About

Ondulla T. Toomer is a research chemist with the USDA-ARS and an adjunct professor in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences at North Carolina State University. She is a North Carolina native and earned her Ph.D. in nutrition with a minor in biotechnology from North Carolina State University in 2005. Her research program focuses on identifying the chemical constituents of raw and processed peanuts and tree nuts that are of nutritional benefit to the consumer, as well as investigating the potential of peanuts and peanut-by-products as alternative feed ingredients within the animal feed industry. Additionally, she is interested in examining the nutritional and health benefits of dietary supplementation with plant proteins and phenolic compounds. Dr. Toomer's background includes postdoctoral fellowships at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, where she studied the immunological health benefits of probiotics in neonatal development, and at the USDA/ARS, with a focus on gene expression in reproductive tissues of turkey hens. She has also worked over seven years with the FDA-Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, researching pediatric food allergy development, immunological biomarkers, and the effects of probiotics on early immunological development.

Research topics

• Food science
• Biology
• Biochemistry
• Chemistry
• Biotechnology
• Animal science
• Fishery
• Chromatography
• Organic chemistry

Selected publications

• Video and Text‐Based Supplemental Health Information and Consumer Willingness to Pay for Nutrient‐Enhanced Eggs

  Agribusiness · 2026-02-06 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  ABSTRACT Nutritional information is very important in the food choices of consumers. However, when they are too scientific or technical, they have the potential to confuse consumers, resulting in information asymmetry and dissuading them from making beneficial choices. In such cases, it might be important to also include supplemental information for such consumers. Using a discrete choice experiment, this study set out to determine how delivering supplemental health information through video and text formats affects consumers' willingness to pay for eggs enhanced with beta‐carotene and monounsaturated fatty acids in the United States. Beta‐carotene is a dietary precursor of vitamin A known to have immunological benefits, while monounsaturated fatty acids are a group of dietary fats that have cardiovascular benefits. We also examined whether there are individual heterogeneities that could affect the realized willingness to pay for such enhancements. We found that in the absence of supplemental information, consumers exhibited a disutility for, and negative marginal willingness to pay for, eggs enhanced with beta‐carotene and monounsaturated fatty acids. Consumers who received supplemental health information were willing to pay more for these nutritional enhancements, especially those who received it in video format. Compared to those who did not receive any supplemental health information, those who received text script treatment were willing to pay 41 cents more for beta‐carotene enhancement, and those who received video treatment were willing to pay 62 cents more. For monounsaturated fatty acids enhancements, we found that those who received video treatment were willing to pay 24 cents more. We also found that younger, non‐female respondents, and those whose family had health issues, were willing to pay more for nutrient enhancements. These results show that it is not just enough for consumers to have nutritional information. Such information must also be presented in ways that are comprehensible to them. For policymakers and producers, these results are very important, considering that when consumers make healthy food choices, it has strong positive externalities on society, ensuring a healthier population, and less financial burden on citizens and the government.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Incorporating high-oleic peanuts in layer diets: impact on production, egg quality & nutritional profile and calculated egg income and feed cost

  The Journal of Applied Poultry Research · 2026-04-11

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Meat quality of hens fed an unblanched, high-oleic peanut diet

  Poultry Science · 2025-12-09 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  High-oleic peanuts are an energy-dense, protein-rich alternative to conventional poultry feed ingredients and may have an impact on meat quality in spent laying hens, which are typically diverted to low-value uses. This study evaluated the effects of unblanched high-oleic peanuts at five levels (0 %, 5 %, 10 %, 15 %, 20 %) into layer diets for 8 wks on carcass traits, meat composition, physicochemical properties, lipid stability, and sensory quality of spent layers. Diets were isonitrogenous (18 % crude protein) and isocaloric (3,080 kcal/kg metabolizable energy). A total of 200 hens were acclimated for 7 days, then randomly assigned to treatments (n = 5 replicates of 8 hens each). Ten hens per treatment were processed to assess body weight, carcass yield, breast meat pH, color, texture profile, water-holding capacity, proximate composition, lipid oxidation, and sensory attributes. Peanut inclusion up to 20 % did not adversely affect growth performance or carcass yield (P > 0.05). Meat pH and color were influenced in some dietary treatments, though all values remained within acceptable ranges for commercial meat. Moderate inclusion (10-15 %) greatly increased breast meat protein content, reduced fat and collagen levels, and improved moisture retention (P < 0.05), indicating enhanced nutritional quality and processing potential. Water-holding capacity parameters (purge, thaw, cook loss) were not different among treatments (P > 0.05). Likewise, texture profile attributes did not differ (P > 0.05) from control values. Lipid oxidation remained low and stable during extended frozen storage, consistent with the oxidative stability conferred by the peanuts' high oleic acid and polyphenol content. Sensory evaluation indicated that flavor, texture, and overall acceptability remained consistent across treatments (P > 0.05), with no evidence of rancidity, bitterness, or off-flavor development, even at the highest inclusion level. These results demonstrate that unblanched high-oleic peanuts can be incorporated into poultry diets at 10-15 % to enhance spent layer meat composition and maintain sensory quality, offering a sustainable, value-added strategy for improving the marketability of spent laying hens.

