FOOD2320/2627 - Food Microbiology

SESSION 1, 2007 (DRAFT ONLY)

• Course staff
  
  
• General course information
  
  
  • Outline
  • Course objectives
  • Requisite knowledge and relationships to other courses
  • Target students and career prospects
  • Structure
  
  
  
• Assessment
  
  
  • Weighting of assessment tasks
  • Details of tasks
    • Progress examinations
    • Practical examination
    • Mastery of basic skills
    • Final examination
    • Challenge questions
    • Web-based discussions
  
  
  
• Lecture and laboratory program
  
  
• Resources
  
  
  • Texts
  • Other materials
    
    
• Course administration
  
  
  • Attendance
  • Late submission
  • Plagiarism
  • Participation in online discussions

Course staff

Professor Fleet and A/Professor Cox serve as co-convenors for the course, and either serves as the primary contact in relation to any questions you may have regarding the course. Depending on class size, one or more postgraduate students may demonstrate in the laboratory sessions. You may also need to interact with one or more of the technical staff involved in preparing laboratory classes; these additional staff will be introduced during the first laboratory session.

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General course information

Outline

This course is designed to apply the principles of microbiology to foods and beverages, introducing students to the breadth of food microbiology. Following a brief (re)introduction to some of the basic concepts in microbiology, the course examines the ecological relationships between microorganisms and foods, in both negative (spoilage) and positive (food fermentation) contexts, and further considers the roles of microorganisms in causing foodborne disease, impacting on food safety. The theoretical component of the course is supported by laboratory exercises which focus on analytical skills, that range from basic manipulations through to determination of general populations and specific microorganisms in foods, using conventional and modern/rapid methods.

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Objectives

Upon satisfactory completion of this course, students should have:

• gained an understanding of the fundamental principles of food microbiology
  
• considered the economic and social impact of microorganisms in foods and beverages
  
• learnt and become proficient in basic skills for the microbiological examination of foods, including the presentation and interpretation of analytical data.

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Requisite knowledge and relationships to other courses

It is assumed that students will have an understanding of basic or general microbiology, such as that gained through completion of MICR2201. Students who do not have such a background may still take the course, but are recommended to consult the text by Garbutt, as listed under Texts below, to provide information on basic general microbiology. For students with an interest in food microbiology, this course is followed by FOOD2480/2667 Advanced Food Microbiology. Students may also be interested in FOOD2350/FOOD1787 Forensic Food Science.

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Target students and career prospects

The following students would find this course of most value: undergraduate and graduate students in the areas of food science and technology, microbiology, biotechnology, as well as professionals in the food or allied industries and government agencies, who are concerned with the microbiological quality and safety of foods, and fermented foods and beverages. Students in other areas of science may also find the course of interest. Food companies, consulting analytical laboratories and various government agencies at state, national and international levels employ food microbiologists.

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Structure

The course consists of:

• 3 hours/week lecture-tutorials, Tuesday 9 am - 12 pm, in Room M07A Applied Science, and;
• 3 hours/week laboratory-based practical exercises and tutorials, to be held Tuesday 2-5 pm, in the microbiology teaching laboratory, Room 329, Biological Sciences Building. Tutorial/discussion sessions will be held at the commencement and conclusion of laboratory classes.

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Assessment

Weighting of assessment tasks

To pass the course, students MUST obtain a cumulative pass mark for the graded progress examinations (including the practical examination), pass the final examination, have made input at least once to the on-line activities, and demonstrate mastery of basic laboratory skills.

Details of assessment tasks

Each progress examination (1 hour duration) will consist of 10 short answer questions, based on content presented in both the lecture and laboratory components of the course, and will be given during the Session. The examination dates are given in the lecture and laboratory schedule (below) and reminders will be given in class. These examinations will be scheduled during the laboratory period. The aim will be to provide feedback on each of these examinations within two weeks of completion.

