The School of Food Science and Engineering (SFSE) was established newly in November 2015 through the reorganization of the School of Light Industry and Food Science, however, its history can be dated back to 1952, the beginning of the University. The first degree program of the School, Sugar and Food Engineering, was started to run at that time. Nowadays, the School has a second level national key discipline, Food Science and Engineering, and is also involved in the first level national key discipline of Light Industrial Technology and Engineering.

Currently, the school has two undergraduate programs as well as Food Science and Engineering, and Food Quality and Safety, and two postdoctoral programs, Food Science and Engineering and Light Industrial Technology and Engineering. In 2022, the Food Science and Engineering discipline was selected intothe new round of national Double First-class construction list; Inthe fourth round of national first-level discipline evaluation, the disciplineof Food Science and Engineering ranked A-, and the discipline of Light IndustryTechnology and Engineering involved in the construction ranked A+, both ofwhich entered the A ranks. 

The school is ranked No. 1 in the world in the Food Science and Technology Discipline Rankings by U.S. News & World Report 2022. The Food Science and Engineering discipline ranks the fourth in the world in the Shanghai Soft Science World Class Discipline ranking. Agricultural science supported by the school has entered the top one thousand of ESI globally. The major of Food Science and Engineering and the major of Food Quality and Safety were selectedas the national first-class undergraduate major construction sites in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

Now the school has 125 staffs in total, including 102 faculties. Among them, there are 50 professors, and more than 98% of the faculty members own Ph.D degree. A number of professors in the School were entitled different national academic honors.

The School of Food Science and Engineering is one of the most important units in the University featuring high level innovative scientific research. The School has a national engineering research center (Wheat and Corn Processing Lab), a national innovation and technology platform (Starch and Plant Proteins Research Center) and several provincial/ministry scientific research institutes, such as Guangdong Key Laboratory for Green Processing and Safety of Natural Products, Guangdong Technical Center for Food Processing and Nutrition, Guangdong Lipid Science and Applied Technology Center, Guangdong International Collaborate Center for Sugar Green Processing, Agricultural Products Green Processing Lab and Demonstration Center , etc.

The School persists in the scientific research and technological innovation, as well as the industrialization of new technology. Its researches are funded by National, provincial/ministry foundations and the enterprises. In the past three years, the school has won 11 science and technology awards at or above the provincial and ministerial level, with an annual research fund of 89 million yuan, more than 80 national invention patents, more than 400 papers published in three major index, and the number of citations of SCI papers ranked the first place among national food colleges and universities.

The School takes the student education as the primary task and provides perfect environment for personal development of every student. Now, in total of 1481 students, including 520 undergraduates and 961 graduates are studying in the school. During the past years, a lot of outstanding graduates have been cultivated by the School, such as two National Best Ph.D Graduates, three National Best Ph.D Graduate nominators and ten Guangdong Provincial Best Ph.D Graduates.

The School has extensive communication and cooperation with many top-level oversea universities and research institutes. Nearly one hundred scientists, faculties and students were actively involved in the international communication and cooperation through lecture, seminar, conference, or being visiting scholars and exchange students.