  PublisherDOI

• Effects of an Unblanched Peanut and/or Peanut Skin Diet on Egg Quality, Egg Lipid Chemistry, and Performance of Hens Housed in a Cage-Free Environment

  Animals · 2025-09-12 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Peanuts and poultry production predominate within the southeast US. Hence, the objective of this study was to determine the dietary effects of unblanched (skin-intact) high-oleic peanuts (HOPNs) and peanut skins (PN skins) on layer performance, egg quality, and fatty acid profile. To meet these objectives, 200 hens were randomly assigned to four treatments, housed in floor pens, and fed ad libitum for 8 weeks a control, HOPN (24%), PN Skin (3%), or 2.5% oleic acid (OA) diet. All empirical data was statistically analyzed for variance at the p &lt; 0.05 level. Hens fed the HOPN and PN Skin diets had heavier body weights relative to the controls at week 8 (p &lt; 0.05). Layers fed the HOPN treatment had poor FCR and smaller egg weights with lower levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids relative to the controls (p &lt; 0.05). Hens fed the PN Skin treatment had similar performance parameters, egg quality, and egg chemistry relative to the controls over the 8-week study. These results imply that PN skins may be an acceptable poultry feed additive without adverse effects on performance, egg quality, or egg lipid chemistry. Also, these results demonstrate the potential value-added utilization of PN skins, a waste by-product of the peanut industry, as a layer feed ingredient.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The effect of peanut skins as a natural antimicrobial feed additive on ileal and cecal microbiota in broiler chickens inoculated with Salmonella enterica Enteritidis

  Poultry Science · 2024-08-05 · 8 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The consumption of poultry products contaminated with Salmonella species is one of the most common causes of Salmonella infections. In vivo studies demonstrated the potential application of peanut skins (PS) as an antimicrobial poultry feed additive to help mitigate the proliferation of Salmonella in poultry environments. Tons of PS, a waste by-product of the peanut industry, are generated and disposed in U.S. landfills annually. Peanut skins and extracts have been shown to possess antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. Hence, we aimed to determine the effect of PS as a feed additive on the gut microbiota of broilers fed a control or PS supplemented (4% inclusion) diet and inoculated with or without Salmonella enterica Enteritidis (SE). At hatch 160 male broilers were randomly assigned to 4 treatments: (1) CON-control diet without SE, (2) PS-PS diet without SE, (3) CONSE-control diet with SE, (4) PSSE-PS diet with SE. On day 3, birds from CONSE and PSSE treatments were inoculated with 4.2×109 CFU/ml SE. At termination (4wk), 10 birds/treatment were euthanized and ileal and cecal contents were collected for 16S rRNA analysis using standard methodologies. Sequencing data were analyzed using QIIME2. No effect of PS or SE was observed on ileal alpha and beta diversity, while evenness, richness, number of ASVs (amplicon sequence variants) and Shannon, as well as beta diversity were significantly (P < 0.05) affected in ceca. Similarly, more differentially abundant taxa between treatment groups were identified in ceca than in ileum. However, more microbiota functional changes, based on the PICRUST2 prediction, were observed in ileum. Overall, relatively minor changes in microbiota were observed during SE infection and PS treatment, suggesting that PS addition may not attenuate the SE proliferation, as shown previously, through modulation of microbiota in gastrointestinal tract. However, while further studies are warranted, these results suggest that PS may potentially serve as a functional feed additive for poultry for improvement of animal health.

  PublisherDOI

• Influence of extruded soybean meal with different fat contents and varying oleic acid content on floating fish feed quality and composition

  Animal Feed Science and Technology · 2024-08-12 · 4 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Effects of full-fat high-oleic soybean meal in layer diets on performance, egg quality and chemical composition

  Poultry Science · 2024-07-15 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The utilization of full-fat high-oleic soybean meal in layer diets could lead to value-added poultry products. To test this idea, 336 hens were randomly assigned to 4 isonitrogenous (18.5% CP) and isocaloric (2,927 kcal/kg) formulated diets and fed the following diets for eight weeks: conventional control solvent-extracted defatted soybean meal (CON); extruded-expelled defatted soybean meal (EENO); full fat normal-oleic soybean meal (FFNO); or full fat high-oleic soybean meal (FFHO). Body weights (BW) were collected at week 0 and week 8. Eggs were collected daily, and the totals counted each week. Feed consumption was measured weekly, and egg quality was measured bi-weekly. Eggs were collected at wk 0 and wk 8 for fatty acid analysis. There were no significant treatment differences in any of the production parameters measured, BW, feed consumption, feed conversion ratio or egg production (P > 0.05). Eggshell strength was significantly greater in eggs produced from the EENO group as compared to the control (P < 0.01), while egg yolk color was significantly darker in eggs of the control and EENO treatment groups relative to the FFNO and FFHO treatments (P < 0.0001). Eggs produced by hens fed the FFHO diet had a 52% increase in monounsaturated n-9 oleic acid content (P < 0.0001) and reduced palmitic (P < 0.01) and stearic (P < 0.0001) saturated fatty acid levels as compared to the conventional controls. These results validate the utilization of FFHO as a value-added poultry feed ingredient to enrich the eggs and/or poultry meat produced.

