Dr. Rosalee Hellberg

Dr. Rosalee Hellberg

Associate Professor Associate Director, Food Science Program
Schmid College of Science and Technology; Food Science
Expertise: Food Safety; Food Microbiology; Food Fraud and Mislabeling; DNA Barcoding; Real-Time PCR; Species Identification;
Office Location: Keck Center for Science and Engineering 258
Education:
Lewis and Clark College, Bachelor of Arts
Oregon State University, Master of Science
Oregon State University, Ph.D.

Biography

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.

Recent Creative, Scholarly Work and Publications

Jordan CR, Harris CM, Miranda MI, Kim DY, Hellberg RS. 2023. Labeling compliance and online claims for Ayurvedic herbal supplements on the U.S. market associated with the purported treatment of COVID-19. Food Control, 148: 109673. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2023.109673
Kashani Zadeh H, Hardy M, Sueker M, Li Y, Tzouchas A, MacKinnon N, Bearman G, Haughey SA, Akhbardeh A, Baek I, Hwang C, Qin J, Tabb AM, Hellberg RS, Ismail S, Reza H, Vasefi F, Kim M, Tavakolian K, & Elliott CT. 2023. Rapid assessment of fish freshness for multiple supply-chain nodes using multi-mode spectroscopy and fusion-based artificial intelligence. Sensors, 23(11): 5149. https://doi.org/10.3390/s23115149
Marquis GE, Covaia SM, Tabb AM, Kitch CJ, Hellberg RS. 2023. Microbiological safety and quality of ceviche, poke, and sushi dishes sold at retail outlets in Orange County, CA. Heliyon, 9: e16862. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16862
Emmi AJ, Fatusin B, Hellberg RS. 2023. Comparison of DNA extraction methods for the detection of canned tuna species with DNA mini-barcoding. Journal of Food Quality, 2023: 7121260. https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/7121260
Sueker M, Daghighi A, Akhbardeh A, MacKinnon N, Bearman G, Baek I, Hwang C, Qin J, Tabb AM, Roungchun JB, Hellberg RS, Vasefi F, Kim M, Tavakolian K, Kashani Zadeh H. 2023. A novel machine learning framework based on a hierarchy of dispute models for the identification of fish species using multi-mode spectroscopy. Sensors, 23(22): 9062. https://doi.org/10.3390/s23229062
Harris CM, Kim DY, Jordan CR, Miranda MI, Hellberg RS. DNA barcoding of herbal supplements on the US commercial market associated with the purported treatment of COVID-19. Phytochemical Analysis. 2023; 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1002/pca.3320.
Rivers MC, Campbell AB, Lee CH, Kapoor P, Hellberg RS. 2024. Short-weighting, species authentication, and labeling compliance of prepackaged frozen shrimp sold in grocery stores in Southern California. Food Control, 155: 110101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2023.110101