The Department of Food Science includes two industry-supported research centers; the Southeast Dairy Foods Research Center and the Center for Advanced Processing and Packaging Studies. The National Science Foundation and the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board have played an important role in the establishment and support of these centers. Research areas addressed by the centers emphasize multidisciplinary approaches and encourage collaboration between scientists, the food/dairy industries, and other research centers at major universities throughout the US. We also maintain a close relationship with the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service and the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service.

Our research centers represent cooperative efforts among NCSU, Mississippi State University, the Ohio State University, the University of California at Davis, The Ohio State University and Virginia Tech. They include faculty in the departments of food science, chemical engineering, and biological and agricultural engineering.