FST 104 - Food Microbiology

(3 units) WINTER QUARTER
Instructor

COURSE GOALS: The goals of FST 104 are, firstly, to provide an integrated picture of the field of Food Microbiology which encompasses issues of food safety, food preservation, and food production, and secondly, to introduce students to the problems that a food microbiologist learns to address.

COURSE FORMAT: FST 104 is a lecture class with three 1-hour lectures per week.

PREREQUISITES: BIS 2A; BIS 102 and 103; MIC 102; MIC 103L

GRADING: Grades will be based on two midterms (25% each), a final (50%).

TOPICAL OUTLINE:

  1. Food-borne disease: the microbe, the disease, and prospects for control
  2. Introduction and generalizations
  3. Food-borne disease agents among the major microbial groups
  4. Bacteria
  5. Viruses
  6. Fungi
  7. Protozoa and worms 
  8. Some legal considerations in food safety 
  9. Control of microbial agents of food spoilage
  10. Parameters affecting microbial growth in food
  11. Temperature effects on growth
  12. Thermal destruction of bacteria in foods
  13. Effect of atmosphere on growth and survival
  14. Water activity
  15. Acids, other chemicals, and other food treatments 
  16. Food spoilage patterns associated with the major microbial spoilage groups and the various categories of foods 
  17. Detection and enumeration of bacteria in foods
  18. Traditional methods
  19. Newer methods based on traditional approaches
  20. New developments in bacterial detection, including immunological methods and the use of molecular genetics 
  21. Microbes in food production
  22. Microbial-based food production
  23. Food fermentations
  24. The lactic fermentation
  25. Mixed food fermentations 
  26. Microbes as food
  27. Microbes as sources of food enzymes and food ingredients 
  28. New developments in the design of microbes for the food industry