This department is responsible for the professional construction and talent cultivation of the undergraduate program in Food Science and Engineering, the discipline construction of Food Science and Engineering and the training of master's and doctoral students, as well as scientific research in this field. It was established in 1983 and currently has 45 teachers, including 12 professors and 22 associate professors. The proportion of teachers with doctoral degrees is 100%, and the proportion of teachers with overseas research experience for more than half a year is 70%. The department also has 6 overseas adjunct professors. The teaching team has been awarded the National Huang Danian-style Teacher Team, and more than 50 teachers in the team have received provincial-level or above honors such as the Ministry of Agriculture's Shennong Talent, Jiangsu Province's Distinguished Professor, and Jiangsu Province's Outstanding Youth. The department has guided students to win the first prize in the "Challenge Cup" National College Students' Extracurricular Academic and Technological Works Competition.

The major has been accredited by the Engineering Education Accreditation twice in 2016 and 2019. In 2019, it was selected as one of the first batch of national first-class construction majors. In 2022, it was included in the list of Jiangsu Province's brand majors for industry-education integration and Jiangsu Province's brand majors for international talent cultivation. The same year, it passed the professional accreditation of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) in the United States. It has a postdoctoral research station in Food Science and Engineering, a first-level discipline for doctoral degree authorization in Food Science and Engineering, Jiangsu Province's Engineering Technology Research Center for Biological Processing and Separation of Agricultural Products, a national research and development sub-center for agricultural product processing equipment, a "Food Quality and Safety Laboratory" and a "Food and Bioengineering Laboratory" jointly built by the central and local governments, and a construction point of Jiangsu Province's Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center for Food and Bioengineering. The laboratory area is up to 7,000 square meters, and the value of experimental instruments and equipment is over 50 million RMB.

At present, the undergraduate program of Food Science and Engineering is advancing towards a high-quality internationalized major. In 2010, it launched a 2+2 international course experimental class in collaboration with the University of Leeds in the UK. In 2018, it signed a 3+1+1 cooperative education agreement with the National University of Singapore in the field of Food Science and Engineering. In 2020, it signed an agreement with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization to carry out joint training, internship exchanges and other cooperation. In 2023, it undertook the Food Processing and Agricultural Product Quality Inspection Technology module of the International Training Project for Agricultural Mechanization jointly organized by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.