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Syllabus Principles of Food Science 11:400:201
Class Schedule: https://sis.rutgers.edu/soc/#home 3 credits
INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Karen Schaich
E-mail: schaich@sebs.rutgers.edu Phone: 848 932 5454
Food Science Room #315, Rutgers University
65 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Office Hours: By appointments
COURSE WEBSITE, RESOURCES & MATERIALS
All of the materials that you will need for this course – course notes, worksheets, exams, and support
materials will be posted in the class Canvas website (https://tlt.rutgers.edu/canvas). Textbook: There is
NO mandatory textbook required for this course.
• Lecture files: contains all lecture material as well as Working Knowledge study guides
• Resources: contains useful supplementary material with additional background and
explanations
It is strongly recommended that students supplement the Notes by reading additional reference
materials on Canvas site and in the library in preparing for in-class discussions and for exams.
A large number of relevant books, journals, and other references are available in Chang Library.
• Encyclopedia of Food Science and Technology
• Food Science and Technology Abstracts
• Agricola, Web of Science, ScienceDirect
• SciFinder Scholar data bases for lit searches
• The Science of Food. 1980. M. Bennion, Harper & Row, San Francisco.
• Food Science. 1995. N.N. Potter and H.H. Hotchkiss, Chapman and Hall, New York.
• The Science of Food. 1994. P.M. Gaman and K.B. Sherrington, Pergamon, Oxford, UK.
An excellent book explaining some of the science underlying food behaviors is On Food and Cooking:
the Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee (First edition is now available in paperback for
under $10).
Other suggestions for general learning: watch Good Eats, Food Detectives, etc on the Food Network.
Read Food Technology (journal available in Chang Library).
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Introduction to foods as chemical systems; structure-function relationships of water, protein, lipids,
carbohydrates, minerals, and natural products in foods; food safety fundamentals; preservation
methods and effects on food quality.
Prerequisites: General Chemistry I and II (01:160:161 and 162) and General Biology I and II
(01:119:115 and 116) and Corequisite: Organic Chemistry (01:160:209 or 01:160:307).
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LEARNING GOALS
This course fulfills Food Science Program Learning Goal #2: Graduates will demonstrate and apply
knowledge of the core competencies in Food Chemistry and analysis.
Course Learning Goals
At the end of the course, students will
1. Gain an overview of Food Science and its interdisciplinary nature in an introduction to
• common food systems, their composition, behavior, and uses
• fundamental molecules (water, proteins, lipids, carbohydrates) that provide the
structure, function, and
• chemical/physical properties of foods.
• microbiology and biotechnology in food systems
• physical, chemical and microbial forms of food deterioration and preservation
• scientific logic underlying various forms of processing used for food preservation, and
their effects on food quality.
2. Develop a fundamental working knowledge of basic concepts in food science.
3. Develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills and ability to apply working knowledge to real
life situations
4. Become familiar with food science literature and information resources.
ASSIGNMENTS, RESPONSIBILITIES, GRADING & ASSESSMENT
Course Structure and Grading Basis:
COURSE PHILOSOPHY: Three Rs of learning – Respect, Responsibility, and Reward
Respect – mutual: LEARNING IS A TEAM EFFORT. Professors respect students as individuals with
different backgrounds and different ways of learning, having common goal of mastering material
of course on the way to becoming professionals. Students respect knowledge and commitment of
professors, as well as courage to try many different ways to foster student learning and provide
learning experiences that are interesting and challenging.
Responsibility – mutual: Professors provide interesting materials and exercises and treat students
fairly and with consideration. Students assume responsibility for studying course materials before
class, coming to class on time and regularly, and taking initiative to read beyond the limited
assigned readings, particularly when they find topics of personal interest.
Reward – mutual: students feel accomplishment in learning (and hopefully earn good grades) and
professors see positive results of their efforts when students can actually apply course information
creatively and to solve problems.
COURSE FORMAT:
Class periods in each unit will explain the fundamental concepts in class notes and apply these to
various food systems or food situations. Discussions and case studies in class will examine in more
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depth material not necessarily covered in the course packet or on exams. Applications will be in
various forms, including case studies, demonstrations, discussions, audiovisuals, etc. Some
applications will be covered in Assignments designed to make you think about the lecture information
beyond class.
