University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Food Science

The Department of Food Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst was officially started, preceding all other Food Science departments in the United States by over a year, on April 27, 1918. The formation of the department was conceptualized during World War I when problems with food shortages became a critical issue for the nation. The inspiration to develop the faculty of the Food Science Department began when Dr. Frank Waugh asked Walter Chenoweth to give a paper to a group of fruit growers. In the summer of 1913, Chenoweth set up a laboratory and so it began teaching and demonstrating food preservation.