Degree Course: Food science and technology Syllabus for A.Y. 2019/2020  

Introduction to food microbial biotechnology - Concept of industrial fermentation - Batch reactors and growth modes Batch, Fed batch and continuous
Regulations on biotech foods - microorganisms and ingredients derived from them contained in food - properties of an industrial microorganism
microorganisms of interest - S. cerevisiae yeast - - Streptomyces, Bacillus, lactic bacteria, filamentous fungi - mycoprotein production: the Quorn - genetic improvement Penicillium - Rhizopus and Tempeh production
Yeast biomass production
Production of beer and other fermented beverages
Wine production - Prof. Rinaldi Seminar
Seminar on industrial production of microbial starters for the food industry - Dott. Carlo Perla (Head of Research & Development) Dalton Biotecnologie
Food additives - industrial production of lactic acid (E270), citric acid (E330) and gluconic acid (E574)
Production of amino acids - glutamic acid and MSG (E620 and E621) - L-lysine
Production and uses of polysaccharides of microbial origin - production and uses of xanthan gum (E415)
Production and uses in food products of Natamycin (Pimaricin, E235)
Production and application of enzymes in the food industry - Xylanase, amylase, glucose / xylose isomerase, beta glucanase, phytase.
L-asparaginase as a healthy enzyme

Insights with scientific articles
Interaction in microbial communities: example Streptococcus thermophilus / Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus. Sieuwerts S (2016) Microbial Interactions in the Yoghurt Consortium: Current Status and Product Implications. SOJ Microbiol Infect Dis 4 (2): 1-5.
Industrial Yeast Handling Steensels J et al., FEMS Microbiol Rev 38 (2014) 947–995
- The CRISPR-Cas system and its applications in the food sector - Barrangou et al., SCIENCE VOL 315 23 MARCH 2007 - Selle and Barrangou, Vol. 80, Nr. 11, 2015 Journal of Food Science
- Optimization and applications of yeast biomass production - Torrado et al., Trends in Food Science & Technology 46 (2015) 167e175
- The role of yeast in the formation of aromas - Pires EJ et al.,. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol (2014) 98: 1937–1949

Insights of students based on scientific articles of the following topics:
- Microbial communities and production of aromas in the fermentation of cocoa
- QTL, QTG and QTN. Influence on the phenotypic traits of enological yeasts
- Domestication of yeasts for the production of wine, beer and bakery products
- Molecular, physical and chemical determinants of flocculation
- Production of food-grade pigments of microbial origin
- Production of food-grade aromas of microbial origin
- Release of mannoproteins during autolysis of Saccharomyces cerevisiae induced by a pulsed electric field

Educational outings
- Visit to the Peroni beer production plant in Rome

Laboratory activities

- Determination of the amount of viable cells in a yeast-based enological preparation by direct counting, serial dilutions and vital counting on plate.
Statistic analysis
- Microscopic observation of microorganisms
- Identification of bacteria by ARDRA
DNA extraction and PCR amplification of 16S rRNA - Digestone with restriction enzymes - Agarose gel electrophoresis

Biotecnologie microbiche S. Donadio e G. Marino. Casa editriceAmbrosiana.(2008) Lesson slides - Scientific articles

Introduction to the operation of the agri food system: structure, organization, theoretical elements and methodological analysis. The agricultural sector: characteristics, production structures and economic organization. The Food Industry: consistence, sectors of activity and economic results. Food distribution: distribution structures, analysis of the distribution channel. Consumption of food products: analysis of consumer behavior, evolution of consumption, the critical consumption. The agri food policies : International trade policies, market policies. Integration association and cooperation in the agrifood system. The Common Agricultural Policy: evolution, instruments and future prospects. Policies for food safety: the concept of quality, relevant legislation, origin labelling and traceability of products, the system of controls. Food security policies: evolution and implications.

Notes and teaching aids provided by the teacher.

