Sustainable Food Packaging and Production

My research program focuses on developing novel postharvest technologies to improve food quality, safety and sustainability of specialty crops and other agricultural/horticultural products, and valorization of their byproducts/side products for value-added applications. I am also interested in developing non-destructive sensing techniques for food quality and safety using optical/spectral approaches. The research work in our lab encompass fundamental and applied aspects of the postharvest processes.

My extension program on postharvest technologies aims to support and educate the stakeholders of New York State food and agriculture sectors (with a particular focus on specialty and horticultural crop industry) through application-directed scientific research, technology transfer and dissemination, communications.

Dr. Hanyu Chen is a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Food Science and Technology at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Dr. Chen received her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Food Science from Cornell University, with concentrations in Food Engineering, Microbiology, and Applied Economics and Management. She also received her B.S. degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Dr. Chen’s research focuses on integrating chemical engineering, food microbiology, and product innovation to illuminate opportunities to enhance the safety, quality, and overall sustainability of agri-food systems. Her key research interests include: 1) novel processing technologies to maintain freshness, improve quality and safety, and reduce loss in the agri-food supply chain; 2) efficient value-added processing of agri-food products and waste valorization leveraging cloud computing systems; and 3) effective microbial control and microbiome modulation in the production environment to ensure food safety and reduce our chemical footprint.