UC Davis Food Science & Technology

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FST 104

FOOD MICROBIOLOGY

FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 104
(3 units) WINTER QUARTER

COURSE GOALS: The goals of FST 104 are, firstly, to provide an integrated picture of the field of Food Microbiology which encompasses issues of food safety, food preservation, and food production, and secondly, to introduce students to the problems that a food microbiologist learns to address.

TEXT USED: There is no required text, but there will be several short reading assignments from the current literature. The following book is recommended for students who wish to have a complete reference to aid in the understanding of lecture material and to provide more thorough coverage of the various topics: Modern Food Microbiology by James Jay (5th edition), c 1996, Chapman and Hall, New York.

COURSE FORMAT: FST 104 is a lecture class with three 1-hour lectures per week. Prerequisites: Biological Sciences 1A and 102.

GRADING: Grades will be based on two midterms (25% each), a final (50%).

TOPICAL OUTLINE:

  1. Food-borne disease: the microbe, the disease, and prospects for control
  2. Introduction and generalizations
  3. Food-borne disease agents among the major microbial groups
  4. Bacteria
  5. Viruses
  6. Fungi
  7. Protozoa and worms 
  8. Some legal considerations in food safety 
  9. Control of microbial agents of food spoilage
  10. Parameters affecting microbial growth in food
  11. Temperature effects on growth
  12. Thermal destruction of bacteria in foods
  13. Effect of atmosphere on growth and survival
  14. Water activity
  15. Acids, other chemicals, and other food treatments 
  16. Food spoilage patterns associated with the major microbial spoilage groups and the various categories of foods 
  17. Detection and enumeration of bacteria in foods
  18. Traditional methods
  19. Newer methods based on traditional approaches
  20. New developments in bacterial detection, including immunological methods and the use of molecular genetics 
  21. Microbes in food production
  22. Microbial-based food production
  23. Food fermentations
  24. The lactic fermentation
  25. Mixed food fermentations 
  26. Microbes as food
  27. Microbes as sources of food enzymes and food ingredients 
  28. New developments in the design of microbes for the food industry
     

DATE PREPARED: April 15, 1998
INSTRUCTOR: C. Price