In 1934, the newly established National Northwest Agricultural and Forestry College (the predecessor of Northwest A&F university) opened agro-product manufacturing courses for students majored in agricultural science. This is one of the earliest records of food science and engineering education in China. In 1936, the horticulture teaching and research group opened agro-manufacturing courses, the animal husbandry teaching and research group opened livestock manufacturing courses, and the forest teaching and research group opened forestry products manufacturing courses. In 1946, the Department of Agricultural Products and Manufacturing was established, which was one of the earliest higher education institutions to conduct food science and engineering education in China. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the discipline construction has been developed in agronomy, horticulture, animal husbandry, forestry, agrochemistry and other related majors.
In 1985, the Department of Food Science was established, and the enrollment of undergraduates began that year. In 1999, the College of Food Science and Engineering was established. Now, the college is comprised of three departments, namely the Department of Food Science and Technology, the Department of Food Safety, and the Department of Food Nutrition and Health. There are three undergraduate majors in food science and engineering, food quality and safety, and food nutrition and health. There is a Sino-foreign cooperative undergraduate program (China-US "3 +1" Food Science and Engineering Major). Among them, the food science and engineering major is a national characteristic major, which certificated by engineering education and was selected into the "Double Ten Thousand" program. The food quality and safety major and the food nutrition and health major were the first to establish in China in 2001 and 2019, respectively.
In 1986, the college was granted the right to grant master's degree in agricultural product processing and storage engineering. In 2000, the college was granted the right to grant doctorate degree in food science. In 2006, the college was granted the right to grant doctorate degree in food science and engineering. In 2007, the college was approved as a postdoctoral mobile station. The college currently has four doctoral and master secondary subject in food science, grain oil and vegetable protein engineering, agricultural product processing and storage engineering, and aquatic product processing and storage engineering. In addition, there are two professional master degree authorization points including the master of engineering and the master of agricultural extension.
The college has 5 national, provincial and ministerial scientific research bases, including the National Yangling Agricultural Comprehensive Experimental Engineering Technology Research Center and the Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Risk Assessment Laboratory (Yangling) of the Ministry of Agriculture. There are 2 provincial and ministerial-level testing institutions including the Food Quality Inspection and Testing Center (Yangling) of the Ministry of Agriculture.
The college has 148 staff members with 28 professors and 56 associate professors, 35 doctoral supervisors and 58 master supervisors. Among them, there are 1 member of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council Discipline Appraisal Group, 3 experts obtained special allowances from the State Council, 1 member was selected for the National Youth Talent Project, 4 members were selected for the "New Century Excellent Talents Program" of the Ministry of Education, 1 member was granted by the returning high-level talents from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, 1 member was nominated as renowned teacher in Shaanxi Province, 1 member was selected for "Three-Five Talents in Shaanxi Province", 1 member was granted for the Shaanxi Provincial Outstanding Youth Fund, 2 members were enrolled in the “Special Support Program” regional development talents for high-level talents in Shaanxi Province, 4 members were enrolled in the Shaanxi Young Science and Technology Rising Stars program, and 3 candidates were selected for the Young Talents Entrustment Program of Shaanxi University Association for Science and Technology.
The college currently has more than 1,400 full-time undergraduates and more than 620 postgraduates. Over the past 35 years since its establishment, the college has trained more than 8,000 undergraduates, masters, doctoral (including post-doctoral) and international students, and trained a large number of high-quality professionals for the food industry and research institutes.
In the past five years, the college has undertaken a total of 390 projects with a total funding of more than 94 million Yuan. Among them, there are more than 60 projects including are the national key research and development plan, the national science and technology research project, the national science and technology support plan, the national natural science foundation, the "863" plan, the western special project. 230 key research projects of Shaanxi Provincial funds and horizontal cooperation projects. It has successively won 3 first prizes, 3 second prizes, 2 third prizes, 16 scientific and technological progress awards at all levels. More than 40 technologies have been transferred and commercialized. The college has published more than 900 papers in top international journals such as Nature Communication, Cell Metabolism and Science Advances.
The college has established good cooperative relations with more than 40 internationally universities and scientific research institutions, including the University of California, Davis, Cornell University, the University of Maryland, the University of Guelph in Canada, and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. In 2014, it cooperated with the University of California, Davis to lead the establishment of the Sino-US Food Safety Joint Research Center. In 2015, the Ministry of Education approved the cooperation with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to establish an undergraduate program in food science and engineering.
Upholding the culture of "thinking for the best, food safety in the world", the college will implement the "12345" and "34531" development strategy, taking education and teaching as the foundation and strengthening scientific research. The college is based in Shaanxi, but is ready for facing the whole country and opening up for the world. The college will continually highlight the close integration of production, education and research, and focus on major scientific and technical issues of food science in arid areas. Finally, the college is striving to build a distinctive, harmonious and civilized, internationally renowned, and domestic first-class college of Food science, which integrates high-level innovative talent training, high-level scientific research and high-tech demonstration.
