Undergraduate - UnitFST3820 - Food preservation

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2013 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

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Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Science
Organisational Unit	School of Science, Sunway
Offered	Sunway First semester 2013 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Leong Wai Fun

Synopsis

Food preservation deals with the methods of prevention or retardation of microbial, chemical and physical degradation of foods, while maintaining their nutritional quality, flavour and consumer appeal. Students will gain a theoretical and practical understanding of the scientific basis of the various traditional, modern and novel methods of food preservation for distribution and storage. Practical, cost-effective and safe preservation techniques to extend the shelf-life of foods will be discussed.

Outcomes

On completion of this unit students will be able to:

Demonstrate theoretical and practical knowledge of the various ways that foods may be preserved including thermal and non-thermal processing;

Explain the scientific basis of the various preservation techniques and to be able to apply the appropriate preservation techniques for different foods;

Select the appropriate packaging for different foods with consideration of the use of resources, packaging stability and food safety;

Determine shelf life for foods subjected to different preservation techniques, and be able to locate and appraise appropriate legislation and authoritative guidelines relating to shelf life extension;

Demonstrate an understanding of how regional culture may affect acceptance of different preservation techniques;

Demonstrate advanced scientific report writing and team work skills.

Assessment

Mid-semester exam: 20%
Practical reports: 30%
Three hour final exam: 50%

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Leong Wai Fun

Contact hours

Three hours of lectures per week plus 27 contact hours for practical classes

Prerequisites

BTH2811 or FST2810, and MIC2011