Students are encouraged to keep a journal with notes from class notes or outside readings, background
explanations, extra information that may be useful in the case studies, etc. Students are also
encouraged to print out the course materials and study from those rather than from the computer. Past
experience in this course has shown that students who study from hard copies learn the material better
and score higher om exams than students who work entirely on-line. Also, make hard or electronic
copies of course files this semester – they are compiled to provide “forever” resources for you. as
previous students will attest.
Worksheets under Assignments on Sakai are provided as study guides. These are voluntary and for
your own use so you can ignore them if you want. However, the points covered in the worksheet are
important information that you will need to know as Food Scientists and much of the material will be
covered again on exams.
Grade basis:
Section Exams 75%
Final exam 20%
Attendance 5%
The final exam will require integration of information from the entire semester. Questions will be
taken from the Worksheets posted on Sakai and from questions missed most on section exams, so it is
to your advantage to study these.
Due to increased course size, exams and quizzes are now necessarily electronic. They will be
completed at home. Since large amounts of material are covered, exams are designed to be study
guides as well as test tools. EXAMS ARE OPEN BOOK BUT NO COLLABORATION,
ASSISTANCE, OR USE OF PAST EXAMS FROM FORMER STUDENTS IS ALLOWED.
CHEATING IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. ANY STUDENT CAUGHT CHEATING WILL BE
REPORTED TO THE UNIVERSITY AND PROSECUTED FOR ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
INFRACTIONS. First level offense has minimum penalty of Zero on the exam involved, but failing
the course and expulsion are also potential penalties, so DON”T CHEAT!!!
ACCOMODATIONS FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
Please follow the procedures outlined at https://ods.rutgers.edu/students/registration-form. Full policies
and procedures are at https://ods.rutgers.edu/
Disability Services: (848) 445-6800 / Lucy Stone Hall, Suite A145, Livingston Campus, 54 Joyce
Kilmer Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854 / https://ods.rutgers.edu/
Rutgers University welcomes students with disabilities into all of the University's educational
programs. In order to receive consideration for reasonable accommodations, a student with a disability
must contact the appropriate disability services office at the campus where you are officially enrolled,
participate in an intake interview, and provide documentation:
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https://ods.rutgers.edu/students/documentation-guidelines. If the documentation supports your request
for reasonable accommodations, your campus’s disability services office will provide you with a Letter
of Accommodations. Please share this letter with your instructors and discuss the accommodations
with them as early in your courses as possible. To begin this process, please complete the Registration
form on the ODS web site at: https://ods.rutgers.edu/students/registration-form.
ABSENCE POLICY
Attendance at all classes is required. If you must miss class for any reason, you must contact the
instructor before class to obtain an excused absence. Attendance accounts for 5% of the grade.
Rutgers Dean of Students http://deanofstudents.rutgers.edu/
The University does recognize that temporary conditions and injuries can be problematic and may
adversely affect a student’s ability to fully participate in class.
Absences or making up work: https://temporaryconditions.rutgers.edu/
The Dean of Students Office at Rutgers University-New Brunswick provides solutions, services, and
support to help students navigate Rutgers University. By focusing on students’ educational, social, and
personal development, staff in the Office promote academic success and student retention. The Office
serves as a student support network by providing advocacy, problem resolution, and critical incident
intervention for those times when additional assistance is needed.
• Self-Reporting Absences: For absences in class or labs less than a week that are not
confidential in nature, students need to inform faculty directly by using the Absence Reporting System
(ARS) (https://sims.rutgers.edu/ssra/).
• Longer Periods of Absence: If you anticipate missing more than one week of classes
for serious illness, confidential, or sensitive personal reasons, you should also consult with a New
Brunswick Dean of Students who will help to verify your extended absences from classes.
• Absences due to illnesses: If your absence is due to illness, visit New Brunswick
Health Services for information about campus health services, including information about: how to
make an appointment, self-care advice for colds/flu, mental health and counseling options.
Course Schedule
Lec Topic EXAMS
1 Course Introduction and requirements
Integrating multiple disciplines to make Food Science
2 Water properties
3 Water in foods
4 Acids, bases, and pH in foods Exam 1 out
5 Protein structures
6 Proteins in specific foods Exam 1 due
7 Protein functions in foods
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8 Enzymes Exam 2 out
9 Lipid structures
10 Lipid functionality - melting point and crystal structure Exam 2 due
11 Lipid reactions - modification and degradation
12 Lipid reactions - oxidation
13 Lipid functionality - emulsions Exam 3 out
14 Carbohydrate structures - sugars
15 Sugar functions in foods Exam 3 due
16 Starch structure and function
17 Hydrocolloid/gum structure and function Exam 4 out
18 Browning reactions in food Exam 5 out (short)
19 Microbiology -- Microbial growth Exam 4 due
20 Microbial spoilage of foods
21 Productive fermentations Exam 5 due
22 Food poisoning
23 Food Biotechnology Exam 6 out
24 Engineering and Processing -- unit operations
25 Preservation by dehydration Exam 6 due, Final exam out
26 Preservation by heat and freezing
27 Preservation by novel methods – radiation, high pressure, ohmic,
28 Preservation by chemicals
The Final Exam is comprehensive over the entire semester and also contains a section focusing on
Preservation and Processing.
