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B. P. MARKS1, J. F. Steffe2, and K. D. Dolan2. (1) Dept. of Agricultural Engineering, Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI 48824-1323, (2) Dept. of Food Science & Human Nutrition/Dept. of Agricultural Engineering, Michigan State Univ., 209 A.W. Farrall Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824-1323 Within the U.S., most biological/biosystems/agricultural engineering undergraduate programs include food engineering as a degree option or area of specialization, rather than as a stand-alone degree/discipline. Although this approach is built around the essential academic elements of an engineering program, it presents some limitations to the breadth and depth of coverage specifically relevant to food engineering. The implementation methods for this approach to food engineering education were surveyed and evaluated. In some cases, food engineering is included as a single required course of all biological/agricultural engineering students. In other cases, food engineering is offered as a series of elective design courses. As an application area in the principle-based discipline of biological engineering, it is important that the curriculum emphasizes the integration of biology and engineering, in order to differentiate the graduates in the marketplace. It is essential that students learn to quantify the biological constraints in process design, particularly as related to raw material properties and microbiological populations in food materials. One example implementation will be detailed, in which two elective design courses are built around fluid food vs. solid food processing.
Session 105, Multiple perspectives on food engineering education
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