FPE-21306 Food Production and Preservation

Course

Credits 6.00

Language of instruction:

English

Assumed knowledge on:

FPE-10808 Food Production Chains and FPE-20806 Mathematical Concepts for Food Technology.

Continuation courses:

FPE-20306 Food Engineering.

Contents:

This course will give a description of food production and preservation technologies that are relevant to the food industry. The course includes: food production methods, traditional preservation processes, fluid flow, thermal preservation kinetics and methods (heating, cooling, freezing) as well as novel preservation technologies. Important processing principles (such as residence time, heat transfer) and the consequences for products (shelf life and product quality) will be discussed for various processes and products.

Learning outcomes:

After successful completion of the course students are expected to be able to:
- identify the different methods of traditional preservation, and how they are applied;
- use principles from fluid dynamics, reaction kinetics and heat transfer (both steady state and transient) to semi-quantitatively predict the degree of preservation;
- understand principles of emerging preservation methods;
- lay the relation between the changes in texture and the treatment of products, depending on their constituents, and the specifics of the treatment;
- select a suitable preservation method depending on the requirements on shelf life, required product texture and composition.

Activities:

The course consists of three different activities: lectures on theory, tutorials with (calculation) exercises and practical experiments.
Lectures will introduce theory but also practically applied processes, and the ensuing properties of the products.
In the exercises and cases, many food production and preservation applications will be further qualified and quantified. Students can make the interactive exercises (including feedback and answers) during the tutorials. In plenary and individual tutorial sessions questions from students will be discussed.
During the practical, students will perform several prescribed experiments, process the results of the experiments, do various calculations, and answer related questions.
The results of the experiments will be discussed in evaluation sessions.

Examination:

The grade will be based on a written examination consisting of true/false and multiple choice questions. In the exam, both theory and applications with calculations will be assessed. The exam also includes questions on the practical experiments (and practical data processing).

Literature:

The theory reader will be available via the WUR-shop. Lecture notes, digital interactive exercises and notes of tutorial sessions will be shared via Blackboard.