Biofuels and CoProducts Research Unit. The grant will allow ERRC and their 12 partners to develop an on-the-farm distributed technology for converting forest residues, horse manure, switchgrass and other perennial grasses into biofuels and high-value specialty chemicals. The process will be implemented at on-the-farm scale using a patent-pending unit that will mimic the petroleum industry’s catalytic cracking process. The project integrates a life cycle assessment from collection and handling of the biomass to end products and will use thermodynamic principles to assess its sustainability.
Dr. Akwasi Boateng of ERRC is the Principal Investigator and originator of the proposal. Essential research partners include Montgomery County (PA) Farm Bureau, American Refining Group, Mesa Reduction Engineering and Processing Inc., RER Energy Group, SAPPI North America, Siemens, Inc., University of South Carolina, University of Delaware, University of Maine, Drexel University with Swarthmore College and SUNY ESF, Villanova University with PQ/Zeolyst Corp., Morrisville State College, University of Oklahoma, and University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.
To view entire news release online, visit http://www.nifa.usda.gov/newsroom/news/2013news/01112_brdi.html
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Olive oil’s health benefits? It’s a slippery question
By Katherine Tallmadge, Sep 11, 2012 01:54 PM EDT
The Washington Post Published: September 11
You feel good about using olive oil, right? You know it’s good for you, tasty and easy to use. Still, to get the most benefits — and the best bang for your buck – there’s more you should know.
“The health benefits of olive oil are 99 percent related to the presence of the phenolic compounds, not the oil itself,” says Nasir Malik, research plant physiologist at the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Agricultural Research Service.
Malik is referring to the polyphenols in olive oil, nutrients also found in wine, tea, cocoa and many fruits and vegetables that have been discovered over the past decade to be the substances responsible for the bulk of olive oil’s health benefits, without which “you might as well use canola oil,” Malik says.
And when tested, polyphenols were surprisingly low in most commercially available olive oils, according to a recently published study conducted by the Agricultural Research Service, co-authored by Malik.
Read full article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/olive-oils-health-benefits-its-a-slippery-question/2012/09/10/09aca37a-e257-11e1-98e7-89d659f9c106_story.html
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Winner of the 2013 International Union of Leather Technologist and Chemist Associations Merit Award: Dr. Ellie Brown
This Award recognises significant contribution to the global leather industry by the world’s leading scientists and is a celebration of excellence. Since 1971, Dr. Eleanor (Ellie) Brown has studied protein structure and investigated the relationships between structure and biological or technological function. From 1990, Dr Brown has been leading projects designed to reduce the environmental impact of leather production and has helped develop a basis for understanding the mechanisms of tanning using molecular modelling. Dr Brown has collaborated with researchers in the USA and worldwide to study collagen structure and its function in tanning. She has worked on developing value added products from tannery waste. Her reputation draws scientists from around the world to come to her laboratory and work on the biochemical fundamentals of tanning. Dr Brown is an active member of the ALCA and a member of the Editorial Board of the JALCA leather journal.
Congratulations Ellie!
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Secretary's Honor Award
The following are the recipient of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) Secretary’s Honor Award “For exceptional collaboration in the development and implementation of research to characterize Listeria monocytogenes prevalence and levels in ready-to-eat foods.” Team Leaders: John B. Luchansky (USDA-ARS), Janell Kause and William Shaw (USDA-FSIS), Jeehyun Lee (Drexel University), and Sherri Dennis and Yuhuan Chen (DHHS-FDA). Team Members: A. C. S. Porto-Fett, R. Pouillot, K. Hoelzer, L. Gathercole, L. Papadakis, L. Williams, B. A. Shoyer, J. A. Lindsay, E. Mbandi, D. Eblen, D. Gallagher, V. Cook, N. Bauer, R. Johnson, J. King, M. Murphy, J. Nasella, H. E. Starks, S. Khokhar, C. A. Spurlino, T. Nguyen, K. Berry, A. Kanjanakorn, S. Wadsworth, E. G. Baker, C. Harvey, C. Reed, K. Martino, V. Klein, A. Adams, L. Shane, A. Rajakamur, K. Wyszkowski, A. Aidala, and L. A. Benjamin (2012).
Congratulations to the DHHS - Lm team!
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Secretary's Honor Award for the Work on STECs
Left to Right:
Dr. Edward Knipling, ARS Admininstrator; Dr. Marjorie Medina, (ERRC, Wyndmoor, PA); Dr. William Cray (FSIS, Athens GA); Dr. Pina Fratamico (ERRC, Wyndmoor, PA); Dr. Weilin Shelver (Biosciences Research Laboratory, Fargo, ND)
On September 12, 2012, Pina Fratamico, Marjorie Medina, Anna Porto-Fett, and Jamie Wasilenko of the ERRC received the Secretary’s Honor Award as members of the "STEC Team". The other members of the team on the group award are listed below. This award was under the "Category of Ensuring that all of America’s children have access to safe, nutritious, and balanced meals.
