Food + Agriculture

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers have significantly enhanced an artificial intelligence tool used to rapidly detect bacterial contamination in food by eliminating misclassifications of food debris that looks like bacteria.

Current methods to detect contamination of foods such as leafy greens, meat and cheese, which typically involve cultivating bacteria, often require specialized expertise and are time consuming — taking several days to a week.

Photos https://beav.es/Jx5 (Flickr) and video https://beav.es/Jxo (Box) available.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – It sounds like the setup for a holiday romantic comedy – Priya Rajarapu works as a Christmas tree expert for Oregon State University’s Extension Service, helping Oregon’s 300-plus Christmas tree growers produce a healthy crop each holiday season so that the state can export millions of perfect trees across the world.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers have taken a significant step toward creating a standardized language for describing the aromas of cannabis and hemp.

“Aroma plays a key role in how consumers judge cannabis quality, yet until now there’s been no standardized language to describe it,” said Tom Shellhammer, professor of food science and technology at Oregon State University. “This research lays the groundwork for a shared vocabulary that benefits consumers, retailers and growers.”

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Building on nearly two decades of success, Oregon is planting the seeds for a healthier, more resilient future. 

The Oregon Farm to School Network, which includes the Oregon State University Extension Service, has released Oregon Harvest for Schools: 10-Year Strategic Vision for Oregon Farm to School (2025–2035) — a transformative roadmap to ensure every child has access to delicious, nutritious local food while supporting Oregon’s farmers, food makers, educators and communities.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers have developed a smartphone-based artificial intelligence system that accurately predicts the ripeness and internal quality of avocados.

“Avocados are among the most wasted fruits globally due to overripeness,” said Luyao Ma, an assistant professor at Oregon State University. “Our goal was to create a tool that helps consumers and retailers make smarter decisions about when to use or sell avocados.”

CORVALLIS, Ore. – As canning season gets underway, the food safety and preservation helpline from Oregon State University Extension Service will start taking calls July 7.

The toll-free helpline, 800-354-7319, is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. The helpline will be staffed by certified Master Food Preserver volunteers in several Oregon counties until Oct. 10. After this date, the helpline will remain open and will be checked weekly for voice messages. In 2024, the volunteers fielded 723 calls.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A new study examined feeding a hemp byproduct to cows and found that the trace amounts of psychoactive THC in hemp were undetectable in the milk and edible tissue of cows if they were weaned off the byproduct before milking or processing.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers have made a key advance in turning spent coffee grounds into food packaging materials that can extend the shelf life of products.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Certain groups of consumers appear to be open to drinking smoke-impacted wines, a finding in a new study that could provide market opportunities for winemakers increasingly dealing with the effects of wildfire smoke on grapes.