HNE-22806 Food and Health: Practice and Theory

Course

Credits 6.00

Language of instruction:

English

Assumed knowledge on:

Obligatory courses in first two years of the BSc programme in Nutrition and Health; this course is a follow-up of HNE-11306 Nutrition and Health III

Contents:

The overall aim of the course is to develop a new food on household level and to learn how to report this research in a scientific manner. Compared to existing foods or standard recipes, the new food will have a supplementary health-effect. In groups, the students will investigate 3 variants of the new food compared to an existing food or standard recipe. The 4 foods will be investigated by means of literature research (e.g. food history, effects of food processing, expected nutrient content, food law and legislation, food storage and packaging), experimental cooking (to find the optimal recipe in a standardized and reproducible manner), chemical analyses (to support the nutrient calculations), and sensory research (to test for specific sensory attributes and/or the acceptability of the foods). The research progress will be reported by means of a research proposal, proposal presentation, progress presentation and finally a scientific report will be written. The final report will be discussed with the teachers and the students will receive feed-back.

Learning outcomes:

In the context of the research performed in this course, the student is expected to:
- formulate a research question and hypothesis of total process of product development;
- formulate specific research questions and hypotheses of the literature research, experimental cookery, chemical research, and basic sensory research;
- independently analyse and interpret research results of literature research, experimental cookery, chemical research, and basic sensory research;
- formulate specific conclusions regarding the literature research, experimental cookery, chemical research, basic sensory research;
- formulate an overall conclusion and recommendations for the total process product development;
- present the performed research in a scientific manner (both orally as written).

Activities:

During the course students will:
- follow lectures and presentations of colleague students;
- in a practical group:
1. design a protocol for product development research;
2. perform product development research (i.e. literature research, experimental cookery, chemical analyses, sensory research);
3. keep a daily journal on all research activities;
4. present the protocol and research progress to colleague students;
5. write a scientific report on the product development research.

Examination:

The practical groups are judged on the execution of their research and the scientific quality of their group report. Moreover, students are individually judged on their contribution to the research.

Literature:

Course reader will be available at the WUR-Shop, Forum.