The College of Light Industry and Food Engineering (CLIFE) is one of the leading collegesof Nanjing Forestry University (NFU), engaging in the cultivation of engineering talents and scientific research. The primary discipline of Pulp and Paper Engineering can be dated back to the Pulping Program, which established at the end of 1963, in the discipline of Chemical Processing of Forest Products. The college was originallyfounded on September 26, 2008 as the College of Light Industry Science and Engineering. It has been renamed to College of Light Industry and Food Engineering since June 29, 2017. At present, the college is composed of three departments: Pulp and Paper Engineering, Printing and Packaging Engineering, and Food Science and Engineering.

CLIFE has a post-doctoral research station for Light Industry Technology and Engineering, a doctoral program of Light Industry Technology and Engineering, a Master program of Food Science and Engineering. The first-level discipline of Light Industry Technology and Engineering now has three second-level disciplines of "pulp and paper engineering", "fermentation engineering", and "printing and packaging engineering", and are authorized to confer master and doctoral degrees in the three disciplines. CLIFE can recruit graduate with thirteen research directions. The first-level discipline of Light Industry Technology and Engineering is a key discipline of Jiangsu Province; pulp and paper engineering is also a second-level key discipline of the State Forestry Administration.

CLIFE has five undergraduate programs (majors), including Light Chemical Engineering (in Pulping and Papermaking Process direction), Light Chemical Engineering (in Pulping and Papermaking Equipment and Control direction), Printing Engineering, Light Industrial Equipment and Automation, and Food Science and Engineering. Among them, Light Chemical Engineering is a professional brand major of Jiangsu Province; Light Chemical Engineering and Printing Engineering are the key majors of Jiangsu Province; the major of Light Chemical Engineering is not only a pilot major of outstanding engineer education of Jiangsu Province, but also one of the majors which were firstly selected by the National Scholarship Council as “Outstanding Undergraduate International Exchange Programs” in 2012.

CLIFE has a provincial demonstration base for “Industry-University-Research” joint graduate program, a Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Pulp and Papermaking Science and Technology and an Institute of Pulp and Papermaking Engineering. It is the main supporting unit of the National Engineering Research Center of Biomaterials of Nanjing Forestry University. CLIFE is also the first batch of colleges collaborating and supporting the Jiangsu Enterprise Graduate Workstations, and currently has 6 Provincial Enterprise Graduate Workstations.

CLIFE has 76 faculty & staff, including 17 professors (16 doctoral supervisors) and 28 associate professors, among which, there are two academicians of the International Academy of Timber Science, four members of Jiangsu Province "333" Talent Training Project and four training outstanding young teachers in Jiangsu Province "Blue Project". It also has one American Distinguished Professor and nine domestic and foreign adjunct professors.

CLIFE currently has more than 1,100 undergraduate students and more than 160 graduate students. It has trained more than 3,200 undergraduate students, more than 600 junior undergraduates, more than 150 masters and doctors, 15 foreign students and more than 100 engineering masters and other advanced engineers. In accordance with the American model, CLIFE set up the Pulp and Paper Foundation and Research and Practice Base of Nanjing Forestry University jointly with the leading enterprises, forming a new model of enterprise-university joint undergraduate and graduate programs.

CLIFE is located in the economically developed region of the Yangtze River Delta, the most developed region in the papermaking, printing, and food processing industries. It is widely recognized as a base for talent training, scientific research, academic exchanges, and social service in the areas of papermaking, printing and packaging, food processing, and biomass conversion and utilization.