Every year, thousands of people die, and many millions fall ill due to the consumption of unsafe food. As seafood consumption is increasing in the United States, the aquaculture industry needs well-trained food safety experts to minimize foodborne diseases and contamination risks. This project aims to enhance food safety knowledge and practical skills among aquaculture students at Kentucky State University (KSU) by providing professional food health certification and fish processing training. The platform statefoodsafety.com will be used to obtain certificate training courses and exams for both Food Managers Certification and Food Handlers Cards. KSU United State Aquaculture Society (USAS) Student Subunit submitted the proposal to USAS for a $1000 grant, prepared by a team of 8 graduate students (Figure 1).
The KSU USAS Student Subunit was awarded $400. This will be used to get 7 students certified with the Food Handlers Cards, 1 student certified with Food Managers Certification, and processing equipment. Previous KSU USAS Student Subunit projects such as the “Fin to Fork” video series have brought attention to the shortage of trained personnel and students’ limited practical experience in food safety. This project will build capacity in food safety certification and practical fish processing. The students will have greater skill diversity, which is highly useful in a competitive job market. They will be empowered to process seafood safely, to contribute to public health, and participate in educational events like product demonstrations, fostering a safer aquaculture practice, creating more certified experts in aquaculture, and advancing the US aquaculture community in the long term.