FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 131
(4units) FALL QUARTER

COURSE GOALS: FST 131 is designed to give a comprehensive overview of the scientific and technical aspects of food packaging.   Course content includes functions, terminology, materials, properties, manufacture, design, applications, trends and environmental and legal issues of food packaging.

ENTRY LEVEL: This course is open to Food Science and non-Food Science majors. Prerequisites: Chemistry 8B, Biological Sciences lA, and Physics 5B or 7C.

COURSE FORMAT: Lectures (3 hours/week), discussion (1 hour/week), homework problems, midterm and final exam.

TOPICAL OUTLINE: 

• Packaging functions and definitions
• Food-package-environment interactions
• Packaging materials - composition and properties
• Formed Packages - components, manufacture, uses and trends
• Quantification of packing properties
• Food shelf-life determination
• Packaging of dry foods
• Package design for moisture-sensitive foods
• Packaging of heat-processed foods
• Packaging of frozen foods
• Packaging of beverages
• Packaging trends
• Package design for oxygen-sensitive foods
• Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP)
• Package reduction, recycling & energy recovery
• Food packaging laws and regulations

GRADING: Homeworks - 35%, Midterm - 30%, Final Exam - 35%

TEXT USED: Food Packaging - Principles and Practice-2nd ed, Gordon L. Robertson, 2006. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.

POTENTIAL COURSE OVERLAP: No other course emphasizing food packaging exists at UC Davis.

DATE PREPARED: December 19, 2008
INSTRUCTOR: J. M. Krochta