Students in Department of Food Science and Technology courses have the opportunity to work in Howlett Hall’s Food Processing Pilot Plant as part of their coursework. The facility gives food entrepreneurs a place to produce new products and provides students with hands-on, career applicable food safety and food processing training.

The Food Industries Center, which maintains both the Food Processing and Dairy Pilot Plants, employs students to assist with the daily operation of the pilot plants, introducing them to regulatory requirements, sanitation standard operating procedures and preventive maintenance for a variety of food processing technologies, some of which include extrusion, freeze drying, retort sterilization, membrane filtration, baking, extraction, pasteurization and homogenization.