Food Science Foundations

What food is made of — and what changes it. Food composition and energy, reaction kinetics, food chemistry reactions and the microbiology of spoilage, pathogens and fermentation.

• Introduction to Food Technology & Food Composition — The science and engineering of what we eat. Learn what food technologists do, the food system from farm to fork, the major food components (water, carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, vitamins, minerals, fibre), proximate analysis, energy values with Atwater factors, wet and dry basis, food groups and processing levels, and careers in food industry, safety regulation and R&D — with Python computing the energy and macronutrient profile of a food.
• Reaction Kinetics — Kinetics describes how fast reactions go. Learn rate laws and reaction order, rate constants and the Arrhenius equation, activation energy, half-life, elementary vs non-elementary reactions, reversible reactions, and how to extract kinetics from experimental data.
• Food Chemistry & Microbiology — What changes food and what spoils it. Learn key reactions (Maillard browning, caramelisation, lipid oxidation, enzymatic browning, starch gelatinisation and retrogradation, protein denaturation), food microorganisms (bacteria, yeasts, moulds, viruses), growth factors (FAT TOM: food, acidity, temperature, time, oxygen, moisture), the bacterial growth curve, generation time and specific growth rate, pathogens (Salmonella, Listeria, E. coli O157, C. botulinum, B. cereus), spoilage, beneficial fermentation and indicator organisms — with Python for exponential growth and temperature effects.