Recommended reading:

Malassis L.,Ghersi G. :Introduzione all’ economia agroalimentare,Edizioni il Mulino,Bologna;

Saccomandi V. :Istituzione di economia del mercato dei prodotti agricoli,REDA,Roma

Sodano V.,Sassi M.,Marchini A. :Economia agroalimentare:mercati e politiche, Mc Graw-Hill,Milano.

Introduction to Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), TD-NMR of food, TD-NMR applications to dairy products, NMR in the study of wine. Isotopomeric analysis and SNIF-NMR for determining the origin of food products, NMR in the study of oil, seeds and other foods. Spectroscopic methods for the study of metabolites. IR methods, UV-Visible spectrophotometric methods. Other Lab-on-CHIP analysis.
Introduction to Multivariate Analysis, Principal Component Analysis , Cluster Analysis.

_ Organoleptic properties of food
_ Chemical analytical methods for characterization of food taste and aroma
Principles of chromatography.
Gas chromatography (GC)
Liquid chormatography (LC)
Application to characterization of food taste and aroma
Analysis of food odorants and tastants

_ Principles of sensory analysis

Laboratory lessons
_ Application of chromatographic techniques to the characterization of food taste and aroma
_ Sensory laboratory lesson: perception of gustative and olfactory attributes of foods

Chimica analitica strumentale (II edizione), Holler, Skoog, Crouch. Edises, 2009.
Food. The Chemistry of its Components, T.P. Coultate, The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2002.
Flavor Chemistry and Technology, G. Reineccius, Taylor & Francis Group, 2006.
Sensory Evaluation of Food. Principles and Practices. Second Edition. HarryT.Lawless, Hildegarde Heymann, Springer, 2010.

Schematic representation of food processes. Main unit operations and processes of food industry. Composition of food and mass balances. Kinetics of food transformations. Heat transfer in stationary and nonstationary conditions.
Methods for food preservation. Main unit operations of the industry of preserved food. Specific processes to produce some preserved food products.

Carlo Pompei. La trasformazione industriale di frutta ed ortaggi. Tecnologie per la produzione
di conserve e semiconserve. Ed. Edagricole, Bologna. 2005.
Carlo Pompei. Operazioni unitarie della tecnologia alimentare. CEA Edizioni, Milano. 2009.

Introduction– enzyme global market; regulations of food enzymes; enzyme types and origin
Enzyme immobilization– immobilization methods; enzyme reactors
Enzymes for food industry – general aspects of enzyme use in food industry.
Principal enzymes used in food processing: catalyzed reactions, biological origin.
Technological application in the industry of baked products, dairy, wine, beer, fruit derivatives, mono-polysaccharides

- Lecture notes
- A. FERSHT, Struttura e meccanismi degli enzimi, Zanichelli ed.;
- N.C. PRICE & L.STEVENS, Fundamental of enzymology, Oxford Sci. Publ.;
- T. GODFREY & S. WEST, Industrial Enzymology, 1996;
- NAGODAWITHANA T., REED G., Enzymes in food processing, Acad. Press, San Diego, 1993.
- PAGANI S., DURANTI N., Enzimologia: dai fondamenti alle applicazioni, Piccin, Padova, 1998.

Module Metabolic biotechnology and plant improvement module

Domestication of plants. Traditional breeding and molecular marker-assisted breeding. Introgression of traits in crops of agronomic interest. QTL and GWAS.
General concepts on secondary metabolism in plants. Metabolic pathways (phenols, terpenoids, alkaloids, glucosinolates) and their metabolic engineering to obtain improved crops. Lipids. Plant metabolomics: Study of metabolic profiles in plants to characterize metabolic phenotypes of biotechnological interest. Applications of plant proteomics and metabolomics to the study of plant growth and development. Integration of proteomic and metabolomic data in the development of crops improved in agronomic traits and nutritional quality.
Cell wall: advanced methods of analysis. Cell wall modification for improvement of growth and resistance to stress, cell wall polysaccharides of food interest. Cell wall-modifying enzymes and protein inhibitors, expression of enzymes and inhibitors in plants for technological applications in the food sector. Dietary fibers. Biologically active poly/oligosaccharides of plant origin: biological properties, mechanism of action as pesticides and prebiotics.
Applications of metabolic engineering to obtain new molecules of industrial interest. Examples of molecular farming: production of antibodies, vaccines and metabolites of biomedical interest in plants. Crop improvement by genetic engineering. Plants with higher productivity. Improved plants for resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses

