Ashley Tarcin, a Masters student working in Dr. Steve Ricke’s lab, recently presented two posters at the Arkansas Association of Food Protection conference! This conference encourages improvements in areas of food safety and quality by bringing together scientists, educators, government officials, and other food industry professionals.

Ashley received a second-place award in the category of Foodborne Pathogens and Contaminants in Animal-Based products for her poster, “Elucidating the feather microbiota composition of conventional- and floor pen-housed laying hens over time.” The project examines the microbial composition of the breast, dorsal, and wing feathers of White Leghorn layer hens in conventional and floor-pen housing styles over a 3-month period. Ashley was the lead of this project, and explains how it brings novel perspectives to the field.

Ashley also received a third-place award for the poster “Shelf-life Extension of Poultry Leg Quarters Treated with a Short-Duration Dip (15-s) of Sodium Acid Sulfate” in the Food Processing and Preservation Techniques for Animal-based Product category. This project sought to determine if the shelf-life of a poultry product could be extended with the application of an acid, either alone or in combination with each other. Ashley enjoyed expanding her knowledge in microbiology and food safety with this project, and applied her formal microbiology education in her lab work.