The UGA Center for Food Safety (CFS) is housed within a 40,000 sq. ft state of the art research facility.  All biosafety activities within the facility are secured by a key card management system (B.A.S.I.S., Best Access Systems) and the entire facility has a backup emergency generator.  In addition, centralized deionized and distilled water systems service all laboratories.

Twelve major microbiological laboratories (10,000 sq. ft) comprise the core of the CFS research facility.  Within these laboratories, 8 laminar flow biohazard hoods, 8 fume hoods, and over 1,000 linear ft of benchtop space are available for day-to-day laboratory activities.  In addition, a general prep room (1400 sq. ft.) housing 3 American Sterilizer autoclaves, 1 heavy-duty Amsco Medallion Sterilizer autoclave, and 3 New Brunswick Agarmatic Media maker/dispensers, a pilot plant (400 sq. ft) containing various commercial-grade food processing equipment, a dark room laboratory (140 sq. ft) equipped with an Olympus BH2 Microscope and Innotech Digital Imaging System, and 9 walk-in environmental chambers (-20 to +45°C) are available for multi-users.  Several other laboratories have also been designed and constructed to handle specialized operations and select pathogenic agents including a tissue culture/hybridoma laboratory (120 sq. ft), a Clostridium botulinum laboratory (800 sq. ft.), and a BSL-3 laboratory (120 sq. ft) whose safety features include a negative air pressure system monitored by an alarm system, an internal autoclave system, a keycard access system, and a double-door access zone.

Among the major inventoried laboratory equipment items to engage in molecular screening/diagnostics of foodborne pathogens are the Affymetrix 418 Array Scanner, Omniguard Accent Sample Microarrayer, Bio-Rad Icycler, Bio-Rad Fingerprinting Plus DST system, Bio-Rad Chef Mapper Chiller System, Fisher Hybaid Pxe Thermocycler, Bio-Rad Thermal Cycler, Eppendorf E5331 Gradient Mastercycler, MJ Research Minicycler, Perkin Elmer 480 Thermal Cycler,  GeneAmp PCR system,  Bio-Rad Gene Pulser, Dynatech MRX ELISA plate reader, DuoFlow Chromatography system w/ fraction collector, UV transilluminator,  Kodak 440 CF Image Station, Hoefer TKO 100 DNA fluorometer, 2 PFGE units, Protean IEF system, and other assorted gel electrophoresis equipment.  The most recent equipment acquisition is the DuPont Qualicon BaxÒ system for screening food and environmental samples for pathogens or other organisms. 

Other major laboratory equipment items housed in CFS include: Bactec 460TB Mycobacterial Detection system, Biotech 4000 Spiral Plater, Anoxomat Spiral Biotech WS8000 plating system,  Olympus BX60F3 microscope (phase/UV/DIC/bright field) with ODEI-7500 3CCD camera attachment, Nikon TS100 inverted microscope, Olympus BX40F microscope, Cogent 2200 IUL colony counter, Fisher Mini Vidas automated immunoassay system,  Beckman NVT90 ultracentrifuge with rotors, Beckman Avanti J-25 centrifuge, Beckman J2-MI centrifuge, anaerobic chamber, Virtis Freezemobile lyophilizer, Beckman LS6500 scintillation system, Shimadzu RF-5301 spectrofluorometer, 2-water activity centers, luminometer, and Mettler Toledo HR73P moisture analyzer.  The Trek Diagnostic System is another recently acquired automated diagnostic tool using Sensititre software technology to assess susceptibility of microbes to antibiotics.  As for the more commonly used laboratory equipment items such as stomachers, water baths, incubators, hot plates, pH meters, sonicators, benchtop centrifuges, ovens, microcentrifuges, balances, and spectrophotometers, they are found in multiple labs throughout the Center.

Facilities exist on site for animal care.  There are three rooms (290 sq. ft. each) designed to house animals and two other rooms are used for washing and storing animal cages.