The Department of Public Health (College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, UTK) and the Department of Food Science (Herbert College of Agriculture) 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 credit hours required for the certificate may also count as graduate degree credit 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. 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. Certificate may be earned completely online.

Campus Code

Knoxville Campus
Distance Education

Graduate Certificate Type

Stand-Alone

Add-On

Admissions Standards/Procedures

• 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 Office of Graduate Admissions.
• Current students should apply for an add-on certificate prior to the completion of six-semester hours towards the certificate requirements.

Credit Hours Required

13 graduate credit hours

Required Courses

• Required Courses (10 credit hours)
  • FDSC 421  (3 credit hours)
  • Web-based course CEM 508  (3 credit hours), or web-based course CEM 507  (3 credit hours)
  • PUBH 540  (3 credit hours)
  • PUBH 541  (1 credit hour)
    • PUBH 541  is cross-listed with FDSC 541  and CEM 541  
• Electives (3 credit hours)
  • Students will choose from a list of approved electives, which will be maintained by the Department of Public Health.

Non-Course Requirements

To receive the certificate, students must:
1) complete the Graduate Certificate Course Verification Form (located on the Graduate School webpage under the Forms Central tab) and
2) through MyUTK, apply to graduate from the certificate program.