Robert Gravani is a Professor of Food Science in the Department of Food Science. He received a BS degree in Food Science from Rutgers University and his MS and PhD degrees in Food Science from Cornell University with minors in microbiology and food marketing/management. He was appointed to the food science faculty in 1978 and currently serves as the Department Extension Leader and Director of the National Good Agricultural Practices Program. He co-teaches FS 150, Food Choices and Issues, as well as FS 494, Current Issues in Diet-Health Relationships and FS 396, Food Safety Assurance.
Dr. Gravani's primary responsibilities are in the area of food science/food safety extension and outreach where he maintains a very active program and conducts short courses, seminars, and workshops for food processors, food retailers, the foodservice industry, and government regulatory agencies. He is interested in the microbiological safety and quality of foods and consumer knowledge of these important issues.
Present Projects Include:
Reducing microbial risks in fruits and vegetables with good agricultural practices.
In the past two decades, there has been a noticeable increase in the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables in the United States. Public health officials have observed significant increases in the number of produce-associated foodborne disease outbreaks in the U.S. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), foodborne disease surveillance reports from 1973 to 1998, a doubling in the annual number of reported produce-associated outbreaks and in the number of persons affected has occurred. This project provides farm owners and others with information on microbiological contamination of raw produce during growing, harvesting and processing and assist them in using good agricultural practices and good manufacturing practices to reduce the risks of these hazards. Educational materials designed and developed at Cornell are being used by collaborators in twenty-five states to provide farmers with a better understanding of good agricultural practices.
Determine human pathogen survival in water and spray mixes applied to different produce commodities.
Many fruits and vegetables are eaten raw or are minimally processed. While these commodities are being grown, they are often irrigated from surface water sources and protected from pests with topical sprays that are pre-mixed with surface water. Several produce associated foodborne illness outbreaks have been linked to water, but research data regarding the impact of non-potable surface water and topical sprays on produce safety is lacking. Currently, there are no federal irrigation water standards.
The broad objective of this project is to determine the hazards and risks and to develop appropriate recommendations for the use of surface water irrigation and topical spray applications using surface water.
Specific objectives include:
- Evaluating the microbiological quality of surface water sources on a weekly basis to determine fluctuations in quality over time.
- Determining if topical sprays are contributing to the microbial contamination of spray tanks and, in turn, produce.
- Determining if fruits and vegetables grown using topical sprays and irrigated with surface water were contaminated with human pathogens during the growing season.
The implementation of prerequisite programs, good manufacturing practices (GMPs), and the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point System (HACCP) in a Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) hydroponic lettuce operation.
Work is currently underway in a CEA production facility in Ithaca that produces about 1,000 heads of Boston lettuce each day. In addition to studying growth parameters, production costs, and marketing considerations, food safety procedures that would reduce the microbiological risks in this operation are being developed and implemented.