Learning objectives
The aim of the course is to increase the students' skillness by means of the problem solving approach.Learning outcomes of the course will be the capacity of problem solving, together to the ability of connections between the different parts of the course and between processes and operations of the food industry. Moreover, the student will gain expertise and skillness in new foods, ingredients and modern hydrocolloids and their relative functional properties.
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 food process design in food industry.
Applying knowledge and understanding: the course aims to enable students to apply knowledge of food process design and to give them competences as the ability of devising and sustaining arguments and solving simple problems of food process 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, understand them and use the most appropriate to provide answers to well-defined problems of food process design.
Communication skills: the course aims to enable the student to communicate his knowledge about food process 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 or to work in food industries with a high degree of autonomy.
Prerequisites
Advanced knowledge on food processing, food chemistry and food microbiology. Curiosity and a strong interest in the field are welcome.
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
Module 1: Methods and planning for new foods. Advanced cooking techniques. Hydrocolloids and their physical and chemical properties. Modified atmosheres and physical properties of plastic polymers. Skillness and creative ideas in food technology and food products. In the Module 2, the course aims to introduce the student to the study of the methodology of process design in the food industry. The main objective of the process design methodology is the identification of the process operating conditions that through the use of suitable plants and control systems allow reaching the established objectives and obtaining the desired products with the expected values of production yield, costs, efficiency, level of compliance with a defined standard, in a logic of environmental sustainability and in compliance with regulations. To this end, methods to design, validate and control the main unit operations organised in a process will be presented and discussed by means of case studies.
In the introduction part of the Course the Italian food industry facing global competition, the general approach to process design and the R&D methods will be presented.
For each unit operation methods to design, validate, control and verify it will be presented.
Full programme
Module 1: Methods and planning for new foods. Fro the idea up to the building of a new food bu means of consolidated mental scheme. Advanced cooking techniques as frying, induction, micro waves, ohmic heating. Hydrocolloids and their applications as well as their physical and chemical properties. Modified atmosheres and physical .
properties of plastic polymers. Skillness and creative ideas in food technology and food products. Relationships among food, its container and the surrounding conditions.Shelf life estimation.
Module 2: 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. Physical properties of foods. Ingredient size reduction Mixing Heat treatment aimed to microbial count reduction/elimination and enzymatic stability Validation of aseptic process. Filling, packaging Storage Cleaning and sanification of equipment. Hygienic design. Layouts, matter and energy balances Discussion with students about simple cases. Conclusions
Bibliography
Slides and documents given by the teacher in the form of electronic training aids supplied (also comprehending deepening topics not illustrated during lessons), with web links for free downloading cited documents.
Maroulis, Z. B., & Saravacos, G. D. (2003). Food process design (Vol. 126). CRC Press.
Ahmed, J., & Rahman, M. S. (Eds.). (2012). Handbook of Food Process Design, 2 Volume Set. John Wiley & Sons.
Teaching methods
Class lessons, simulations, guided tours and seminars. Lessons will be organized face-to-face with the possibility of using the lessons also remotely in synchronous (via Teams) and asynchronous mode (uploaded on the Elly page of the course). The teaching will be carried out through lectures in the classroom with the help of slides that will represent teaching material.
The theoretical topics of the course are explained by means of lectures enriched with practical examples and case studies.
Assessment methods and criteria
Module 1: Oral examination by means of a project developed by the student on an unknown food.The final exam is slide presentation given by the student on a project of a new food. From the project given by the student, the teacher tests his/her ability to understand the different steps of food processing and their relative connections. Specific questions by the teacher will assess the understanding of the project and also of the principles of food technology and quality management. The teacher will assess the ability of the student to establish connections between the various topics giving a score proportional to the skillness level. Along the lessons, the teacher continously asks questions to the students in order to understand the comprehensiol level of the class.
Module 2: Oral examination by means of a project developed by the student on a process design of a food.The exam is a presentation by the student on a project of a new food. From the project given by the student, the teacher tests his/her ability to understand the different steps of food processing and their relative connections. Specific questions by the teacher will assess the understanding of the project and also of the principles of food technology and quality management. The teacher will assess the ability of the student to establish connections between the various topics.
Duration of exam will be about 45 minutes.
Other information
Along the period of class lessons, several seminars are normally presented. There will be persons of the industrial food sector or researchers working in the field of food and process innovation.
In the event of sanitary emergency, class lessons could undergo changes that will be communicated to students on Elly platform and/or on the web site of the course.
Attendance at a course is not mandatory but strongly recommended.
in case of severe sanitary emergence lessons and exams could be modified and vairations will be published on Elly page and/or degrre course homepage
