May 13, 2008

Consumer demand for conveniently packaged vegetables, fruit, meat and other foods has created a need for more people to work in food processing.

And in the most productive agricultural region in the world, the San Joaquin Valley, Fresno State is developing courses that will train those people using the latest in automated equipment and encourage development of more food processing businesses closer to where the food is harvested.

A new processing and packaging technology emphasis in the Industrial Technology Department is filling that need.

"Economically, this brings more employment opportunities for businesses in the Central Valley, because students now don't have to leave the Valley to be educated in this specific field," said Dr. Sandra Witte, associate dean for the College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (CAST). "Furthermore, this gives the agricultural industry a faster response time, while exposing our students to packaging related issues."

Due to its rich and diverse landscape, California is the top agricultural producing state and as a result, it is also the largest food processing employer in the United States, said Dr. N. Premchand Mahalik, assistant professor in the Department of Industrial Technology. The state generates $50 billion a year, while encompassing more than 3,000 companies, he said.

Mahalik said that aiming to address the issue of technology, while providing a reliable and trained workforce, the new Fresno State emphasis will offer research activities and classroom instruction, and will give students the opportunity to learn about processing and packaging automation, technology and systems.

"We have both the cultivation and harvesting aspects on the school farm, along with the marketing of our products through the Farm Market and the development of new products through our food science program," Witte said.

"This program completes other aspects that are crucial to the agricultural industry and fills in the pieces we were missing. This is an example of how our college is completing the farm to fork continuum," she said.

The original seed grant funding for the development of the program was made available by the California Agricultural Technology Institute and CAST. An additional $50,000 worth of "in-kind" support was obtained from the Echelon Corporation for the purchase of equipment and tools for the classroom needed for the design and development of distributed control systems, which is used in most food processing and packaging plants.

"This university was seeking to fill the gap of expertise between processing and packaging automation technology," said Mahalik. "By setting up laboratories and obtaining research facilities and infrastructure, we will engage our students in scholarly activities and oriented hands-on projects that will ultimately help move us all a step forward," he said.