Agricultural Sciences

This course examines introductory level scientific and engineering design concepts including sustainable development, and product and processing line management with an emphasis on sustainable manufacturing as the core theme throughout the course. A technical lecture series will demonstrate the integration of all aspects of food science and technology, and their underpinning by the basic sciences, through examination of a hypothetical company producing a selected food product.  

This is an independent research course with research arranged between the student and faculty member. The specific research topics vary each term and are described on a special project form for each student. A substantial paper is required. The number of units varies with the student’s project, contact hours, and method of assessment, as defined on the student’s special study project form.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. This course develops critical knowledge of the fundamental institutes of Food Law with particular attention to the new profiles that the discipline presents and to European and international regulations of specific relevance. The approach to the subject is interdisciplinary, not only theoretical but also practical-operational, enabling students to acquire mastery and awareness in the use of legislative, jurisprudential, and contractual practice tools. The course content includes: principles and rules of European and global food law; right to food; food security; food safety; food sovereignty; global food law trends; European food law rules; food sustainability; food law and antitrust rules; and contract farming. At the end of the module, the course covers the regulation of national, European, and international agrifood markets, with particular emphasis placed on agrifood security, producer responsibility, and competition policies; and how to handle different sources of agrifood law, how to be familiar with bodies issuing specific regulation in the sector, and how to contribute to organizational policies to this regard.

FQD633 is the first module of the online course on Product and Process Design. This first module focuses on the principles of consumer-oriented food product design. Group work is an essential part of this module. Deadlines are in place to ensure appropriate progress of the (group) work. The online course on Product and Process Design focuses on design aspects of food products from an integrated product and process perspective and aims at strengthening so-called T-shaped skills, i.e., the ability to tackle in-depth disciplinary technological problems in combination with the aptitude to deal with broad multi-disciplinary challenges. The online course on Product and Process Design is divided into four modules: FQD63303, FQD63403, FQD63503, and FQD63603.

This course combines knowledge from different disciplines of food science to study the effect of processing on product quality, in relation to innovation of food products, taking both a technological and a consumer perspective. The product quality is described by technological properties (e.g. chemical and physical properties). Examples include consistency, color, flavor, and appearance of the food. An introduction to sensory analysis is given, explaining the use of statistical computer programs to handle data sets from sensory analyses. In addition, the process of product innovation is analyzed in its societal context, with an emphasis on ethical issues. Moreover, the theory on chemical analysis of foods with means of chromatography techniques is given and practiced in lab-simulation tutorials. The course includes classroom lectures, (lab) tutorials, and sensory experiments. In the laboratory classes, groups produce an innovative food product starting from raw materials and compare its properties with those of an existing food product. This part of the course is also known as DIPP: Discipline Integrating Product Practical. Students perform consumer interviews on their raw materials and innovative food products. A scientific report is written on the experiments and assignments performed on the innovative food product. For this course, it assumed that students know the different food science disciplines: food chemistry, food physics, food microbiology, and food process engineering, including laboratory experience in these disciplines.

Knowledge of the chemical composition and properties of food is of primary importance to ensure product quality, safety, and stability. In the lectures of this course, the effects of processing and storage conditions on the chemical composition of the major food constituents (lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins) and phenolic compounds are discussed. Examples are the modification of lipids and the importance of lipid refining, modification of polysaccharides to optimize their properties, reactivity (e.g. oxidation) of phenolic compounds, and stability & chemical reactivity of proteins. The course focuses on the occurrence and reactivity of these compounds in different food products and raw materials, the analysis of these compounds and their reaction products, and the effect of reactions during storage and processing on the chemical composition and properties of raw materials and food products. Information discussed during the lectures is applied in tutorials, digital case studies, and a practical in which students design the experiment.

This course discusses the biology of animals. The course covers:

• Animal form and function
• Water and Electroylyte balance in animals
• Animal nutrition
• Circulation
• Gas Exchange
• Animal Movement
• Chemical signals in animals
• Electrical signals in animals
• The Vertebrate Nervous System
• Animal Sensory Systems
• Animal Reproduction
• Animal Development
• Immune System in animals

This course studies basic concepts of applied animal and dairy science, covering the following topics: comparative physiology, anatomy, nutrition, genetics, reproduction, animal product, immunology, microbiology, environment biology, and animal behavior. 

This course gives an introduction to the principles behind effective operational quality systems in these complex food production chains. Major theoretical topics of the course include the relationship between food properties and quality attributes in the food production chain; traceability of food products in the food production chain; basic principles of operations management; principles of major technological tools, methods, and techniques in quality control and inspection; and introduction to major quality assurance standards. The course contains assignments related to these 4 topics. The assignments serve as a basis for critical analysis of factors influencing the actual operation of the implemented quality system.