Food scientist Tony Jin's dissertation had something most don't: A picture of a Jack in the Box restaurant. While completing his master's degree in food engineering at the University of Missouri in 1993, the restaurant chain had an outbreak of Escherichia coli. He chose his degree because he wanted to protect food from pathogens, and that outbreak sealed his fate, so to speak.
More than 20 years later, the food industry remains vulnerable. In October, Jin learned that meat processor Topps had issued one of the largest beef recalls ever (more than 20 million pounds) due to contamination by E. coli, forcing the largest supplier of frozen hamburgers to shut its doors. This recall occurred one year after contaminated spinach sickened 205 people, killing three. These outbreaks are part of what gets Jin to work every day. "I wish I could go faster to do a better job to ...