"The STEC Team” was nominated by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Office of Public Health Science under the Category of Ensuring that all of America’s children have access to safe, nutritious, and balanced meals.
Group Leaders: Denise Eblen and William Cray (FSIS)
Group Members: Flora Tsui, Harry Marks, Nora Pihkala, Meryl Silverman, Teresa Taylor, Jennifer Webb, Charles Williams, Priya Kadam, Nathan Bauer, Philip Bronstein, Victor Cook, William Cray, Uday Dessai, Denise Eblen, Peter Evans, Kristin Holt, Rachel Johnson, Janell Kause, Bonnie Kissler, Neelam Narang, Cathy Pentz, Mark Pratt, Lorenza Rozier, Wayne Schlosser, Mustafa Simmons, Glenn Tillman, Sarah Berg-Devney, Catherine Cochran, Pina Fratamico, Marjorie Medina, Anna Porto-Fett, Weilin Shelver, Jamie Wasilenko, Joseph M. Bosilevac, Sheila Novak"
The award was “For excellence in leadership to protect the U.S. food supply through timely development and implementation of a robust science-based program for controlling non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli in beef.
Congratulations to the STEC team!
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Olive oil’s health benefits? It’s a slippery question
By Katherine Tallmadge, Published: September 11 The Washington Post
You feel good about using olive oil, right? You know it’s good for you, tasty and easy to use. Still, to get the most benefits — and the best bang for your buck – there’s more you should know.
“The health benefits of olive oil are 99 percent related to the presence of the phenolic compounds, not the oil itself,” says Nasir Malik, research plant physiologist at the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Agricultural Research Service.
Click here to read the full article!
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Michael Tunick Elected American Chemical Society Fellow
The Dairy and Functional Foods Research Unit is pleased to announce that Dr. Michael Tunick has been selected as a Fellow of the American Chemical Society's Division of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The AGFD Fellows program began in 1988 to recognize outstanding scientific contributions to the field of agricultural and food chemistry, with a significant portion of the research reported in ACS journals and books and/or at Divisional symposia. Marshall Fishman and John Cherry are the other AGFD Fellows from ERRC.
Mike was honored for his outstanding research that led to the development of low-fat Mozzarella for the National School Lunch Program and that determined the mechanism of casein submicelle rearrangement in aging cheese. He also devised methods for detecting mislabeled cheese upon a request by AMS and US Customs; used thermal techniques to determine the effects of cold shocking and heat stress on Listeria and Clostridium, and is an internationally recognized expert in the rheology of cheese and whey proteins. He is the author or co-author of 100 scientific publications and has made over 80 presentations at international, national, regional, and local scientific meetings.
Mike was also honored for his service to AGFD. He serves as Secretary and was the 2001 Chair of the Division. He was the co-chair of 16 symposia at ACS National Meetings and co-editor of five books based on these meetings. He is also a Member of the ACS Speaker Service, presenting talks at 31 Local Sections and a webinar to the membership in May 2011. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. He is also the originator and coordinator of ERRC Future Scientists Day. Over 30 of the students who have attended since 1991 have been hired as summer or part-time help.
Congratulations, Mike!
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ARS Scientific Mentoring Wins Two Awards!
ARS scientific mentoring wins multiple awards, as demonstrated by mentee Soumi Ray, graduate student at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Resesarch Scientist Tony Jin, ARS Residue Chemistry and Microbiological Predictive Research Unit, Wyndmoor, PA, guided Soumi Ray on her research developing a self-generating chlorine dioxide packaging material. Reactants sodium chlorite and citric acid were incorporated into polyactic acid (PLA) films to release chlorine dioxide into package to guard foods against foodborne pathogens as well as spoilage microflora. Her innovative, pioneering work garnered her the First Place (plague and $1,000 cash) in Graduate Student Research Paper Competition in the 2012 Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting held in Las Vegas, June 2012. She is one of 19 winners from 625 papers submitted for the competition. As an accolade to her cutting edge research on chlorine dioxide releasing packaging system which has a potential to improve world's food supply by minimizing food loss and therefore combating world hunger, she also won 2011 Daun Family Endowed Graduate Student Prize (certificate and $1,000 cash) from the Department of Food Science, Rutgers University. Soumi Ray is a graduate student under supervision of Professor Kit Yam, Rutgers University. She has been working with Dr. Tony Jin and other research scientist (Drs. Xuetong Fan and LinShu Liu) in ARS, developing this novel antimicrobial food packaging system for the last almost 2 years. Soumi remarks, "I am greatly honored for being recipients of these awards. Above all, the knowledge and experience gained while working with ARS scientists is priceless." She expressed sincere thanks and gratitude for Dr. Jin and other ARS scientists for their guidance.
