Understanding food, its components, quality and consumer appeal are the ingredients of Food Science. At the University of Otago, Food Science papers aim to prepare people for creative, challenging, diverse and rewarding food industry careers.
The discipline has two major areas of study: Food Science (for the BSc degree) and Consumer Food Science (for the BAppSc degree).
Food Science
Food Science builds upon the basic sciences of Biology, Chemistry and Physics and it interacts with such diverse scientific disciplines as Human Nutrition, Microbiology, Biochemistry, Biotechnology and Process Engineering. All play an important role in the understanding of the foods we produce, manufacture and consume.
Some of the topics addressed by Food Science include: food manufacturing (product development, processing, packaging); what food is made of (food chemistry and analysis); what has been added (vitamins, preservatives, colour, flavour); how stable it is (shelf life, microbiology); safety (food contaminants, food poisoning); and sensory properties (taste, appearance, smell, texture).
