ChE 564 Food Process Engineering

Winter 2015
LECTURES
Mondays 8.30-10.20am E6 4022
Wednesdays 11.30-12.20pm E6 4022
INSTRUCTOR
Mary Robinson

mary.robinson@uwaterloo.ca

Office: CPH 1320

Office Hours
By appointment; please speak with me after class or contact me by email to arrange a meeting. I am
available to assist you and would like everyone to succeed in this course. Please dont wait until the
end of the term to seek help!
COURSE DETAILS
Calendar Description
Applications of unsteady and steady state heat and/or mass transfer operations to processing natural
and texturized foods. Design and analysis of sterilization, low temperature preservation, concentration,
separation and purification processes. Effects of formulation, additives and processing on organoleptic
and nutritional quality.
Course Topics
1. Food Properties
Nutritional requirements, physicochemical properties of foods
2. Food Safety
Microbiological, process design, HACCP
3. High Temperature Processes
Blanching, pasteurization, sterilization
4. Low Temperature Processes
Chilling, freezing, thawing
5. Drying
Air and drum drying, spray-drying, freeze-drying
6. Concentration and Separation Processes
Filtration, centrifugation
7. Emerging Technologies
High pressure, irradiation, ohmic heating
8. Selected Food Processes

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RESOURCES
Website
The course website is on Waterloo LEARN. Course notes, assignments, practice problems, and other
course materials will be posted there.
Course Notes
Course notes are available through Waterloo LEARN for you to use in class, but it is your
responsibility to bring them with you to class.
Textbook
No textbook is required for this course, but you may find these books useful:
P.J. Fellows. Food Processing Technology: Principles and Practice, 3rd Edition. Woodhead
Publishing Ltd and CRC Press, 2009.
R.P. Singh, D.R. Heldman. Introduction to Food Engineering, 4th Edition. Academic Press, 2009.
A. Ibarz, G.V. Barbosa-Canovas. Introduction to Food Process Engineering. CRC Press, 2014.
COURSE ASSESSMENT
Item
Final exam
In-class presentation
Food product project
Listeriosis case study
Term project
Topic
Literature review
Outline, critical component
Written report
Presentation video
Presentation Q&A, evaluations

% mark
45%
5%
5%
10%
35%
CR/NCR
CR/NCR
CR/NCR
20
10
5

You must earn a passing mark (50% or greater) on the Final Exam for the other marks to be included in
the calculation of your course mark. If your mark on the Final Exam is less than 50%, the mark
assigned for the course will be the Final exam mark.
FINAL EXAM
The final exam will occur during the final exam period in April as assigned by the Registrars Office.
More information about the final exam will be provided later in the term, but it will be comprised of
both short answer questions and longer computational problems.
Practice Problems
Homework practice problems are designed to assist you in learning the course material. Questions will
be posted on Waterloo LEARN at regular intervals; suggested solutions will also be posted
periodically. These practice problems will not be collected or marked it is up to you to complete the
problem sets in a timely manner and ask questions as needed.
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IN-CLASS PRESENTATION
All students will give a 3-minute presentation (including an audio-visual component) of a current topic
on food product and/or processing in the media of the students selection. This presentation is to
include an explanation of why this news story was selected and the connection to the course topic(s).
The student is also to prepare a question to be directed at the class to promote a brief (2 minute)
discussion on this news story.
A schedule of presentation times (starting on Wednesday January 14) of will be posted on Waterloo
LEARN along with the rubric to be used to evaluate the presentation. On Monday January 12,
students can sign up for times during the break in class or sign up by email after class; any student who
has not selected a time by noon on January 12 will be assigned a presentation time.
A week prior to presenting, email the instructor to confirm your topic and any audio-visual needs.
FOOD PRODUCT PROJECT
All students will be assigned a food product to analyze and write a research report about this product.
Topics will be assigned by Wednesday January 14. The food product project is to be completed
individually. Students will:
Obtain the list of ingredients and the nutrition fact table;
Establishing relationships between the ingredients and the nutrition facts table;
Identifying ingredient(s) with no nutritional value;
Explaining the contribution/role of the ingredients with no nutritional value;
Identifying potential health risks associated with any ingredients;
If applicable, comment on protein quality, viscosity characteristics;
Identifying water activity, shelf life, and potential production and preservation methods for the
product.
Deliverables
A final research report, of no more than five (5) pages, single-spaced, containing the answers to the
above with proper citations, will be submitted to the Waterloo LEARN drop box by Friday January
30 at noon. The report will be evaluated based on content (70% - concise presentation of information,
quality and analysis of information, introduction and conclusion) and format (30% - proficient
communication in written English, organization). A rubric will be posted on Waterloo LEARN.
LISTERIOSIS CASE STUDY
The 2008 Canadian Listeriosis outbreak in ready-to-eat meat products, with materials prepared by
Waterloo Cases in Design Engineering, will be used as a case study to help students become more
familiar with topics of microbial growth prediction, environmental testing, equipment operation and
cleaning, and developing a HACCP plan.
Students will form groups of 2-3 and select one of the four subject areas above. Email the names of
group members and preferred topic by Monday January 12 at noon.
Each group will critically review one of the subject areas by making reference to chemical engineering
principles and tools, microbiology, ingredients, health or regulations when appropriate. This review
should be based on current scientific and/or technical references (minimum of 6, published in the last
10 years). This review will be in the format of a short report to be shared with the class by Monday
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January 26, as the background information for an in-class discussion to be held on Monday
February 2. A detailed mark breakdown will be posted on Waterloo LEARN.

