SUSTAINING MEMBER INSTITUTION
Texas Tech University: PROVIDING THE WORLD A SAFE FOOD SUPPLY
MINDY BRASHEARS, Ph.D., is professor of food safety and public health in the Texas Tech University Department of Animal and Food Science and director of the International Center for Food Industry Excellence (ICFIE). With a focus on improving public health, Brashears is an international leader in research methods to reduce pathogens in meat and poultry, including the validation of efficacy of antimicrobial agents on bovine carcasses that have resulted in new methods for microwave disinfection and sterilization, and food preservation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 48 million cases and more than 3,000 deaths occur in the U.S. annually due to food-borne illness. In Mexico, food-borne illness is the leading cause of death in children under age 5. The holder of seven U.S. patents, Brashears is co-founder of one company and has had other products licensed that are in use commercially, all focused on reducing foodborne illnesses. Brashears is the lead scientist and a member of the board of directors for MicroZap. The company is based on a pasteurization unit that employs microwave disinfection and sterilization techniques to reduce a microorganism population in a food source. The process is nearing commercialization for use in a tortilla factory and expects licensing to several dozen companies next year. Brashears also was chief scientist in the development of Bovamine Defend, a direct-fed microbial for cattle, which reduces pathogens before harvest. This is the only pre-harvest food safety intervention for cattle that is commercially available in the 8 | 2016 NAI Activities Report
U.S. More than 80 percent of U.S. feedlot cattle are fed the product. Brashears also was lead developer of Safe Wax, an antimicrobial paraffin hand dip which inhibits the growth of microorganisms. It has been licensed for commercialization. She also was chief scientist in the development of LactiGuard, a lactobacillus-based commercially available product for reduction of pathogens in meat and poultry products. Data were used to gain a recent FDA approval and product will soon be commercially available. Through the ICFIE, Brashears and her team are now working in Mexico, Honduras and the Bahamas to improve public health education and food safety in food animal production and processing. In Honduras, the country’s president recently allocated $20 million to build new feedlots and slaughter plants based on her team’s work. The ICFIE’s Sustaining Our World through Education and Research (SOWER) scholars program brings interns and graduate students from these developing countries to Texas Tech to learn the skills needed to help their countries. The students are then expected to return home to apply the knowledge they have gained at Texas Tech to develop and strengthen food resources and improve public food safety education. Brashears has earned numerous awards for her work including the 2016 American Meat Science Association Distinguished Research Award. The author of more than 100 publications, Brashears earned her bachelor’s degree from Texas Tech and her master’s and doctoral degrees from Oklahoma State University.