2019 ASHS Annual Conference

Yaguang “Sunny” Luo has been at the forefront of research in providing critical data to assist the fresh produce industry to meet regulatory expectations of controlling food safety hazards during production. As an extremely dedicated and tireless research scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, Sunny has achieved national and international recognition for her work in fresh produce safety and quality. Her expansive research portfolio and findings have significantly impacted food safety policies and practices in both the United States and internationally. Sunny’s record of research is extraordinary for its practical usefulness, i.e. she has worked on preventive controls in scaled-up processes relevant to industry, all while keeping an eye on the effects of the interventions on product quality.

During post-harvest washing of fresh-cut produce, antimicrobials are used to minimize the spread of any microbial contamination that could be present; yet, validation of the antimicrobial washing process is difficult, due to the dynamic nature of the process and the lack of comparable validation procedures to use as a guide. A national working group to address this validation question was organized in 2013, with the goal of writing a white paper to recommend guidelines for validating preventive controls for fresh-cut produce processes. Sunny served as an extremely valuable scientific resource for this working group, which consisted of members from academia, government and industry. She generously shared in-progress pre-publication data to help the working group in its discussions, when published data were lacking. As a further example of her dedication, Sunny conducted experiments to specifically answer questions for the working group. She wrote insightful key pieces for the validation white paper, which has been published in the Journal of Food Protection (Gombas, et al. 2017. JFP 80: 312-330), and which serves as a comprehensive guide for minimizing food safety hazards for fresh-cut produce. .Furthermore, these recommendations were incorporated into FDA’s recently published Draft Guidance to Industry “Guide to Minimize Food Safety Hazards of Fresh-cut Produce,” which was released in October 2018: https://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/UCM623718.pdf.

Sunny has been dedicated to communication and outreach, through her many activities in professional organizations, editorial boards and various expert panels and advisory committees. The close connection of Sunny’s research to the issues faced by the fresh produce industry is impressive. The outcomes of her research have advanced horticultural science and have benefitted the industry. She is internationally recognized as a fresh produce research scientist and technical expert; and richly deserves the Outstanding Researcher Award.

Dr. Luo received her PhD. In Horticulture and Landscape Architecture from Washington State University, an MS in Food Science from Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China and a BS in Horticulture from Sichuan Agricultural University, Wuhan, China.