DEPARTMENT OF FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY:

THE JOURNEY SO FAR

BACKGROUND HISTORY

INCEPTION:

The founding fathers of the University of Nigeria realized the necessity of postharvest technology in   an agriculture-based national economy from the very inception of the university. As a consequence the University commissioned experts (Profs Kirk Lenton, Hugh Henderson, Wasley Grunkel and James Boyd) of Michigan State University (MSU) which was UNN’s collaborating institution to prepare a study which in January 1964 resulted to a report entitled “Educational Development Analysis of the College of Agriculture, University of Nigeria (1964)”.  Among other things, this report proposed the establishment of a Department of Food Science and Technology, which the Governing Council approved in August 1964. Although the proposal was submitted through the Government of Eastern Nigeria for United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for a development assistance loan by the Government of United States of America (USA) to establish the Department and construct the attendant facilities, the effort was shelved until the end of the Nigerian Civil War (1967 – 1970). In 1971, the Faculty of Agriculture resumed its pressure on the University to establish a Department of Food Science and Technology which was channeled to the National University Council (NUC) which on its part was only able to authorize the commencement of a degree programme in the discipline   under the rubric of an umbrella academic entity: the Department of Food and Home Sciences. Consequently, Food Science and Technology, as an academic programme, took off at University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1973 in a combined Department with Home Economics housed in Osmond Building without the requisite technical facilities with which such a prograrmme should be endowed.   

TRANSITION:

During this transitional period, the combined Department ran three degree programmes, namely:

  • B.Sc. Food Science and Technology
  • B.Sc. Home Science and
  • B.Sc. Human nutrition and Dietetics

At commencement, the names and qualifications of staff of the Food Science and Technology Programme co-joined with those of the programme in Home Sciences under the combined Department of Food and Home Sciences are profiled as below:

Names and Qualifications of the Transitional Department of Food and Home Sciences

Names and Qualifications                                                                 Rank

Sumtai R. Mudambi, B.Sc. and M.Sc. (Bombay),                                      Professor and Head of

M.Sc. and Ph.D (Wisconsin                                                                                               Department

Dip. Child Welfare (india)

  1. I. Onuorah (Mrs), B.Sc. (Howard), M.Sc. (Columbia), Lecturer 1                                         

Dip. Dietetics (Wash. D. C.)

 

  1. McCarteney (Mrs.), B.H.Sc. (Guelph) Lecturer 1
  1. U. Tetenta (Mrs.), B.Sc. (Nigeria) Assistant Lecturer

Ethel O. Nweke, B.Sc. (Nigeria)                                                            Junior Fellow

  1. C. Mba (Mrs.), Dip. Dom. Sc. Extension Officer
  2. U. Uchendu (Mrs.), Dip. Catering Extension Officer
  3. Nwosu (Mrs.), Dip. Home Econs., Dip. Secretarial Studies Extension Programme Assist.
  4. E. Snyder Professor (Food Science)

Dr. J. A. Awan, M.Sc (Lyallpur), D.Sc (Belgrade)                            Lecturer (Food Science)

Dr. Z. A. Obanu : B.Sc (Nigeria), M.Sc. (Reading)                           Lecturer (Food Science)

Ph.D (Nottingham

Dr. N. D. Onwuka, B.Sc. and Ph.D (Loughburough)                         Lecturer (Food Science)

Dr. N. Chandrasckhara, B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D (Mysore, India)             Lecturer (Food Science)

Mr. C. C. Onuoha, B.Sc. (Nigeria), M.Sc (Leeds)                             Lecturer (Food Science)

Mr. C. O. A. Onyebuashi F. I. M.T. (London)                                   Principal Technologist

ATTAINMENT OF FULL DEPARTMENTAL STATUS (1981):

During the 1980/81 Academic Session, the Department of Food and Home Sciences was split into two independent Departments, namely: the Department of Food Science and Technology and the Department of Home Science and Nutrition which over 33-odd years has grown into its present status. The compelling strength of the Department is that it has a collection of some of the most experienced and accomplished academic staff of the discipline who are profiled as they have assembled over these three decades.