Welcome to the LSU Department of Food Science. Food is a basic requirement for life. We set our daily schedules by it, depend on it for good health, and it is the focal point of most of our social activities. Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent each year on advertising, processing and purchasing food. As a result, food processing is one of the nation’s largest industries. With growing and shifting populations, methods for processing, distributing and marketing foods have changed dramatically in this century. Along with these changes, there are increasing new challenges in food safety and quality. This is an exciting time as new and innovative processing methods are emerging with technologic advances.