The discipline of Food Science at Shandong Agricultural University was founded in 1952. The Department of Food Science was established in 1992, followed by the founding of the College of Food Science and Engineering in 2000. It is among the earliest schools offering food-related disciplines in agricultural universities nationwide, and the first College among Shandong provincial universities authorized to confer the first-tier doctoral degree in Food Science and Engineering.The College comprises three undergraduate teaching departments: the Department of Food Science, Department of Food Engineering, and Department of Food Biotechnology, alongside the Institute of Food Science and the Experimental Teaching Center for Food Science and Engineering.

The College holds authorization for first-tier doctoral and master’s degree programs in Food Science and Engineering, professional doctoral and master’s programs in Biology and Medicine (Food Engineering), and a professional master’s program in Food and Nutrition. It also hosts a Postdoctoral Research Station for Food Science and Engineering. Five undergraduate majors are available: Food Science and Engineering, Food Quality and Safety, Viticulture and Enology, Food Quality and Safety (Sino-UK Joint Program), and Food Nutrition and Health. Currently, the College enrolls 1,484 undergraduates, 572 doctoral and master’s students, and 26 postdoctoral researchers. Since its establishment, the College has cultivated more than 13,000 professionals across all academic levels.

Committed to building a high-caliber faculty team through both talent recruitment and internal cultivation, the College has assembled a dynamic, well-structured teaching staff with outstanding academic competence. It has 103 faculty members in total, including 86 full-time teachers: 23 professors, 43 associate professors, 31 doctoral supervisors and 70 master’s supervisors. In addition, 6 visiting professors and 7 adjunct professors from world-renowned overseas universities are appointed to the faculty. The teaching team includes 1 Fellow of the International Academy of Food Science and Technology (IAFoST), 1 Member of the Academia Europaea, and 23 national and provincial-level distinguished talents.

Food Science is designated a Provincial Key Characteristic Discipline. The major of Food Science and Engineering is recognized as a National First-Class Undergraduate Program, Shandong Provincial Characteristic Major, a major under the Shandong University Distinctive Campus Initiative, a pilot major of the Shandong Outstanding Engineer Education & Training Program, and a Shandong High-Level Applied Undergraduate Major. Food Quality and Safety is a Shandong Provincial First-Class Undergraduate Program, while Viticulture and Enology is a distinctive flagship major of the school.The College hosts a full array of research platforms: the Silk Road International Food Research Institute, National Professional R&D Center for Beef Processing Technology, Shandong Agricultural Products Processing & Circulation Star Innovation Space, Shandong International Joint Laboratory for Quality, Safety Control and Intelligent Manufacturing of Livestock and Poultry Food, Shandong Collaborative Innovation Center for Deep Processing Technology and Quality Control of Agricultural Products, Shandong Engineering Technology Research Center for Grain Processing Technology, Shandong Engineering Research Center for Food Nutrition and Active Health, and Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Health in Universities.

The College has won over 20 provincial and ministerial-level scientific and technological achievement awards, including the Second Prize of the National Award for Progress in Science and Technology, the Fourth Prize of the National Award for Technical Invention, the First Prize of Shandong Provincial Award for Technical Invention, and the First Prize of Shandong Provincial Award for Progress in Science and Technology, marking fruitful research outputs. In recent years, faculty have secured more than 300 research projects such as flagship projects under EU Horizon 2020, sub-projects of the National Key R&D Program of China, and major Shandong Provincial Science and Technology Innovation Projects, with total research funding reaching nearly 150 million RMB. Over 60 national invention patents have been authorized, and more than 600 high-level academic papers have been published in prestigious domestic and international journals, substantially lifting the school’s academic influence.The College has dispatched experts to more than 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions including Shandong, Shaanxi, Qinghai and Inner Mongolia to carry out research achievement matchmaking, industry-university-research cooperation and technical training, benefiting over 23,000 participants. In the past five years, 50 research achievements have been successfully commercialized, covering core technologies for turbid wheat beer R&D and industrialization, deep processing and comprehensive utilization of jujube via solid-state fermentation for black jujube, and precise rapid detection technologies and products for chemical hazards in agricultural products and food. These technologies have helped cooperating enterprises generate an accumulated additional economic benefit of over 2.835 billion RMB, making vital contributions to the development of Shandong’s food industry.

Attaching great importance to undergraduate education, the College continuously deepens teaching reform, optimizes teaching content and talent training models, and has developed a complete talent cultivation system. It has cultivated a large number of application-oriented technical and managerial professionals with solid theoretical foundations and strong innovation and entrepreneurship capabilities for the country.The College prioritizes the all-round development of students, actively supports extracurricular activities and social practice, and encourages personalized growth. Graduates are widely favored by employers for their solid professional grounding, strong practical skills and comprehensive literacy.

The College vigorously advances international exchanges. It has jointly trained more than 1,800 undergraduates majoring in Food Quality and Safety in partnership with the Royal Agricultural University, UK. Over 40 faculty members have been sent to the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and other countries for academic visits and collaborative research, with more than 10 postgraduate students dispatched overseas annually for exchange programs. Fourteen foreign postdoctoral researchers from Malaysia, Pakistan and other countries have been recruited. Six distinguished visiting professors have been hired from top universities and research institutions in New Zealand, the United States and beyond, among whom one is a recipient of national high-end foreign talent funding and a Member of the Academia Europaea, and another is a Fellow of IAFoST and winner of the Qilu Friendship Award issued by the Shandong Provincial People’s Government.The College has hosted major international academic conferences including the 2019 International Fresh-Cut Produce Conference, the High-Level Academic Forum on Agricultural Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries at the 6th China-CEEC Local Leaders’ Meeting (2024), and the 2024 Qilu International Lecture Hall. It maintains academic exchanges and cooperative ties with universities and research institutes across 15 countries, such as the University of California, Davis and Rutgers University (USA), the University of Auckland (New Zealand), Charles Sturt University (Australia), the University of Guelph (Canada), the Agricultural University of Athens (Greece), and the University of Novi Sad (Serbia).

Food Science and Engineering ranks among the most promising disciplines of the 21st century. The Report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to “implement the food safety strategy to ensure people eat with confidence”. The Report to the 20th National Congress emphasized that “ensuring people’s health should be placed in a strategic priority position”. The Healthy China Initiative has been elevated to a national strategy, unlocking unprecedented development opportunities and broad prospects for the discipline of Food Science and Engineering.Taking the Double First-Class Initiative as a key opportunity, the College will further refine its talent cultivation system, innovate training models, optimize disciplinary and major structures, strengthen practical education, boost scientific and technological innovation capacity, and elevate social service capabilities. It strives to build a leading domestic and influential international College of Food Science and Engineering, with Agricultural Products Processing and Storage Engineering as its dominant strength and Food Science as its distinctive feature.