FSC5080 Food science and technology in practice

This unit is designed to deliver a tangible experience of the practical aspects of food science and technology used in current industrial practices. This unit develops knowledge and skills to enable the application of the theoretical science concepts into the food industry. You will participate in 6 authentic food industry work place exercises designed to complement the chemistry, engineering, microbiology, marketing, nutrition and future foods core units, where you will need to observe and map the scientific considerations of food processing. These exercises will comprise a variety of one day activities such as incursion to laboratories within Monash, excursions to farm land and site visits to manufacturing plants. You will perform practical activities to understand the modification of food from the chemical, microbiological, engineering and nutrition contexts. You will synthesis their observations and data into authentic documentation designed to inform decision making of a variety of stakeholder from across the food industry.
You will draw on theoretical and technical concepts to explain and rationalise the choices made in authentic work experiences and synthesise complex scientific data into concise documentation aimed at informing key decision makers from a range of backgrounds within food and agribusiness industries

The unit teaches evidence based problem solving and predictive thinking through the analysis, critique and interpretation of empirical scientific, economic and business data, and established food science and agribusiness theory. The unit will interweave disciplinary and interdisciplinary ideas in complex contexts across the science and business of industrial food production. The unit develops your ability to manipulate technologies relevant to food science, interpret complex scientific and economics data and present arguments to a variety of stakeholders using visual and oral media.