USDAARS Postdoctoral Fellowship Food Sensory Science

USDA-ARS Postdoctoral Fellowship – Food Sensory Science Organization

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Reference Code:

USDA-ARS-MWA-

An application
Transcript(s) – For this opportunity, an unofficial transcript or copy of the student academic records printed by the applicant or by academic advisors from internal institution systems may be submitted.  for detailed information about acceptable transcripts.
A current resume/CV, including academic history, employment history, relevant experiences, and publication list
Two educational or professional recommendations
All documents must be in English or include an official English translation.

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9/11/2026 3:00:00 PM Eastern Time Zone

* Applications are reviewed on a rolling-basis.

A research opportunity is currently available with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), located in Peoria, Illinois. The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific in-house research agency with a mission to find solutions to agricultural problems that affect Americans every day from field to table. ARS will deliver cutting-edge, scientific tools and innovative solutions for American farmers, producers, industry, and communities to support the nourishment and well-being of all people;

sustain our nation’s agroecosystems and natural resources; and ensure the economic competitiveness and excellence of our agriculture. The vision of the agency is to provide global leadership in agricultural discoveries through scientific excellence.

The Functional Foods Research (FFR) unit in Peoria, Illinois aims at developing bioactive food ingredients that provide health benefits; and creating value-added food and nonfood products from low value agricultural resources. Scientists at FFR develop new processing, chemical, physical, and enzymatic technologies to modify food plants and enhance the use and performance of agricultural materials.

You will be a part of a collaborative research team focused on the improvement of healthfulness and shelf life of foods containing fats and oils. Many processed foods have high saturated fat content and healthy saturated fat replacements are needed to improve their nutritional value. However, oils high in polyunsaturated fats are more liquid at room temperature leading to technological challenges to their use in food products.

They are also more easily oxidized, resulting in a shorter shelf life resulting in food waste. This research project has two main objectives: the first is to develop oleogels that mimic the texture and melting properties of natural fats to replace saturated fats in foods; the second is to develop new natural antioxidants, antioxidant combinations, and superhydrophobic coatings, to prevent lipid oxidation.

You will collaborate with chemists, food scientists, material scientists, plant scientists, and food engineers to build a comprehensive understanding of the relationships between sensory properties of foods and fat replacements and their chemical, physical, and rheological properties. You will have access to a state-of-the-art pilot plant for seed and food processing, a sensory lab, and advanced analytical instrumentation such as GC-MS, HPLC, texture analyzers, rheometers, FT-IR spectrometers, zeta potential and particle size analyzers, differential scanning calorimeters, and SEM.

Hands‑on training will be provided in screening, training, and designing sensory descriptive panels, as well as on using advanced instrumentation to evaluate physical, chemical, and rheological properties of foods developed with oleogel-based fat replacements and/or shelf life of foods developed with natural antioxidants.

• Screen and train an in-house descriptive sensory panel;
• Design descriptive sensory panel tests for evaluation of…