On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
● Demonstrate an understanding of the central role of food in governing human health.
● Explain the factors that influence the production, quality and distribution of food.
● Assay the quality of food through appropriate experimentation.
This module is dedicated to the topic of food, since food has the greatest impact not only upon human health, but also upon the use of human resources and impact on the environment. It aims to show on the one hand how human ingenuity has increased food production, and on the other how food quality and supply may be compromised.
● Origin and evolution of food animals and plants.
● Animal care and welfare, intensive breeding, breeding strategies, plant breeding.
● Modern and alternative approaches to food production, molecular methods of crop improvement, GMOs and risk assessment, organic farming.
● Development, productivity and sustainability of crop production, strategies of pest control.
● Food quality, microbiology, probiotics, allergy, adulteration, contamination, labelling, authentication and food standards, food processing and additives.
● Nutrition, nutritional values, malnutrition, obesity, eating disorders, food distribution, fair trade and meeting the global needs for food.
● Food microbiology, processing, authentication or calorimetry.