Do you fall into the category of people who wish to explore their career choices and wonder what courses they would study during their undergraduation? Well, if you are considering to opt food science and technology, then this article might prove an asset to you. Let us first understand what Food Science and Food Technology exactly are?
What is Food Science?
Food Science is the application aspect of basic sciences along with engineering in order to know the basic physical, chemical and biochemical nature of foods and the processing aspect as well.
What is Food Technology?
Food Technology is the implementation of the information derived from food science in various tasks such as selection, processing, preservation, packaging, and distribution of the food.
Food Science and Technology undergraduate degree course-curriculum and basic requirements were decided by The Education Committee of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), based on 120-semester-hour or 180-quarter-hour requirements.
The core courses in food science and technology, which must be a minimum of 24-semester-hours, or 34-quarter-hours, including both lecture and laboratory elements are as follows-:
1. Food Chemistry: This course requires chemistry, organic chemistry and biochemistry as the [+prerequisites. An individual studies the composition of foods, its structure and properties along with the chemical changes during processing and utilization.
2. Food Analysis: Chemistry and Food chemistry courses are the pre requisites for this course. This course covers the principles, methods, and techniques required to analyze the composition of food. Analysis is basically related to the standards and regulations of food processing.
3. Food Microbiology: A general microbiology course is required for this course in prior. In food microbiology, the environmental impact on food spoilage id understood. It also takes into consideration, the destruction caused by microorganisms using physical, chemical, and biological means.
4. Food Processing: This is the course that deals with required qualities of food materials to be sent for processing, the principles of preservation, various processing stages, good manufacturing practices, the food additives that can be used in processing, etc.
5. Food Engineering: The prerequisites includes one course in physics, and two in calculus. In food engineering, one studies the engineering principles like material and energy balances, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, heat and mass transfer that are essential in food processing.
These are the courses that are of paramount importance for a bachelor’s degree in Food Science and Technology and are referred to as the “core courses”. Other courses such as computer science, sensory analysis, toxicology, biotech, quality management, food laws and regulations, quality assurance and advanced food engineering are also integrated into the course curriculum.
The following courses are also required for a degree in food science along with the core courses-:
1. Two courses in general chemistry. One course in organic chemistry, and one in biochemistry.
2. One course in general biology. One course in general microbiology.
3. One course with fundamentals of nutrition.
4. Two calculus courses.
5. One statistics course.
6. One general physics course.
7. Two courses dealing with speaking and writing skills.
8. Humanities and social science course.
When all the above requirements are fulfilled, then the degree program is considered sound.
Hope this article provided you a clear scenario of what the course curriculum requires and what are the courses studied under the bachelor’s degree program in Food Science and Technology.
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