Module MOLECULAR TECHNIQUES IN THE PRODUCTION AND CONTROL OF FOOD QUALITY

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY-BASIC PRINCIPLES: promoters, transcription; gene expression methodologies
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY TECHNIQUES: PCR; Quantitative Real Time PCR; genome sequencing; database generation
GMO GENERATION-BASIS: Expression of heterologous genes in plants. Commercial GMO plants:BT and Roundup ready. New technologies: CRISPR-CAS9. Exhamination of specific projects in the class.
GMO PLANTS REGULATION: European and Italian regulation for GMO and Crispr-CAS9 plants
FOOD CONTROL: Molecular methodologies for the analysis of the origin, identity and traceability of food. Sampling and molecular methods for the analysis of crops or GMO food. Examples and databases.
RESULTS DISSEMINATION: methodologies for results dissemination; methodologies for risk assessment evaluation of a grant proposal for agri-food; methodologies for writing a grant proposal in agri-food.

- Teaching material provided through E-Learning (articles, reviews, lectures slides);
- Biotecnologie Sostenibili - Galbiati et al. – EDAGRICOLE
- Biotecnologie e Genomica delle Piante - Rao e Leone - Idelson-Gnocchi (acronimo BGP)
- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Plants, - Buchanan, Gruissem e Jones, 2° ed., Wiley Blackwell

Food security and safety; the agri-food supply chain; principles of food quality; Regulations concerning the hygiene package and the official control system. The role of EFSA and UE authorities; RASFF, the rapid alert system; Risk analysis; Sampling and analytical supply chain. Contamination from pesticide residues, mycotoxins, heavy metals. Microbiological contamination from plant pathogens. GMO contamination. Food contamination by packaging.

Teaching material provided by the teacher: the slides of the lessons and other material useful for the preparation of the student are provided on the Google Classroom University platform.

PROGRAM of the course: Environmental assessment in the food industry
• National energy balance and energy consumption of industrial sectors; Italian food industry features.
• Food processing and wastes: supply chain of the food industry from raw material, ingredient, packaging material production, including energy inputs and formation of
effluents and residues, to consumer’s use.
• Main direct impacts of food processing: waste generation, water use and energy use.
• Waste, wastewater and energy management and clean technologies.
• Life cycle assessment (LCA) of production and processing in the food industry and the 4 steps of LCA procedure (goal & scope definition, inventory analysis, impact
assessment; interpretation).
• Food Packaging systems
• Life cycle of wastes.
• Impact assessment: ecological effects (global warming; stratospheric ozone depletion; acidification; eutrophication; photosmog formation), human health and ecotoxicity;
resource depletion; habitat degradation.
• Kyoto Protocol, National Inventory Report (NIR) and Climate Change Performance Indexes
• Carbon Footprint (CF) according to PAS 2050, Bilan Carbone ®, International Wine Carbon Protocol and Australian Wine Carbon Calculator.
• EPD® - Environmental Product Declaration.
• Contribution of the Italian agro-food sector to the Italian GHG emissions
• Climate change and dietary choices: Mediterranean-type diet to curb GHG emissions.

Lecture Notes (PDF files) on http://moodle.unitus.it/moodle/or on Google DRIVE with access link provided during the first lesson.
Morawicki R.O. (2012) Handbook of Sustainability for the Food Sciences. Wiley-Blackwell, Ames, Iowa (USA).

