Arkansas food safety scientists share latest research on noroviruses, sanitizers, AI
Sept. 1, 2025
By John Lovett
University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station
Fast facts
- New zebrafish model may help fight leading cause of gastroenteritis
- Low-moisture food equipment sanitizer shows alcohol works as well as high heat
- Discussions held on AI in food safety and farmers market food safety
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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Researchers with the Arkansas Center for Food Safety have made strides in studying human noroviruses in zebrafish that may help slow the spread of the leading cause of gastroenteritis worldwide.
Sahaana Chandran, a food science Ph.D. student who works with the Center for Food Safety, conducted studies comparing human norovirus replication in zebrafish embryos and larvae, the next phase in development of the minnow. While the virus samples were toxic to the embryos of the zebrafish at full strength, the virus samples didn’t kill the larvae and replicated at different levels, which mirrored human infections.
Kristen Gibson, a professor of food safety and microbiology and director of the Center for Food Safety, said results of the study can potentially aid in validating food safety interventions to mitigate human norovirus transmission because it can be used to compare directly to human noroviruses rather than just a surrogate virus.
“We have not been able to routinely validate an intervention strategy against actual human noroviruses because we didn’t have a way to test inactivity,” Gibson said. “We had to rely on molecular detection, which does not tell us whether a virus is capable of causing infection. But now we do! And we don’t have to always rely on validation with cultivable surrogate viruses.”
There is currently no vaccine against norovirus infection, and antibiotics have no effect on this illness since it is caused by a virus.
Norovirus can spread easily from person to person or by eating or drinking food and water that has the virus in it. You can help protect yourself by washing your hands well and making sure your food and water are from safe and reputable sources, Gibson noted.
Gibson is also the Donald “Buddy” Wray Endowed Chair in Food Safety.
Chandran, a graduate student with the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, shared the results of the study at the International Association of Food Protection conference in Cleveland in late July. She placed third in the technical category of the J. Mac Goepfert Developing Scientists Awards and was among just 11 people selected by the conference program committee to compete in the competition. More than 70 abstracts were submitted for the category.
The Center for Food Safety is part of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
Members of the center seek evidence-based solutions to food safety issues within Arkansas and beyond through research, innovation and collaboration between the public and private sectors. In additional to food safety issues in vegetables and meats, the center also focuses on novel processing technologies, mitigating mycotoxins in grains, and low-moisture food safety challenges.
Other Center of Food Safety faculty and students also participated at the IAFP conference, presenting the results of studies on sanitizers and taking part in discussions on applications of artificial intelligence in food safety and farmers market food safety.
Sanitizer spotlight
Kavita Patil, who recently earned her Ph.D. in food science, presented the results of a study looking at the effectiveness of three sanitation protocols against Salmonella species in low-moisture foods. She was advised by Jennifer Acuff, an assistant professor of food safety and microbiology with the Division of Agriculture and Bumpers College.
Patil showed that sanitizing pieces of stainless steel using a 62-percent isopropyl alcohol was nearly equal to a treatment of 275 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. An ammonium-based treatment had the lowest Salmonella reduction.
Co-authors of the study included Manita Adhikari, Travis Sananikone, Karina Desiree, Peter Rubinelli, and Acuff.
Francis Torko, a Ph.D. student and graduate research assistant working with Gibson, also presented a poster summarizing a Center for Food Safety study titled “Produce formulation and rubbing time impact on the inactivation of viruses on hands by foam-based hand sanitizers.”
Their study, supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, found that the efficacy of commercially available foam hand sanitizers depends on rubbing time. The test subjects who rubbed the hand sanitizer on their hands until it had dried saw a greater reduction of viruses than those who rubbed their hands for only 10 seconds.
Future of food safety
Jeyam Subbiah, a professor of food science specializing in food safety engineering, took part in a five-person roundtable at the conference to discuss the potential applications of artificial intelligence in food safety.
A few examples mentioned in the roundtable by Subbiah included research at the Center for Scalable and Intelligent Automation in Poultry Processing on the use of AI for autonomous vehicles to test sanitation and detect foreign materials in food processing areas. The center, funded by USDA-NIFA and led by the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, is a collaboration with Georgia Tech, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Fort Valley State University and the USDA Agricultural Research Service.
Other topics included AI in robotics and automation, predictive modeling and help in developing food safety plans.
Gibson and fellow food safety researchers from the USDA and universities in Brazil and Oman also gave a symposium on research to improve food safety training for farmers market vendors.
IAFP 2025’s program in Cleveland was July 27-30 and had more than 3,000 registered attendees representing 60 countries, 49 states plus the District of Columbia, and nine Canadian provinces. The meeting, which has earned recognition as the leading food safety conference, featured more than 1,000 presentations and 600 poster presentations.
“We’re making a more significant presence at the conference,” Gibson said. “Participation of this level is validation that we’re being viewed as experts in the field.”
To learn more about the Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website. Follow us on X at @ArkAgResearch, subscribe to the Food, Farms and Forests podcast and sign up for our monthly newsletter, the Arkansas Agricultural Research Report. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit uada.edu. Follow us on X at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit uaex.uada.edu.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on three system campuses.
Pursuant to 7 CFR § 15.3, the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs and services (including employment) without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, sexual preference, pregnancy or any other legally protected status, and is an equal opportunity institution.
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Media Contact: John Lovett
U of A System Division of Agriculture
Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station
(479) 763-5929
jlovett@uada.edu