USDA Working On A Variety Of Food Projects

The Agricultural Research Services Distinguished Senior Research Scientist of the Year is working on projects that may be in your grocery stores.

“We've developed with Monterrey Mushrooms a process to treat mushrooms with UV light whereby they produce vitamin D. So now you can buy mushrooms that provide 100% RDA of Vitamin D in a serving mushrooms.”

Tara McCue is with ARS's Western Regional Research Center. She helps improve the quality and healthfulness of foods.

“So we've been working with a company to produce chips from fruits and vegetables with at don't have any oils or fat at all in them.”

Besides apples, beets, carrots, and sweet potatoes, “We've also made  chips out of pineapple cores that are very healthy and nutritious using a technology called 'infrared drying' that saves a considerable amount of energy versus traditional hot air drying,” McCue said.

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