The course, after having framed the activity of marketing management in the context of strategic planning, first analyses the characteristics of the demand (behaviors, segmentation and research on consumers) and then the strategies related to components of the marketing mix (product, price, distribution, promotion) that the company have to consider to best meet the demand.
The theoretical concepts are translated into operational terms through exercises and practical examples that guide the student to the creation of a marketing plan. In this marketing plan, the proposal for the launch of a new product is: contextualized within corporate strategies, analyzed in terms of strategic assessment (segmentation, targeting, positioning) and developed with an appropriate marketing mix.
To achieve these objectives the course is organized as follows:
GENERAL CONCEPTS OF MARKETING (6 hours)
- Marketing in the enterprise management
- Structure and results of marketing research
ANALYTIC MARKETING FOR MARKET KNOWLEDGE (6 hours)
- Consumer behaviors and decisions
- Market segmentation: methods and procedures
DEFINITION OF MARKETING STRATEGIES (8 hours)
- Strategic planning of enterprise
- SWOT Analysis, targeting and positioning
MARKETING MIX MANAGEMENT (16 hours)
- Decisions about the product
- Communication mix
- Types and characteristics of supply chain
- Pricing policies
THE MARKETING PLAN (16 hours)
- Structure and contents of a marketing plan
- Development of a case study

Marketing 6/ed, di J. Paul Peter, James H. Donnelly, Jr., Carlo Alberto Pratesi, Mc Graw-Hill publisher. (ISBN: 9788838615542)
Slides used during lectures
Notes on the exercises made available by the Professor

INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE
Aims and scope of the course. Overall picture of the topics. Methodology/Approach: Combining Theory and Practice. Teaching methodology: traditional lessons, work group, role-playing games. Info on intermediate and final evaluations/exam ad scoring criteria. References and other teaching materials.
COURSE TOPICS
AGRICULTURE AND ECONOMIC CHANGE
• Factors driving change in agri-food sector in the long run: push and pull factors. Basic concepts
• The evolution of the Italian agri-food sector since II world war to nowadays: historical notes and quantitative analysis through the main macroeconomic statistical measures (introduction to main indicators).
• The primary sector in the national economy: Theory and indicators. Figures related to Italy.
TECHINCAL CHANGE
• The nature of innovation; innovation inside and outside the firms. Market and other Institutions for innovation. Demand of innovation. Benefit from innovation. Classification of innovations. Property rights on innovations. Factor productivity, quality and new products.
THE ITALIAN AGRI-FOOD SECTOR
• The Italian agriculture: structure and organization. National data and European comparisons.
• The Italian processing industry and the distribution function: structure and organization.
• National data and European comparisons.
• Supply Organization and production systems; firms, vertical and horizontal integration; networks, chains, districts, cooperatives, other collective institutions: theoretical insights and evidences from the Italian agri-food sector.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE OF AGRI-FOOD PRODUCTS
• Principles of international trade theory. Absolute and comparative trade advantage. Causes and effects of international trade. Graphical analysis of international trade. Hints of the main international trade Theories.
• The analysis of international trade flows: main indicators and their interpretation. The absolute trade balance, the normalized trade balance. Market quotas. The Revealed Comparative Advantage. Trade vs domestic figures: propensity to export, propensity to import. The rate of self-sufficiency.
• The Italian Agri-food balance: main trends and actual results through the values of the main trade indicators. Results detailed by products and partners.
• Beyond commodity trade flows (hints): Economic globalization. la globalizzazione economica. Moving labor forces and capitals. Foreign direct investments. Land grabbing.

