Postgraduate Programme Food Packaging. 3 Tracks: Food, Materials or Sustainability
(Bio-)ingenieurswetenschappen
(Bio-)ingenieurswetenschappen
Food packaging is omnipresent in our daily lives, making it possible to better protect food, ensure its desired quality, and reduce food waste. Unfortunately, a lot of packaging is designed as single-use, and certain forms of packaging use a lot of resources to produce. Consumers and governments are therefore increasingly demanding innovative and sustainable packaging, driving companies towards more socially responsible packaging strategies. But at the same time, consumers expect food packaging with high standards to offer high quality and safe foods with an acceptable remaining shelf life. Creating the right packaging strategy requires food packaging expertise.
Food packaging science is a discipline that applies principles from four major scientific fields (material science, food science, information science, and socioeconomics) to understand packaging material properties, food packaging requirements, and the packaging system. While the linked advanced master’s programme on Sustainable Food Packaging combines all elements in a holistic manner (www.sfp.ugent.be), this postgraduate programme allows students to focus on either the side of Materials, Food, or Sustainability.
Graduates of the programme will be able to:
Courses are evaluated as part of an individual integrative assignment in which students have to integrate and apply knowledge and competences from all the different courses making up the specific track of the postgraduate certificate Food Packaging. The student (qualitatively) evaluates a food product-packaging concept. The product-packaging concept will be predetermined before the start of the lectures. The student should demonstrate s/he is able to apply the course in an interdisciplinary way, and explain the concept from a course specific perspective.
The product of the assignment is a report (including a self-reflection) which will be presented to a jury.