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ASABE Superior Paper Award
ERRC Researchers Dr. Kevin Hicks and Ms. Jhanel Wilson were recently honored by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. Their paper, co-authored with former ERRC Engineer Dr. Rolando Flores on "Progressive Hull Removal from Barley Using the Fitzpatrick Comminuting Mill" was selected for a ASABE Superior Paper Award given in recognition of authorship of a contribution to agricultural and biological engineering literature of exceptional merit. This is the highest award ASABE gives for publications in its series of journals.
Congratulations Kevin and Jhanel!
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2012 ADSA Award of Honor
The Dairy and Functional Foods Research Unit is pleased to announce that Dr. George Somkuti, Lead Scientist, was the recipient of the 2012 Award of Honor at the Annual Meeting of the American Dairy Science Association, July 16-19, in Phoenix, AX. George was recognized for his outstanding service to the dairy industry and the ADSA.
Congratulations to Dr. Somkuti!
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ERRC Research Highlights 2000-2010
The ERRC Research Highlights publication has arrived! Please click here to review the new publication.
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Upcoming Events
- March 11 - Seminar: "Synthetic Platforms for the Engineering of Bioactive Cyclic Peptides" presented by Mr. Patrick J. Knerr, American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellow, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; to be held in Room 2006 at 10 am
- March 11 - Green Team Documentary: "The end of life" - Part 1; to be held in Room 2006 at Noon
- March 12 - Seminar: "Building International Bridges in Agricultural Research" presented by Melanie Peterson, International Affairs Specialist, Office of International Research Programs; to be held in Room 3008 at 10 am
- March 12 - Local 1331 Union Meeting to be held in Room 2006 at Noon
- March 13 - Green Team Documentary: "The end of life" - Part 2; to be held in Room 2006 at Noon
- March 19 - "Chat with the Director" to be held in Room 2006 at 11 am
- March 21 - Federal Women's Programs - Women's History Month - Guest Speaker: Ms. Darlene Cavalier; to be held in the Auditorium at 10 am
10 Most Recent Publications
Additional Publications - We have 7600+ publications online that you can view and print.
The following publications are not yet online. To request a reprint, please email Robert.Downs@ars.usda.gov with your name, address, and reprint number.
| REPRINT |
TITLE |
AUTHOR |
| 8481 |
Combined osmodehydration and high pressure processing on the enzyme stability and antioxidant capacity of a grapefruit jam |
M. Igual, F. Sampedro, N. Martinez-Navarrete, and X. Fan |
| 8480 |
Effects of temperature and purity of magnesium sulfate during extraction of pesticide residues using the QuEChERS method |
L. Geis-Asteggiante, S.J. Lehotay, and H. Heinzen |
| 8479 |
Effect of native microflora, waiting period, and storage temperature on Listeria monocytogenes serovars transferred from cantaloupe rind to fresh-cut pieces during preparation |
D.O. Ukuku, M. Olanya, D.J. Geveke, and C.H. Sommers |
| 8478 |
Mass balance, energy, and exergy analysis of bio-oil production by fast pyrolysis |
A.A. Boateng, C.A. Mullen, L. Osgood-Jacobs, P. Carlson, and N. Macken |
| 8477 |
Lipase-catalyzed transesterification to remove saturated MAG from biodiesel |
S.K. Padhi, M. Haas, and U.T. Bornscheuer |
| 8476 |
Mineral nutrient recovery from pyrolysis systems |
J. Wise, D. Vietor, T. Provin, S. Capareda, C. Munster, and A. Boateng |
| 8475 |
Effects of swelling on the viscoelastic properties of polyester films made from glycerol and glutaric acid |
V.T. Wyatt |
| 8474 |
Genes that are affected in high hydrostatic pressure treatments in a Listeria monocytogenes Scott A ctsR deletion mutant |
Y. Liu, L. Huang, R.D. Joerger, and N.W. Gunther, IV |
| 8473 |
Isolation of Shiga toxin-producing Escheichia coli serogroups O26, O45, O103, O111, O121, and O145 from ground beef using modified rainbow agar and post-immunomagnetic separation acid treatment |
G.E. Tillman, J.L. Wasilenko, M. Simmons, T.A. Lauze, J. Minicozzi, B.B. Oakley, N. Narang, P. Fratamico, and W.C. Cray, Jr. |
| 8472 |
Protection of probiotic bacteria in a synbiotic matrix following aerobic storage at 4oC |
S. Chaluvadi, A.T. Hotchkiss, Jr., J.E. Call, J.B. Luchansky, J.G. Phillips, L.S. Liu and K.L. Yam | |
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