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TERM PROJECT
The objective is to conduct a critical review of a topic in food process engineering not covered in the
lectures. In preparing a critical review, the author must bring his/her own knowledge to the task of
critically analyzing the literature from a scientific and engineering perspective. The author must
synthesize a coherent and integral view of the subject; a critical review does not merely summarize the
published results of prior studies. Specifically, the term project should include:
An overview of the topic
A critical review that includes recent knowledge (e.g. chemical engineering principles, technology,
use of biotechnology, ingredients, nutrition, safety) and health or regulations if appropriate
Current scientific references (minimum of 8, published in the past 10 years)
Project Deliverables
The project will be completed in groups of no more than 2 people and will include the following:
1. Group Members and Topic
Format: list of the group members names and the desired topic
Submission to the Waterloo LEARN drop box by no later than Monday January 12 at noon.
2. Initial Literature Search
Format: maximum 2 page document
list of preliminary key words
brief summary of the preliminary references (e.g. 2 to 3 sentences from Encyclopedia of
Chemical Technology, books, journal review article).
Submission to the Waterloo LEARN drop box by no later than Monday January 19 at noon.
3. Project Overview and Description
Format: maximum 3 page document
Description of the critical component of the project
Preliminary literature review (list of references and brief description of their content)
Submission to the Waterloo LEARN drop box by no later than Monday February 9 at noon.
4. Written Report
Format: document body to be a maximum of 25 pages, double-spaced with page numbers
Cover page (names and project title)
Table of Contents
Introduction and Conclusion
References, must be referenced in the text
Properly labeled figures and tables, must be referenced in the text
May include appendices, must be referenced in the text
Submission: paper and electronic copies due no later than Monday March 16 at noon.
5. Presentation Video
10-12 minute video presentation due to Waterloo LEARN drop box by Friday March 20 by
noon.
Videos are to be watched on Waterloo LEARN on Monday March 23; in-class lectures are
cancelled this day.
Students will be assigned two (2) videos to watch and evaluate and will also evaluate a
minimum of two (2) additional videos of their choosing. Additional details and a rubric will be
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provided on Waterloo LEARN. Students are expected to pose questions to the presenting group
who are expected to provide a response to those questions. This interaction between
presenter and audience member will be part of the presentation video mark.

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Additional Notes:
Wikipedia is not considered a reference.
Plagiarism detection software (Turnitin) will be used to screen project submissions in this
course. This is being done to verify that use of all materials and sources are properly
documented. Students will be given an option if they do not want to have their assignment
screened by Turnitin. For more information on these alternatives, please contact the course
instructor.

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While group work is encouraged in this course, each student must submit only his/her own work for
marking. Academic Offenses, such as copying another students report or submitting another students
assignment solution as your own, will not be tolerated. UW Policy #71, which gives definitions of the
types and consequences of academic offenses, can be found at
www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy71.htm. If you have questions after reading Policy #71,
please speak with your instructor.
Academic Integrity
In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo community
are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. [See
www.uwaterloo.ca/academicintegrity/ for more information.]
Grievance
A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair
or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70, Student Petitions and
Grievances, Section 4, www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy70.htm for more information.
Discipline
A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity, to avoid committing an academic
offence, and to take responsibility for his/her actions [see www.uwaterloo.ca/academicintegrity]. A
student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to
avoid offences (such as plagiarism and/or cheating) or about rules for group work/collaboration should
seek guidance from the course instructor, academic advisor, or the undergraduate Associate Dean. For
information on categories of offences and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71, Student
Discipline, www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy71.htm. For typical penalties see Guidelines
for the Assessment of Penalties, www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/guidelines/penaltyguidelines.htm.
Appeals
A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70 (Student Petitions and Grievances) or Policy 71
(Student Discipline) may be appealed if there is a ground. A student who believes he/she has a ground
for an appeal should refer to Policy 72 (Student Appeals)
www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy72.htm.
Note for Students with Disabilities
AccessAbility Services, located in Needles Hall, Room 1132, collaborates with all academic
departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without
compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to
lessen the impact of your disability, please register with AccessAbility at the beginning of each
academic term. www.uwaterloo.ca/disability-services/

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