QUALITY AND FOOD SAFETY
cod. 1010980

Academic year 2024/25
2° year of course - Second semester
Professor
Monica GATTI
Academic discipline
Microbiologia agraria (AGR/16)
Field
Attività formative affini o integrative
Type of training activity
Related/supplementary
35 hours
of face-to-face activities
5 credits
hub: PARMA
course unit
in ITALIAN

Integrated course unit module: C.I. ECONOMICS OF FOOD QUALITY SCHEME

Learning objectives

At the end of the course, the student must be able to grasp the major issues related to food safety and quality in order to correctly manage the choice of purchasing and storing the different types of food according to the different economic management realities .
Based on the economic-managerial differences in the marketing and promotion of food production and environmental systems, the student must be able to manage the shelf-life and safety of quality food products, whether they are typical and traditional or innovative

Prerequisites

knowledge of general concepts of biology and microbiology

Course unit content

The course deals with the aspects of food processing that affect quality and safety.
In particular the contents of the course concern the foods for which the involvement of microorganisms is important, the effect of their presence and their duplication during production and conservation.
For this purpose, some foods obtained from the transformation of raw materials both of vegetable and animal origin, both traditional and innovative, will be studied as model examples

Full programme

Basic principles for understanding how microorganisms of food interest differ.
Modes of microbial contamination of plant and animal origin foods.
Modes and effects of microbial development in foods.
Microorganisms and food safety.
Foodborne diseases and the main microorganisms that cause them.
Food spoilage and the main microorganisms that cause it.
Microorganisms and food quality.
Spontaneous and guided fermentations related to the quality of fermented foods.
Examples of foods for which the presence and development of microorganisms is fundamental to characterization and quality."

Bibliography

Since a single specific text is not available to the course contents, some in-depth texts are suggested.
- G. D'Ancona - M. Viganego – (2017) A. Molo INDUSTRIE AGROALIMENTARI - Principi, Tecnologie, Trasformazioni, Prodotti (Volumi 1 e 2), Ed REDA, Torino, Italia
- Luca Cocolin Marco Gobbetti Erasmo Neviani “Microbiologia alimentare applicata” (2022) Casa Editrice Ambrosiana. Distribuzione esclusiva Zanichelli. ISBN 8808120074
Slide delle lezioni The reference didactic material are the slides provided in class

Teaching methods

The teaching will be carried out through classroom lectures with the help of slides that will represent teaching material, made available on Elly in pdf format for students. The lessons also include the discussion of examples of the most recent real cases through the Socratic heuristic lesson method.
For this reason, the slides, which are gradually updated for each topic, will be uploaded to Elly before any subject is discussed and not all together at the beginning of the course.
The content of the lessons is not included in a single specific text, therefore attendance at lectures is essential to achieve the objectives of the course

Assessment methods and criteria

At the end of the course, the level of learning of the expected results will be verified through registration for a PARTIAL TEST of the Module, which in the Esse3 system is usually defined as “PARTIAL TEST QUALITY AND SAFETY” or equivalent names.
The mode consists of a written test divided into three parts. The first part consists of 10 questions that verify the achievement of minimum knowledge of the fundamental concepts of the course. For this reason, only if the answers to all the questions (multiple-choice) are correct, the student is admitted to take the subsequent parts. The time available is 10 minutes.
The second part evaluates the knowledge of the program through 31 multiple-choice questions covering all topics addressed in the lessons, including seminars. Each correct answer is worth 1 point, each unanswered or incorrect answer is worth 0 points. Only with a minimum score of 18/30 can the student access the third part. The time available is 30 minutes.
The third part evaluates the acquired competence through two open questions, one related to safety aspects and one to quality aspects. Each question is worth 15 points so that the third part is evaluated out of 30. The time available is 30 minutes. The correction of the third part will be done as soon as possible depending on the number of registered students. The arithmetic average of the score obtained in the second and third parts, rounded up, will be the grade for this module.
The grade obtained in this Module will weigh 50% on the evaluation of the entire integrated course C.I. TECHNIQUES FOR ASSESSING FOOD QUALITY, the recording of which will take place only after passing the PARTIAL TESTS of the two Modules, through registration for the RECORDING EXAM of the C.I. TECHNIQUES FOR ASSESSING FOOD QUALITY.
It is specified that if the grade obtained in the partial test has been rounded up, the same rounding cannot occur in the final grade of the recording exam."

Other information

attendance is recommended