  PublisherDOI

• Full-Fat Soybean Meals as an Alternative Poultry Feed Ingredient—Feed Processing Methods and Utilization—Review and Perspective

  Animals · 2024-08-15 · 16 citations

  reviewOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  On a global scale, the poultry industry expands its wings in terms of meat and egg production to the masses. However, this industry itself requires a sustainable and permanent supply of different inputs, one of which is poultry feed and nutrition. Soybean is a versatile protein that is offered to poultry in different inclusion rates in commercial diets after being processed using various thermal and mechanical processing methods. Conventional commercial soybean meal is usually prepared by the extraction of oil from whole soybeans using solvents, producing a meal that has approximately 1% crude fat. Without oil extraction, full-fat soybean (FFSBM) is produced, and it is an excellent source of dietary energy and protein for poultry with a nutritional profile of 38-40% protein and 18-20% crude fat, on average. FFSBM has less crude protein (CP) than solvent-extracted soybean meal (SE SBM) but higher metabolizable energy due to higher fat content. Alternatively, extruded expeller processing produces defatted soybean meal containing approximately 6-7% crude fat. Studies have demonstrated that FFSBM can be used in poultry diets to improve poultry nutrition, performance, and quality of the poultry meat and eggs produced. This review aims to evaluate the nutrition and use of meals prepared from conventional and high-oleic soybeans using various feed processing methods.

  PublisherDOI

• Effects of high oleic full-fat soybean meal on broiler live performance, carcass and parts yield, and fatty acid composition of breast fillets

  Poultry Science · 2024-01-10 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  The effects of high oleic oil full-fat (HO-FF) soybean meal (SBM) on broiler meat quality could lead to value-added food products. This experiment evaluated the effects of dietary normal oleic extruded expelled (NO-EE), normal oleic full-fat (NO-FF), or HO-FF SBM on live performance, carcass and parts yield, and breast fatty acid composition. Diets were formulated to be isoenergetic and isonitrogenous. A total of 540 Ross-708 male broilers were raised on floor pens with 18 broilers/pen and 10 replicates/treatment. Data were analyzed in a completely randomized design. Chickens were fed with a starter (0-14 d), grower (15-35 d), or a finisher diet (36-47 d) up to 47 d. Chickens were weighed at 7, 14, 35, and 47 d. At 48 d, 4 broilers per pen were processed. Breast samples were collected and evaluated for quality and fatty acid content. Broilers fed diets with NO-EE were heavier (P < 0.05) than chickens fed diets with full-fat SBM (NO-FF and HO-FF) at d 7, 14, 35 while feed conversion ratio (FCR) of NO-EE was best (P < 0.05) at 7 and 47 d. Carcass yield was also higher for broilers fed NO-EE than the other treatments. Diet did not affect parts yield, breast meat color, cooking, drip loss, white stripping, or SM quality parameters. More breast fillets without wooden breast (score 1) were observed (P < 0.05) for NO-FF than the other 2 treatments. The breast meat fatty acid profile (g fatty acid/100 g of all fatty acids) was significantly affected (P < 0.001) by diet. Broilers fed the HO-FF SBM diet had 54 to 86% more oleic acid, 72.5% to 2.2 times less linoleic acid, and reduced stearic and palmitic acid levels in the breast meat than NO-FF and NO-EE. In conclusion, feeding HO-FF to broilers enriched the oleic acid content of their breast meat while reducing the saturated fatty acid content relative to the NO-FF and NO-EE treatment groups.

  PublisherDOI

• Influence of Extruded Soybean Meal with Different Fat Contents and Varying Oleic Acid Content on Floating Fish Feed Quality and Composition

  2023

  • Food science
  • Chemistry
  • Biology
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Thien Vu

  Agricultural Research Service

  45 shared

• Ramon D. Malheiros

  North Carolina State University

  40 shared

• Rebecca Wysocky

  North Carolina State University

  24 shared

• Kari L Harding

  North Carolina State University

  19 shared

• Kristina M. Williams

  United States Food and Drug Administration

  18 shared

• Kenneth E. Anderson

  North Carolina State University

  18 shared

• Rouf Mian

  Agricultural Research Service

  16 shared

• Marion Pereira

  Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition

  15 shared

Education

• Ph.D. Nutrition Sciences, Poultry Science

  North Carolina State University

  2005

• M.S. Physiology, Zoology

  North Carolina State University

  2000

• B.S., Biochemistry

  North Carolina State University

  1994