Food Safety Graduate Certificate

The Department of Public Health (College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, UTK) and the Department of Food Science and Technology (College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, UTIA) jointly offer a Graduate Certificate in Food Safety to prepare public health and food industry leaders, researchers, educators, and practitioners to understand and apply knowledge and skills to enhance food safety and prevent food-related disease. The Center for Agriculture and Food Security and Preparedness and the Department of Biomedical and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine are partners supporting this certificate. The certificate offering is coordinated through the Tennessee Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence and will be administratively housed in the Department of Public Health. The certificate program is designed to build upon and expand concepts from core courses of the curriculum of each discipline’s Master’s degree programs and the previous experiences and interests of students. The 12 graduate hours required for the certificate may also count as graduate degree hours. The certificate is also designed for the current workforce in public health or food industry-related employment to acquire additional training and expertise relevant to their job functions. Certificate candidates must currently be admitted to a degree-granting graduate program at the university or hold an undergraduate degree and be admitted to the certificate program by submitting an online application for the Food Safety certificate through the Graduate Admissions Office. Course experiences will foster the examination and application of current policy research and the development of skills related to policy analysis, research, program evaluation, and advocacy.

Required Courses (9 hours):

• FDST 421 ; (3 hours)
• Web-based course (CEM 508; 2 hours)  OR  web-based course (CEM 507, 2 hours)
• PUBH 540 ; (3 hours)
• PUBH 541 , (1 hour)  (PUBH 541  is cross-listed with FDST 541  and CEM 541)

Electives (3 hours):
Students will choose from a list of approved electives, which will be maintained by the Department of Public Health.