Dr. Rosalee Hellberg

Rosalee Hellberg, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and serves as the Associate Director of the Food Science Program at Chapman University. She teaches courses on Food Fraud, Food Microbiology, Introduction to Food Science, and Food Industry Tour. Dr. Hellberg received an M.S. and Ph.D. in Food Science and Technology at Oregon State University, where she studied seafood safety and fish mislabeling. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the FDA working on the development and optimization of DNA-based methods for the detection of food pathogens and food mislabeling. Dr. Hellberg received the 2015-2017 Wang-Fradkin Assistant Professorship Award for exceptional merit in scholarly and creative activity at Chapman University. In 2017, Dr. Hellberg was selected as a recipient of the Emerging Leaders Network Award by the Institute of Food Technologists. She also received the 2018-2019 Award in Mentorship of Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity at Chapman University. Dr. Hellberg has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.

Research

Dr. Hellberg’s research program at Chapman University is focused on the development and application of rapid methods for the detection of food fraud and food contaminants. Her research on food fraud has been dedicated to the development and application of molecular techniques to identify meat and seafood species in food products. Dr. Hellberg and her research team have published numerous studies that utilize methods such as DNA barcoding and real-time PCR to reveal undeclared species in food products, including pet foods, game meats, and seafood products. Dr. Hellberg’s research on food contaminants has been focused primarily on the development and application of rapid methods to concentrate, detect and differentiate foodborne pathogens, such as norovirus, Salmonella, and Listeria.