Ukraine Food Safety Program, Ukraine

Project Title: Ukraine Food Safety Program

Target Country: Ukraine

Principal Partner: National University of Life and Environmental Sciences

Supporting Source: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Collaborators: Penn State Food Science and Ukrainian instructors

Professors:

• Dr. Cathy Cutter, (CC) - Penn State Food Science
• Mr. Martin Bucknavage (MB) - Penn State Food Science
• Dr. Swamy Anantheswaran (SA) - Penn State Food Science
• Dr. Hassan Gourama (HG) - Penn State Berks Campus
• Dr. Siroj Pokhare (SP)l, post-doc, Penn State
• Dr. Olga Shanina (OS) - Kharhiv, Yurij Bihun

Project Description:

With assistance from USAID, this food safety educational project was modeled after the PSU-Virginia Tech Food Safety Course, with an adapted curriculum to fit Ukrainian needs. Five PSU/CAS Department of Food Science instructors, in addition to Ukrainian instructors like Olga Shanina and the Program Coordinator, Yurij Bihun, collaborated to implement this curriculum to participants in Kyiv, Ukraine. Topics discussed in the course include food science, product development, food microbiology, sanitation, process control, food defense, cereal quality, food mycology, and mycotoxins. Participants are able to learn through experience by visiting different food laboratories, food processing plants, and mycology testing laboratories.