The Department of Food Science and Engineering, was founded in 1985 through the merger of its two predecessor departments: the Department of Food Engineering of Jiangxi University of Technology and the Department of Food Science of Jiangxi University. In 1993, the two universities merged to form Nanchang University, with their food science disciplines integrated to establish the College of Food Industry at Nanchang University. In the same year, the university was authorized to confer master’s degrees in Food Science. In 1996, it obtained authorization for doctoral degrees in Food Science. In 2005, the discipline of Food Science and Engineering was authorized to offer doctoral degrees as a first-level discipline.

The Department of Food Science and Engineering currently has 40 faculty members, including 25 professors. Its research focuses on six areas: Food Science, Food Nutrition, Cereals, Oils, and Plant-based Protein Engineering, Processing and Preservation of Agricultural Products (including Aquatic Products), Food Safety, and Food Biotechnology. The undergraduate major in Food Science and Engineering has passed the National Engineering Education Accreditation and is recognized as a national-level first-class undergraduate program. In the fourth round of the Ministry of Education’s discipline evaluation, the discipline received an A-grade rating. In the fifth round, it achieved a historic breakthrough, becoming the only discipline in Jiangxi Province to be selected for the highest level. As of January 2026, the agricultural science discipline, under which Food Science and Engineering falls, has ranked in the top 0.2099‰ globally in ESI.