Final Exam/Paper Date and Time: Online Final Exam Schedule.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
The university's policy on Academic Integrity is available at
http://academicintegrity.rutgers.edu/academic-integrity-policy. The principles of academic integrity
require that a student:
• properly acknowledge and cite all use of the ideas, results, or words of others.
• properly acknowledge all contributors to a given piece of work.
• make sure that all work submitted as his or her own in a course or other academic activity is
produced without the aid of impermissible materials or impermissible collaboration.
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• obtain all data or results by ethical means and report them accurately without suppressing any
results inconsistent with his or her interpretation or conclusions.
• treat all other students in an ethical manner, respecting their integrity and right to pursue their
educational goals without interference. This requires that a student neither facilitate academic
dishonesty by others nor obstruct their academic progress.
• uphold the canons of the ethical or professional code of the profession for which he or she is
preparing.
Adherence to these principles is necessary in order to ensure that
• everyone is given proper credit for his or her ideas, words, results, and other scholarly
accomplishments.
• all student work is fairly evaluated, and no student has an inappropriate advantage over others.
• the academic and ethical development of all students is fostered.
• the reputation of the University for integrity in its teaching, research, and scholarship is
maintained and enhanced.
Failure to uphold these principles of academic integrity threatens both the reputation of the University
and the value of the degrees awarded to its students. Every member of the University community
therefore bears a responsibility for ensuring that the highest standards of academic integrity are upheld.
Cheating and Plagiarism
(From Spring 2010 Andy Egan 01:730:252 Eating Right): “Cheating on tests or plagiarizing materials
in your papers deprives you of the educational benefits of preparing these materials appropriately. It is
personally dishonest to cheat on a test or to hand in a paper based on unacknowledged words or ideas
that someone else originated. It is also unfair, since it gives you an undeserved advantage over your
fellow students who are graded on the basis of their own work. In this class we will take cheating very
seriously”.
Turnitin will be used to assess students’ submissions and all suspected cases of cheating and
plagiarism will be automatically referred to the Rutgers Academic Integrity office.
Just In Case Web App http://codu.co/cee05e
Access helpful mental health information and resources for yourself or a friend in a mental health crisis
on your smartphone or tablet and easily contact CAPS or RUPD.
Counseling, ADAP & Psychiatric Services (CAPS)
(848) 932-7884 / 17 Senior Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901/ www.rhscaps.rutgers.edu/
CAPS is a University mental health support service that includes counseling, alcohol and other drug
assistance, and psychiatric services staffed by a team of professional within Rutgers Health services to
support students’ efforts to succeed at Rutgers University. CAPS offers a variety of services that
include: individual therapy, group therapy and workshops, crisis intervention, referral to specialists in
the community and consultation and collaboration with campus partners.
Violence Prevention & Victim Assistance (VPVA)
(848) 932-1181 / 3 Bartlett Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 / www.vpva.rutgers.edu/
The Office for Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance provides confidential crisis intervention,
counseling and advocacy for victims of sexual and relationship violence and stalking to students, staff
and faculty. To reach staff during office hours when the university is open or to reach an advocate after
hours, call 848-932- 1181.
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Scarlet Listeners
(732) 247-5555 / http://www.scarletlisteners.com/
Free and confidential peer counseling and referral hotline, providing a comforting and supportive safe
space.
Learning Principles applied in this course:
SCHAICH’S LAW
TREATMENT
BEHAVIOR
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ACTIVE LEARNING PROCESS
INFORMATION /
DATA
THINK!!!
NO INFO / DATA
REASON
QUESTION
CONNECT
INTEGRATE
EXTRAPOLATE
EVALUATE
(INSUFFICIENT
INFORMATION)
ACT!!!
SOLVE A
PROBLEM
CREATE SOMETHING
NEW
Use this process to help you become aware of the complexities
involved in learning and make learning a mindful, conscious process
rather than a series of memorizations.