NSCPHD1212 Food Stability

Volume 2015/2016
Education

The PhD course is a part of the NOVA University Network. It will be organized in collaboration between food chemistry groups at Århus University, University of Helsinki, SLU and University of Copenhagen. The course will bring together for the first time Food Chemistry groups at the four Nordic universities in a joint teaching effort based on their complementary scientific competencies within the field of chemical and physical food stability. It will be organized as a one-week intensive program in August 2015 at University of Copenhagen where lecturers from the four partner universities will cover the field of physical and chemical stability of foods from a Nordic viewpoint.

 

Content

 

PLEASE NOTE         

The PhD course database is under construction. If you want to sign up for this course, please click on the link in order to be re-directed. Link: https://phdcourses.ku.dk/nat.aspx

 

The course is intended for phd-students with a basic understanding of general food chemistry or a similar natural science background. The course will aim to give the students a holistic understanding of the interactions and connections between food structure, physical phenomena and chemical changes that affect the shelf life of typical foods intended for Nordic consumers. The course will begin with an introduction to food structure with focus on methods to characterize microstructure. This will be followed by physical stability issues occurring during production, handling and storage. Chemical stability of foods will cover lipid and protein oxidation as well as the use of antioxidants. One half day will be devoted to milk based products, which will be used as a specific example of a holistic approach to stability issues from the point of view of a narrow group of food products. Finally the course will end with covering new mild industrial food processing techniques and their impacts on physical and chemical stability. Two guests will be invited from Nordic food companies to come and present actual examples of handling food stability issues in the Nordic Markets.

Learning Outcome

Knowledge:

-Understanding common physical and chemical factors that affect food stability

-Understanding detailed mechanisms of and interactions between chemical and physical changes that affect food stability during handling and storage

-Knowledge about different preventive measures and novel processing techniques that can have a positive effect on food stability

-Knowledge about unique requirements to food stability in the Nordic markets

Skills:

-Be able to design new scientific experiments, related to food stability

-Be able to identify necessary information required for reliably assessing food stability

Competences:

-Be able to evaluate the stability of a given food based on available information

-Be able to suggest measures that can improve physical and chemical stability

The course will be based on a mixture of lectures, theoretical exercises, and discussions of specific cases (groups and plenum). The students will receive reading material and small introductory assignments before the course starts in Copenhagen (approx. equivalent to half week work). The assignments will form the basis for case discussions in groups and in plenum during the week. The course is finished with an individual written report (approx. one and a half week of work). The total workload for the students will be 3 weeks consisting of one week in Copenhagen and 2 weeks of work at home.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Class Instruction
  • 15
  • Lectures
  • 20
  • Preparation
  • 80
  • Total
  • 115
Credit
4 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written assignment
The course is passed when the final individual report has been approved. The topics of the assignments will be decided during week 35.
Marking scale
passed/not passed