The final examination will consist of several essay-style questions, with some choice either between or within questions, and will cover material from the entire lecture and laboratory components of the course.

Practical skills will be assessed in two ways. First, you must demonstrate mastery of basic laboratory skills. At any time during the semester, in laboratory sessions, you should request one of the staff or tutors to observe your practice of skills such as aseptic transfer, streak plating, preparation of wet mounts and stained slides. Once you have satisfied the observer that you have sufficient skill with these techniques, your name will be ticked off as having completed each of these course requirements. Second, a practical examination will be conducted toward the end of Session, which will involve further observation of basic laboratory skills, as well as interpretation of materials provided to you at workstations.

A full description of the molecular methods and food poisoning assignments is provided in the Classroom 2000 area of the web site.

Oral examinations will be conducted to assess students with borderline marks.

'Challenge' questions will be given throughout the course as 'take-home' exercises. Students may opt to increase their marks for the course by up to 5% by submitting answers to a package of these questions.

If it becomes clear to staff that practical exercises are not being read in preparation for classes, spot quizzes will be held, on a random basis, at the start of laboratory classes. Poor performance in these quizzes will result in the loss of up to 5% from the final mark for the course.

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Texts and reference materials

The textbook for this course is:

Food Microbiology, M.R. Adams and M.O. Moss, 2nd Edition, The Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, 2000.

Another relatively inexpensive but excellent text is Essentials of Food Microbiology, J. Garbutt, Arnold, London, 1997.

Other useful reference texts include:

• Modern Food Microbiology, J.M. Jay, 6th Edition, Aspen Publishers Inc., Maryland, 2000.
  
• Microbial Food Poisoning, A.R. Eley, 2nd Edition, Chapman & Hall, London, 1996.
  
• Foodborne Microorganisms of Public Health Significance, A.D. Hocking et al., eds, 6th edition, AIFST Inc. (NSW Branch) Food Microbiology Group, Sydney, 2003.
  
• Spoilage of Processed Foods: Causes and Diagnosis, C.J. Moir et al., eds, AIFST Inc. (NSW Branch) Food Microbiology Group, Sydney, 2001.
• Food Microbiology, Fundamentals and Frontiers, M.P. Doyle, L.R. Beuchat and T.J. Montville, eds, 2nd edition, ASM Press, Washington, DC, 2001.
• Food Microbiology, an Introduction, T.J. Montville and K.R. Matthew, ASM Press, Washington DC, 2005.
• Fundamental Food Microbiology, B. Ray, 3rd edition, CRC Press, Boca Raton 2004.
• Encyclopedia of Food Microbiology, R.K. Robinson, C.A. Batt and P.D. Patel, eds, Academic Press, London, 2000.
• The Microbiological Safety and Quality of Food, B.M. Lund, A.C. Baird-Parker G.W. Gould, eds, Aspen Publishers, Inc., Maryland, USA, 2000.

Research or review articles, selected from a range of journals and books dealing with or covering food microbiology, will be mentioned at specific lectures. Students aiming for higher grades should consult these articles as well as chapters in the reference texts. Copies of each of these references have been placed in the Open Reserve section of the Biomedical Library.

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Lecture and Laboratory Program

The dates and respective lecture and laboratory topics are listed below. As a guide, the lecture and laboratory topics cover five general areas:

• relevant microorganisms and microbial ecology of foods (GHF)
  
• microbial spoilage of foods (GHF/JMC)
  
• microbiological examination of foods (GHF/JMC)
  
• foodborne microorganisms of public health significance (JMC)
  
• fermented foods and beverages (GHF)

The laboratory classes will be conducted by Professor Fleet and A/Professor Cox with tutorial assistance as required.

