Food Science Focus Evolves as Enrollment Thrives

Dr. Dong explained that this change in focus may be related to changes in the food industry itself. “The foods we buy off the shelf include a lot more prepared foods with a lot of different commodities in them,” Dr. Dong said. “At the same time, universities have become less commodity oriented, and the undergraduate curriculum has moved away from commodity orientation and more to general principles of food science.”

Dr. Boor believes the discipline has also moved away from teaching technology and has shifted more toward teaching the theory and true science of food. Students are also more likely to gain a hands-on experience through internships and other opportunities, she said.

“We still have lab classes, we still teach hands-on food processing, but what we have done very mindfully is shift toward ensuring our students are prepared for problem-solving, for thinking through questions, for critical interpretation of information … It really is to provide students with truly a lifelong skill set as opposed to teaching them a technology that will be gone in five years,” Dr. Boor said.

Professional and interpersonal skills are also part of today’s food science curriculum, according to Dr. Dong. “At IFT, those have been the two big changes: moving toward outcomes-based assessment and incorporation of the professional and interpersonal skills in the expectations,” she said.

The incorporation of minimum standards to be granted IFT approval has also led to a general uniformity in the skills sets and knowledge sets of graduating students across programs at various universities, according to Dr. Boor. The IFT’s executive committee is currently working to revise the standards for 2011. “The names of the courses may differ from place to place, but if you look at that curriculum in total, you’ll see very similar outcomes in terms of students’ complete education,” Dr. Boor said.

Purnendu Vasavada, PhD (center), instructs students in a food microbiology lab at the University of Wisconsin, River Falls.

The IFT approval process has evolved from a check-box type of system, where universities indicated whether or not they offered a specific course, to more of an outcomes-based assessment system, assessing whether students are fulfilling specific learning objectives.

Dr. Culbertson said food science education continues to focus on adapting new technology to improve the quality and safety of food. “We are constantly researching new applications, such as high-pressure processing or ohmic heating of foods, to improve their sensory properties and safety. We have also taken a leading role in the search for phytochemicals that have positive impacts on our health, as well as studying the toxicology of both natural and environmental toxicants.”

Increased Interest in Nutrition, Food Safety

Current food science education also focuses more on how food consumption and food in general affect health and wellness, an issue that drives educational goals in some respects, according to Dr. Floros. “Food science students have become more aware of what happens to food after it’s consumed and its effect to people’s health and wellness, which is something that wasn’t happening to a great extent 15 or 20 years ago,” he said.

Dr. Boor agreed, saying that students are now more interested in promoting healthy eating and production of healthy food. “We’re seeing an increased demand among our students for courses in nutrition, courses at the interface of nutrition and food science, and courses in the areas of food components that are health promoting,” she said.