The School of Food Science and Engineering at Hainan University was established by merging the Department of Food Science and Engineering in the College of Science and Technology at former South China University of Tropical Agriculture, and the Department of Food Science and Engineering inthe College of Oceanography atthe former Hainan University. The School originated from the major of Tropical Crops Processing in South China College of Tropical Crops (1958), which is one of the earliest undergraduate majors established in Hainan Province.
The school offers doctoral and master’s programs in the first-level discipline of Food Science and Engineering, and two professional master's degree programs in Biology and Medicine and Food Processing and Safety.Two majors are offered by the School: Food Science and Engineering and Food Quality and Safety. The major of Food Science and Engineering was rated as a national specialty major in 2007, listed in the first batch of national first-class undergraduate majors in 2019 and passed the certification for engineering majors by the Ministry of Education the same year, selected as one of the majors in Hainan University's "Experimental Program in Science in 2020.The major of Food Quality and Safety has been a provincial characteristic major since 2013and a first-class undergraduate major since 2020. Currently, there are 1,459 full-time students in the School, including 1,041 undergraduates and 418 graduates.
The school has a total of 86 faculty and staff members. Among them, 69 are full-time teachers, 19 with senior titles (professor/researcher), 27 with associate senior titles (associate professor/associate researcher),95.6% of the full-time faculties have a doctoral degree. onefacultywas selected into the national major talent project, one selected as the outstanding talents in Hainan Province, eight included in the "515 Talent Project" in Hainan Province, and 68 awarded the title of high-level (E) talents in Hainan Province.
Hainan Province is the only tropical island and the largest maritime province in China, with rich tropical agricultural products and marine biological resources. On this basis, the school has built an integrated talent training system for undergraduates andgraduate students, to explore the subjects of tropical agricultural products processing and safety and high value utilization of marine resources.The School aims to cultivate talents with sound personality, broad foundation, professional proficiency, international vision, innovative spirit, practical ability and social responsibility. In recent years, the school has trained more than 5,000 undergraduates and graduate students, making outstanding contributions to the formation and development of food processing and safety and related industries in Hainan and tropical area. The School boasts many provincial/ministerial research platforms including the State Key Laboratory of Marine Resources Utilization in the South China Sea, the State Key Laboratory of Sustainable Utilization of Tropical Biological Resources, the Engineering Research Center of Tropical Polysaccharide Resources Utilization of the Ministry of Education , the Risk Assessment Laboratory of Agricultural Product Quality and Safety of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (Haikou) , the National Prawn Processing Technology R&D Sub-center (Haikou), the National Tilapia Processing Technology R&D Sub-center (Haikou), the Hainan Institute of Food Science, the Hainan Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Functional Food, the Hainan Efficient Utilization Engineering Research Center of South China Sea Aquatic Resources and other provincial and ministerial scientific research platforms.The laboratory area is 6300 m2, and the total value of instruments and equipment owned is more than 85 million yuan.
The School has established four research teams specialized in tropical agricultural product processing and storage engineering, tropical aquatic product processing and storage engineering, food quality and safety, and food nutrition and health. It plays a leading role in the research of tropical food resources and the development and utilization of aquatic biological resources in the South China Sea. Since 2015, the School has undertaken more than 220 projects of various types and levels, with a total fund of more than 50 million yuan. The faculty has published more than 300 high-level SCI research papers, 32 textbooks and monographs, obtained more than 30 national patents, won 6 Hainan Provincial Science and Technology Awards and 1 Hainan Provincial Teaching Achievement Award.The School has promoted the characteristic services of "one college, one industry" and "one teacher, one point". It hasestablished practicum and research-industry cooperative relationswith more than 50 enterprises, and our research outcomes have been widely applied in the food processing industry.
The college has established cooperative relations with colleges and research institutes in the United States, Britain, Japan, Ireland and other countries or regions, and maintains frequent academic exchanges with Jiangnan University, China Agricultural University, South China University of Technology and other well-known domestic universities.
