Food manufacturers are under constant pressure to respond to consumer demands to remain competitive in the marketplace. At the same time food legislation, government guidelines and pledges made by the manufactures need to be adhered to. Stakeholders would like to see foods which are affordable, healthy, minimally processed (i.e. not ultraprocessed) and sustainable while eliciting an enjoyable eating experience. The eating experience is a combination of the mouthfeel, taste, aroma and texture perceived from first bite to swallow. It is determined by the interplay between the ingredients including flavours, sugar, fat, … and the microstructure of the food and as it changes during oral processing. Therefore, food microstructures need to be understood and carefully designed.
This module will introduce the fundamental structures which make up the majority of modern processed foods, and explore how processing and formulation affects the developed structure and subsequent texture and flavour. It will then explore sustainable formulation engineering approaches for these structures, as it may already be practiced or as a hot topic in research.
The contact time will comprise home and guest lectures, seminars provided by early career researchers, round table discussions of processed foods in the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, preparation of a group presentation and formative feedback by peers and the module leads in preparation for the module assessment by coursework.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
Structure a research-led piece of written coursework.
Conduct independent research on a topic relevant to the module content.
Identify, plan, analyse, and critically discuss routes for reformulating food products and adaptation associated manufacture processes to allow development of products adhering better to the UN SDGs.
