LEARN THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FOOD TECHNOLOGY
The food technology industry is an exciting sector to work in and is seen in many different areas including:
- Small scale factories
- Contract catering
- Supermarket product development
- Food service businesses such as cafes and restaurants
- Independent food retailers
It is vital that those working in these businesses know how food should be prepared, packaged, presented and stored in order to get the most out of the product, as well as meeting regulatory requirements. This course provides you with just that!
Lesson Structure
There are 9 lessons in this course:
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Overview -Scope and Nature of Food Processing Industry
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Introduction
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Understanding Food Spoilage
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How Food can be Preserved
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The Role of Nutrition in New Product Development
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Health, Food Development, and Processing
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Essential Nutrients and Nutrition
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Other Natural Additives
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Nutrient Potential Assessment
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Chemical Processing, Preservatives, and Additives
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Defining Processed Foods
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Additives for Appearance
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Additives for Taste
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Food Contact Materials
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Thermal Food Processing, Pasteurisation and Microwave Cooking
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Understanding Microbial Destruction
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Types of Heating
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Pasteurisation
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Reheating Food
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Heating For Serving
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Managing Health Claims and Other Statements
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Health Claims vs. Nutrition Content Claims
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Health Claims and Development
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Warning and Advisory Statements
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Genetically Modified Foods
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Developing New Food Products (including Marketing)
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Developing the Marketing Concept
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Consumer Buying Behaviour
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Stages of Developing a New Food Product
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Packaging, Labelling and Storage
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Choosing Packaging Materials
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Types of Packing Materials
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Design Considerations in Packaging
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Labelling
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Storage
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Legal, Policy and Management
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How Legal Requirements Impact Food Processing
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Food Production Management
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Differences Between Manufacturing and Production
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Entry of Products into Foreign Markets
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Developing a New Product - Problem Based Learning (PBL) Project
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Working through food product development stages to design your own product
LEARN THE COMPLEXITIES OF FOOD MANUFACTURING
In most instances when food is processed it is for more than one reason.
Human foods are not always tasty or safe to eat in their raw form. Cooking or processing in some other way may make them more palatable, or may be a way of destroying harmful bacteria. Processing may also be used to extend their lifespan (preservation); or to make them more appealing to a buyer.
UNDERSTANDING THE PROCESS OF DESTROYING MICROORGANISMS
This process has been studied in great depth by scientists; and very complex methods of understanding and determining the parameters for processing foods have been developed. To fully understand the science and mathematics that underpins these issues is beyond the scope of this course. The following may give you a very basic understanding of the concepts involved though.
In practice, people who work in the food industry will take advice from or employ the services of highly trained and skilled technologists to monitor and calculate the precise way in which different foods should be handled to optimise the control of microorganisms without causing an unnecessary deterioration in the quality of foods.
When you heat food, microorganisms begin to die. The quantity of microorganisms that die, depends upon the time (duration) of heating, as well as the temperature. There are many different types of microorganisms in food though. Some will be very harmful and must be completely eliminated; but others may be tolerated by the human body (e.g. these may cause spoilage or deterioration in the food, but they may not be human pathogens). The amount of heating required to destroy dangerous microorganisms, can be determined by the quantity of heating needed to destroy the most heat resistant pathogens which need to be destroyed.
Heating food can also be affected significantly by how heat penetrates into the food. Some foods will conduct heat much more slowly than others, meaning that the outside can become quite hot while the inside of a food mass may still be cold. When foods are heated at lower temperatures for longer periods, this may become less of an issue. This issue may also be minimised by mixing the food as it is heated (e.g. when making scrambled eggs). Food scientists conduct what is called a “CUT test” (i.e. Come up test) as a way of measuring heat penetration.
The way in which bacterial microorganisms are destroyed is actually a logarithmic process.
- This means that in a certain time interval, at a given temperature, the same percentage of bacteria will be destroyed.
- This means that if 90% of the harmful bacteria in the original population are destroyed in 1 minute at 100 degrees Celsius, 90% of the remaining bacteria will die in the second minute, 90% of the then remaining bacteria will be killed in the third minute and so on.
This course will help you understand how foods can be affected by different methods of processing. You will develop a solid and broad based understanding and awareness of the techniques used to process food, and the reasons why those different techniques are applied to processing in different contexts.
To become an expert Food Technologist can involve much more study plus extensive industry experience beyond this course. This is however a good starting point. For anyone who works or aspires to work in food service, manufacturing or retail; this course can provide an extremely important foundation that is likely to underpin things you do every day on the job.
WHO SHOULD STUDY THIS COURSE?
- Food Producers (Growers of fruit, vegetables, meat products etc).
- Growers seeking to value add (producing preserves from their grown produce)
- Food Processors (Cottage industries, Small factories, Large processing plants)
- Restaurant or Cafe Staff (Cooks, Waiters, etc)
- Food Retailers
- Food Coaches (anyone giving advice on food or nutrition)
- or anyone else working in the production or use of processed foods
WHY STUDY WITH US?
There are lots of reasons why you should study with us:
- Our courses are designed to be flexible, great for studying whilst developing your career
- Upskilling your knowledge will help you in your current, and future career
- Details provided in this course can improve your current processes making your business more efficient
- Subject specialists are on hand to support you with the course content, they have industry knowledge that they love to share with students
- Within the course you have the opportunity to develop a new product which could help with a new business idea
TAKE THE NEXT STEP, AND ENROL NOW!
You can enrol on the course now, but if you have any questions about the content of the course or studying with ACS, then please get in touch with us today - use our FREE COURSE COUNSELLING SERVICE to get in touch with our expert tutors. They will be pleased to help you!
