Learning objectives
Knowledge and understanding: the course aims to enable the student to have knowledge and understanding in the field of food processing design, so that the student can start to operate in the dairy industry. Applying knowledge and understanding: the course aims to enable students to apply knowledge of dairy processing design and to give them competences as the ability of devising and sustaining arguments and solving simple problems of dairy field. Making judgments: the course aims to enable the student to begin to develop an autonomous capacity to draw conclusions thanks to the skills learned to seek and gather relevant data, interpret them and use the most appropriate to provide answers to well-defined problems of dairy processing design Communication skills: the course aims to enable the student to communicate his knowledge about dairy processing design, ideas, problem solutions to other people, and when he will start to work to his/her supervisor and / or to customers Learning skills: The course 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 food chemistry and microbiology together with that of technical physics and unit operations of food technology will be useful for an efficient understanding of the course contents.
Course unit content
The course aims to discuss different approaches to food processing design. The main goal of processing design is to identify the operation conditions that using appropriate equipments and control systems are able to deliver the desired products for the best yield, the lowest cost, the highest efficiency and best quality, evaluated as conformity to a defined standard, into a frame of ambient sustainability. Methods to design, validate and control processes involving the main unit operations of food technology will be shown and discussed, using as guideline the production of processed cheeses.
Full programme
Identification of food properties and selection of the process Choice of raw materials and ingredients and identification of the relevant unit operations Design of unit operations and methods for verifying the operation efficacy and efficiency Ingredient size reduction Sieving and transport Mixing Heat treatment aimed to mix melting, microbial count reduction/elimination and enzymatic stability Filling, packaging Storage Cleaning and sanification of equipment Lay outs, matter and energy balances Discussion with students about simple cases Conclusions
Bibliography
slides from the teacher
Teaching methods
The class is divided into two parts. The first consists of lectures with presentation of slides aimed at developing the process design methods using as an example the production of processed cheese, highlighting the relationship between qualitative and quantitative targets, selecting the most relevant unit operations taking also into account the implications in terms of size of equipment, labour, energy and wastewater management. The second part involves discussion work with students during which the teacher offers some situations and invites the students to present possible solutions and to compare them
Assessment methods and criteria
The learning test will be carried out through a single written test consisting of three parts. The first part consists of 10 closed-ended questions on key issues of food technology. The correct answer to at least 9 of the 10 responses to this first part is binding to proceed with the correction of the second and third part and the estimation of the mark. The second part consists of a series of 30 closed-ended questions that evaluate the student's ability to logically master the knowledge learned and the ability to make simple decisions. The third part consists of one open question with which the student must demonstrate his ability to communicate in a synthetic manner to third parties the ability to use the acquired knowledge. The mark of the second part of the test contributes to 70% of the final mark, and the remaining 30% is attributed to the third part.The time available to the student to answer the three parts will be 120 minutes.
Other information
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