FST 160 - Food Product Development

(4 units) SPRING QUARTER

COURSE GOALS: This course is intended to familiarize students with the product implementation stage of food product development including preliminary product description, prototype development, product testing and the formal presentation of a new product development. Students will learn the importance of teamwork, product specification, food formulation, food ingredient technology, ingredient interaction and how to conduct and terminate a project in an orderly manner.

ENTRY LEVEL: Upper division standing with background coursework in food science, biological sciences, or the physical sciences. Preference will be given to students with senior or graduate level standing.

Prerequisites: FST 50; FST 103; FST 104; FST 110

COURSE FORMAT: Two 1 hour lectures, one hour discussion, and one 3 hour laboratory each week. Teams of 3-4 students will work on assigned problems related to food product development and asked to design and execute laboratory experiments to find a solution. Laboratory time will involve planning experiments, discussing results, and executing experiments related to food product development and product testing.

TOPICAL OUTLINE:

  1. Introduction to food product development
  2. Product management and planning
  3. Computer aided ingredient analysis
  4. Computer aided formulation
  5. Ingredient technology - proteins
  6. Ingredient technology - carbohydrates
  7. Ingredient technology - fats and oils
  8. Ingredient technology - flavors and colorants
  9. Ingredient technology - stabilizers
  10. Ingredient interactions 

GRADING AND COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Grades will be based on a midterm (20%), laboratory notebook (20%), class assignments (10%), final report (25%), and a final exam (25%). The final report will provide evidence of individual and group efforts on a project and include a title page, table of contents, summary, review of literature, methods, results, discussion and list of references. The laboratory reports will focus on the completion of a project to develop a food product based on a given problem pertaining to raw material utilization and/or a new food product concept.