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Challenge questions

During the Session, you will be given a series of questions, simply entitled 'Challenges'. There will be 2-3 such questions for each of the five series of lectures given within the course.
The purposes of these questions are to:

• encourage you to think about, integrate and apply the theoretical concepts of food microbiology;
• encourage you to read and understand the literature references to which you are guided;
• encourage you to seek sources of information through the library;
• provide you with a voluntary opportunity to increase your final mark (and perhaps grade) for the course by up to 5%. Simply handing in answers to challenge questions will not necessarily gain you more marks; the quality of the answers must be high. However, as this exercise is voluntary, you will not lose marks if you choose not to participate.

To gain the potential for increasing your mark, you must hand in, to the respective lecturers, answers to at least five of the challenge questions, with at least four questions to be answered for Professor Fleet and at least one for A/Professor Cox, with choice from questions 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6, and 7 and 8 from Professor Fleet. Answers should be about 300 words, though some questions may require shorter or longer answers. You may submit answers to additional questions, if you wish to do so.

The answers and questions must be submitted by 23 June 2006 to qualify for consideration.

Web-based discussions

Although many of the lecture and laboratory sessions in this course will be quite interactive, additional class discussion will be conducted on a WebTeach-based web site (technical details to be discussed in the introductory laboratory class session). Discussion topics or quiz questions will be posted to the site on a regular basis (try this yourself if you like!), associated with specific topics dealt with in the lecture and laboratory sessions. The WebTeach site in this course has in the past been voluntary, functioning as a virtual tutorial room. I'll be looking in on it regularly, but it will work best if EVERYONE participates and makes postings. To that end, it is a qualitative (non-graded) requirement of the course that you make at least three reasonable postings (not just "Hello"!) to the site. The responses can include comments to discussion topics, posting your own discussion topic or attempting answers to quiz questions. In the latter case in particular, attempting quiz questions exemplifying those that appear on progress exams can only assist you in your studies (see below).

You may ask, what's in it for me?

Well...

Do you ever feel like this?

(Thanks to Cheryl Power, University of Melbourne)

The purposes of the site are to:

• encourage extension beyond the material covered in class, encouraging you to think deeply about, and apply theoretical knowledge to specific circumstances
  
• consider problems of types that might reflect questions on the exams (!!)
  
• provide a potentially less threatening forum for discussion than the open classroom
  
• allow students to raise issues with or ask questions of the class (both students and teacher) which they may not feel comfortable doing in the classroom
  
• to provide an opportunity to practice and potentially enhance written communication skills, especially among students from non-English speaking backgrounds
  

Collectively, the site and your contributions to it are thus not really for us, but for you, to develop skills from deep thinking to written communication, and to provide you with insight to the types of questions and approaches to thinking required for success in the final examination (and beyond!).

Course administration

Attendance and absence

The policies of Food Science and Technology on attendance at classes, absences, and failure to submit assessment tasks reflect the policies provided in the UNSW Student Guide 2006 and on-line through the A-Z Guide at myUNSW. Students who fail to attend at least 80% of classes may be refused permission to sit for examinations or other forms of assessment. Consideration of non-attendance at classes and/or non-completion of assessment tasks will be given to students who experience genuine and properly documented cases of hardship, such as recent bereavement or serious illness. The process by which consideration is granted is documented in the UNSW Student Guide 2006 and on-line. This procedure must be followed.

Submission of assignments

Assignments must be submitted by the due date, unless another date is negotiated with the academic coordinators of the course. Assignments should be submitted with a completed assignment cover sheet, available from the Food Science and Technology office, and placed into the assignment box near the bag racks at the eastern end of the teaching laboratory (Building C8a), unless other arrangements are made with the academic coordinators of the course.

Academic misconduct (plagiarism)

Refer to the UNSW Student Guide 2006 for University policies on academic misconduct, including plagiarism. If you do not understand these policies, consult with the course coordinator/s.

Participation in online discussions

When participating in on-line discussions, as in classroom discussions, maintain an attitude of respect, and principles of equity and diversity in your postings. Do NOT intentionally post comments that may be viewed as inappropriate by staff or students.

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