NFOK24004U Designing Nutritious Future Dairy Products and Alternatives

Volume 2025/2026
Content

The course will cover:

  • The challenge: sustainable and healthy diets - from purpose to practice 
  • Processing effects on nutrients in dairy products, hybrid products and their vegan alternatives 
  • Nutritional effects of dairy nutrients: protein, lipids, lactose, calcium, immune-active proteins
  • Digestion of dairy and alternative dairy products
  • Benefits of minimal processing
  • Introduction to human Nutrition and Gut Microbiota

Furthermore, the course will describe what drives innovation and new product development, within both traditional and alternative dairy products. 

Afterwards, the student will make a project work to evaluate the nutritional/ health benefits of a product and describe how to formulate and process it. This work will be done in groups of 3-4 students but the individual contribution of each student needs to be clear. 

In this course the students recognize the importance of the chemical-physical properties of the ingredients and their interaction with individual process stages, and gain an overview of their effects on nutritional value of a product.

Learning Outcome

Knowledge:

  • importance of the chemical-physical properties of the ingredients and their interaction with individual process stages e.g. pasteurization, homogenization, fermentation and technologies for fresh dairy products such as drinking milk, cream, butter, yoghurt, cheese and their alternatives.
  • Basic understanding of nutritional quality of dairy and alternative dairy products
  • Basic understanding of the overall health aspects of these products 

Skills:

  • Read and use original scientific literature regarding dairy and alternative products.
  • Find data and use models to assess nutritional quality and determine nutritional and sustainability trade-offs

 

Competences:

  • Dealing with challenges in connection to develop healthy dairy products, hybrid products and their vegan alternatives
  • Apply academic methodology to describe basic aspects of the nutritional quality of these products.
  • Ability to present a self-chosen scientific topic in a comprehensive matter

A selection of reviews, book chapters, original scientific literature, articles from news magazines and lecturer teaching material is presented and made available to students before the summer course starts.

It is recommended that students have passed 100 ECTS points of their bachelor programme before signing up for this course.
Basic qualifications in chemistry and microbiology on bachelor level is recommended
A) Reading material for self-study is sent out to students 2 weeks before teaching at KU SCIENCE starts. This pre-reading material constitutes one week full-time study work.

B) Lectures, where a general overview of the subject is presented.
C) Theoretical exercises that elaborate and illustrate the theoretical knowledge by using e.g. specific real-world examples.

D) Project assignment during the course for completion after teaching at KU SCIENCE ends. This project constitutes 2 weeks of full-time study work.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 50
  • Preparation
  • 60
  • Theory exercises
  • 8
  • Project work
  • 88
  • Total
  • 206
Oral
Collective
Continuous feedback during the course of the semester
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written assignment, 3 weeks
Type of assessment details
Based on the learnings from the course, the students will carry out a project work to evaluate the nutritional/ health benefits of a product and describe how to formulate and process it. The project work will start with a pitch of your idea that will be followed by a status presentation, and will end with a group report to be finalised during the last two weeks of the course.

The project work will be done in groups of 3-4 students. The report will be a summary of the group work. The individual contribution of each student needs to be clearly stated for each section of the report.

It is not allowed to use AI software tools to generate parts of the individual project.
Examination prerequisites

There will be a number of compulsory presentations over the two weeks regarding the project work. The students must participate in all the compulsory presentations.

Aid
All aids allowed except Generative AI
Marking scale
passed/not passed
Censorship form
No external censorship
Several internal examiners
Re-exam

Same as the ordinary exam.

If the mandatory attendance moments for the course cannot be met, an individual track fulfilling the same learning goals must be arranged with the course responsible no later than one month before the re-exam. 

If the original project report are not passed, the student must hand in a revised project report.

Criteria for exam assesment

See Learning Outcome