THE ROLE OF QUALITY IN THE AGRIFOOD MARKETS
• Demand trends and the role of quality
• Different meanings of quality and product diversification
• Quality as a strength point of the Italian agri-food competitiveness
• The economic analysis of the market for diversified products
• Information and market failure
• Organizing supply for high quality food product: firms, chains, local systems and the Public Sector
• Certifying product origin (GIs): the EU Regulation: goals and instruments.
• PDOs/PGIs in Italy: use and effectiveness. A detailed analysis and some case study.
• Food safety: an economic perspective and the analysis of the functioning of the markets
• Organic products and GMOs: economics and the functioning of the markets
• Healthy and functional foods: economics and the functioning of the markets
• The environmental perspective of food production and waste: economics and the functioning of the markets

Reports, journal articles, and other materials released by the Professor during the course:
downloadable from a shared google drive folder

“Microbial Cell Factories”.
• Application of Metabolomics to “Microbial Cell Factories”.
• Application of enzyme and cofactor engineering in food biotechnology.
• Application of functional genomics in the fermentation industries.
• Application of metabolic engineering to fermentation-based food industries.
• Genomics and proteomics-based methods for the study of foodborne bacterial pathogens.
• Application of Next-generation sequencing in food microbiology.
• Increased production of nutriments by genetically engineered bacteria.
• Microbial production of organic acids and its improvement by genome shuffling.
• Production of high-quality probiotics using novel fermentation and stabilization technologies.

- Biotechnology in Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals (Edited by D. Bagchi, F. C. Lau, D. K. Ghosh). CRC Press 2010 (ISBN: 978-1-4200-8711-6). Chapter: 9, 16, 21, 24.
- Advanced in Food Biotechnology (Edited by V. Ravishankar Rai) Wiley-Blachwell 2015 (ISBN: 978-1-118-86455-5). Chapter: 13, 15, 16, 18.
- Fermentation Microbiology and Biotechnology, Third Edition (Edited by E. M. T. El-Mansi, C. F. A. Bryce, Arnold L. Demain, A.R. Allman) CRC Press 2011 (ISBN: 978-1-4398-5579-9). Chapter: 6, 8, 9 e 10.
- Genomics of foodborne bacterial pathogens (Edyted by M. Wiedmann and W. Zhang). Springer Science, 2011 (ISBN 978-1-4419-7685-7). Chapter: 1, 10, 11, 13.
- Additional material and videos on Google Classroom platform

Module 1 (0.50 CFU): Introduction
- The quality of the IV range products
- The factors that influence it
- Current legislation
Module 2 (1.50 CFU): Biochemistry and physiology of gamma IV products
- Ethylene production
- Breathing
- Deterioration of the cell membrane
- Accumulation of secondary metabolites
- Water loss
- Susceptibility to microbial attack
- Varietal choice
- Effect of cultivation techniques
- Physiological maturity
- Amount of damage induced by cutting
Module 3 (0.50 CFU): Nutritional quality of products in the IV range
- Influence of pre-harvest factors (genotype, graft, climatic factors and cultivation practices)
- Maturation and ripening
- Effect of post-harvest factors (physical damage, temperature and relative humidity, additional treatments)
Module 4 (0.50 CFU): Product technologies of the IV range products
- Raw material
- Harvesting
- Product quality assessment
- Grading and sorting concepts
- Trimming, slicing, grinding, pre-washing, sanitizing washing, drying, weighing and packaging
Module 5 (1.00 CFU): Criteria for the design of processing plants
- Processing lines and critical points
- Arrangement of machinery and its operation
- Various product processing sectors (trimming, toileting, washing and packaging)
- Control and evaluation of external parameters (temperature, humidity, waste, hygiene and sanitization of environments and machinery)
Module 6 (1.00 CFU): Packaging
- Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP)
- Effect of MAP on microbial development
- Effect of MAP on product respiration
- Permeability and selectivity of the plastic film
Module 7 (1.00 CFU): Special section
- Fresh-cut fruit (apple, kiwi, pear, strawberry, pineapple, etc.)
- Fresh-cut vegetables (various salads, carrot, artichoke, fennel, etc.)

FRESH-CUT FRUITS AND VEGETABLES (Science, Technology, and Market). Olusola Lamikanra. Ed. CRC Press 2002
Processing of tropical fruits and vegetables: a technical guide. RAP PUBLICATION 2010/16. http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/i1909e/i1909e00.pdf
Material provided by the professor