Keith Vorst
Title(s):
Associate Professor
Mechanical Engineering (Courtesy)
Food Science & Human Nutrition
Office
1541 Food Sciences
536 Farm House Ln
Ames, IA 50011-1054
Information
Dr. Vorst serves as the Director of the Polymer and Food Protection Consortium in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Iowa State University in Ames, IA. Dr. Vorst worked in industry for three major packaging companies and served as a consultant for a major automotive manufacturer prior to joining academia in his current position at Iowa State University. Dr. Vorst has 47 publications and 13 published or pending patents for plastics characterization, package design, contamination monitoring, medical device manufacturing, microbial testing methods, and polymer design. Dr. Vorst has done extensive work in method and sample preparation development for extractables in packaging materials and novel biobased packaging materials. Dr. Vorst was part of the Anticipatory Issues Management (AIM) team and the only academic expert to receive the McDonalds Global Food Safety and Quality Award for packaging in 2020. Dr. Vorst also received an award for most cited research in the Journal of Food Protection. Dr. Vorst has done extensive work in method and sample preparation development for PFAS analysis in packaging materials and novel coating, recycling and adhesive technologies for multi-layer packaging structures. In addition to private and Polymer and Food Protection Consortium funding, Dr. Vorst is currently funded by the Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition and two Department of Energy Grants (DOE) and one Department of Defense grant (DOD) to evaluate recycling of plastic waste.