DATE:    7/23/99
CONTACT: Dr. Susan Barefoot, (864) 656-7610
WRITER:  Bill Baker, (864) 656-3875

Clemson Organizes Food Safety Institute

     CLEMSON -- One of Clemson University's most important
missions is to make the food we eat safer.
     "It's our duty to the people of South Carolina, whether
we're in research, Extension or regulatory programs," said Susan
Barefoot, director of the School of Applied Science and
Agribusiness and assistant director of the S.C. Agriculture and
Forestry Research System and the Clemson University Cooperative
Extension Service.
     That duty is the impetus behind the formation of the Food
Safety Institute at Clemson.
     "The institute is a comprehensive, integrated,
multidisciplinary program targeting the safety of the nation's
food supply," Barefoot said. It will involve three university
divisions, 10 different departments and county Extension faculty
across the state.
     "The institute is designed to encompass teaching, research,
regulatory programs and Extension," Barefoot said. "It will
communicate to students, citizens, industry, policymakers and
consumer groups."
     The new institute has already been accepted as a member of
the National Alliance for Food Safety, a partnership among 21 
universities and the Agricultural Research Service dedicated to
the science of safe food.
     "Right now, the Clemson institute's work is focused on
issues involving microbes because of the major impact that those
have on human health," Barefoot said. "But there are broader
issues in food safety - the chemical residue issues, nutrition
issues, overeating and obesity - impacting human health that we
will address in the future.
     The institute will bring together research efforts already
underway in different parts of the university and allow
researchers to share new ideas, as well as information from
ongoing projects.
     Active participants in the institute include the
Agromedicine Program and faculty in Animal & Veterinary Science,
Environmental Toxicology, the Cooperative Extension Service Food
Safety & Quality Initiative, the Food Safety Program, Food
Science & Human Nutrition, Family & Youth Development,
Horticulture, the Livestock-Poultry Health Program, Microbiology
& Molecular Medicine and Packaging Science and Clemson Regulatory 
Programs.
     "Through its participating members, the Clemson University
Food Safety Institute provides a unique mix of skills to the
development of lasting solutions to food safety issues," said
John Kelly, Clemson's vice president for public service & 
agriculture. "Clemson's Food Safety Institute is the only one in
the United States bringing these disciplines together in an
effort to solve farm-to-table food safety problems."
                         END