Learning objectives
Knowledge and understanding: the class aims to enable the student to have knowledge and understanding in the field of dairy processes, so that the student can start to operate in the dairy sector.
Applying knowledge and understanding: the class aims to enable students to apply knowledge of dairy processes and products to the work in the dairy or food industry and to give them competences as the ability of devising and sustaining arguments and solving simple problems of the dairy field.
Making judgments: the class aims to enable the student to begin to develop an autonomous capacity to draw conclusions thanks to the ability to seek and gather relevant data, interpret them and use the most appropriate to provide answers to simple and well-defined problems of dairy sector
Communication skills: the class aims to enable the student to communicate his knowledge about dairy products and processes, ideas, problem solutions to other people (expert or not expert of the filed), and when he will start to work to his supervisor and / or to customers
Learning skills: The class aims to give students the learning skills necessary to undertake further studies in food science and technology with a high degree of autonomy
Prerequisites
Knowledge of the fundamentals of microbiology and technical physics is useful for an efficient understanding of the course contents. However it is not required to have passed the corresponding examinations
Course unit content
The class starts by defining the measurable characteristics of milk as a raw material because such knowledge is a necessary tool to be able to explain the main unit operations (heat treatment, transfer of fluids, separation by filtration or centrifugation, solid-liquid and liquid -liquid extraction, concentration by evaporation, drying, freeze-drying, freezing, size reduction, modification of structure) that are the basis of the processes of transformation of the milk in the multiple-derived products (liquid milk, fermented milk, condensed and powdered milk, products deriving from the milk cracking, cream, butter, cheese).
The class illustrates some of the technologies used to change temperature, pH and / or water activity of dairy products and the effects of these changes on lethality or microbial growth, inactivation kinetics and/or enzymatic activity during processing and storage, also in function of the method of packaging. For each process are also described criteria relating to the cleaning and sanitation operations.
The class relates processes to products also in the light of legislative requirements, and gives some examples about different process choices leading to achieve the same variety of product, illustrating the influence of these choices on the product properties.
The class takes care to anticipate some contents related to the classes of microbiology and food chemistry, delivered in the third year, being these contents essential for the overall understanding of food and dairy technology.
Full programme
1. The measurable characteristics of milk: chemical composition, microbiological
and physical characteristics
2. Collection, reception and storage of milk
3. Liquid milk (long life, ESL,microfiltrated, fresh)
4. The fermented milk
5. The condensed milk
6. Milk powder
7. Whey powder
8. The products of milk cracking (casein, whey proteins etc)
9. Cream and butter
10. Cheeses
Bibliography
Slides provided by the teacher
To improve knowledge some texts are recommended.
To better know the characteristics of the processes and the related dairy products:
Mucchetti G., Neviani E. (2006) Microbiology and dairy technology. quality
and safety. New Techniques Ed Milano
Dairy Processing Handbook (1995). TetraPack Publisher
To enhance knowledge about unit operations of food technology:
Pompeii C. (2009) Unit operations in food technology. CEA Milan
Fellows P. J. "Food Processing Technology: Principles and Practice" (Woodhead
Publishing in Food Science and Technology) Second edition - Woodhead
Publishing Ltd, Cambridge, England, 2000
Earle R. L. "Unit Operations in Food Processing" - Free Web edition by Dick and
Mary Earle, with the support of the NZIFST:
h t t p: / / w w w. n t i f t s. o r g. n c / u n i t o p e r a t i o n s / i n d e x. h t m
Teaching methods
Lectures with slides presentation.
During the lessons, preferentially when the lectures about a specific argument (e.g. liquid milk, dried milk, butter, cheese) are over, students are required to discuss which process options and / or operating conditions may be chosen to fulfill the product standard.
Assessment methods and criteria
The Assessment is carried out in a single final examination scheduled as follows:
The examination starts with the exposure by the student of a multimedia presentation (e.g. Power Point) consisting of not more than 10 slides (beyond that of the title). The student will have 10 minutes for presentation. The topic of the presentation is freely chosen by the student.
The examination is completed with the discussion of the content of the presentation and the formulation of questions from the teacher about the topics of the course. This latter part of the examination aimed at verifying the student's ability to link his knowledge and / or use it to make simple decisions.
The final examination score is awarded on the basis of the following criteria:
1) quality of the presentation, as an index of the student's ability to choose material according to priority, given the imposed time limit and slide number, and organize the knowledge thereof in order to communicate clearly;
2) student's ability to answer issues and then apply his own knowledge
Other information
- - -
