Colorado State Meat Safety Expert Earns Usda Award

Colorado State University President Albert Yates will deliver his annual fall address Sept. 11 to recognize university accomplishments as well as focus on future university endeavors.

A professor of animal science and specialist in red meat safety at Colorado State University won a 2001 Honor Award for Superior Service from the United States Secretary of Agriculture.

John Sofos also was recognized with a certificate of appreciation issued by the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, a USDA agency that has funded Sofos’ research and nominated him for the award, presented by Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman.

The Honor Awards are the most significant the USDA bestows to acknowledge outstanding contributions to agriculture.

Sofos, who earned a doctorate in food sciences from the University of Minnesota in 1979, conducts research into the sources, ecology and extent of bacterial pathogen contamination of meat and other foods. He has developed procedures to reduce contamination and to inactivate or inhibit bacterial pathogens, and studies the resistance of microorganisms to preservation procedures. Finally, his investigations include methods of sampling and detecting bacteria in foods.

Other awards include the Distinguished Meat Research Award of the American Meat Science Association (1994), the Meats Research Award of the American Society of Animal Science (1996) and the Faculty Award of Merit for Research and Outreach of the Colorado State University Chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta (1998).

He was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 1995 and of the Institute of Food Technologists in 1997.