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Designing a Food Degree Programme

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mesophile

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Posted 21 February 2015 - 11:44 AM

Good Day Fellow IFSQN Colleagues,

 

We are looking to develop a brand new undergraduate and post graduate degree programme for food and would like to know what the industry would like out of a graduate student?

 

Please could you answer the following questions:

 

1. What would be the TOP 5 issues you get within your business? This could be anything, i.e. customer conflict, internal auditing, change management, engaging staff, time management, sustainability, corporate social responsibility, specification writing etc.....

 

2. If you could select the 'perfect' graduate what would you expect them to know?

 

3. What title would you call the programme?

 

4. If there were any stand alone modules that could help you or someone within your business (manager/supervisor) what would you like to see?

 

Many thanks!

 

Simon



fgjuadi

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Posted 21 February 2015 - 02:32 PM

1.   a. Dealing with "growing pains" - too little space, too little labor
      b. Educating senior management

      c. Inter department conflict

      d. Determining actual root cause

      e. Validation activities

 

2.  Perfect graduate would know that floor workers / packaging / sanitation/ operators are experts too - and human, and to treat them with respect and learn from them. 

 

3. Industrial Food Safety & Quality Management ?

 

4. Assuming it includes basics in HACCP, etc - Spend some time in an actual food factory (maybe semester internship) , project management or six sigma, leadership / supervisor training, how to implement a corrective action

 


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Posted 21 February 2015 - 07:22 PM

Too many programs contain too much theory and not enough practical hands experience.  Theories are great but if you don't know how to apply them there useless.  Having attended many types of training, including three HACCP courses, too often I come out feeling like the instructors don't know how to manipulate the myriad possibilities.  In one of first HACCP courses conducted by a well recognized industry leader, we were asked to add CCPs to a plan that had too many.  Me being my normal self brought that to dead silence.....until one the leaders said I might be right as there were a lot of CCPs in a rather simple plan.  I have seen far to many intelligent people who have a HACCP certificate but have no comprehension on what to do.  

 

 

Too many in this industry don't get the difference between substance and style as evidenced in our recent discussion about HACCP and numbering.  

 

International food law as we have become very much a global economy and many of our items travel the world.  

 

Change management and Food safety is a Company responsibility not the domain of the Quality people.  

 

I'm sure there is more but this is a start.....


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cazyncymru

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Posted 21 February 2015 - 08:47 PM

A mandatory year in industry so that a bit of that theory can be put into practice . And this after 2nd year not the first.

 

They can learn about some of the dynamics that occur in factories, and how technical takes the flack for most things.

 

See if they crack under the pressure!


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Charles.C

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Posted 22 February 2015 - 08:17 AM

Dear Mesophile,

 

We are looking to develop a brand new undergraduate and post graduate degree programme for food and would like to know what the industry would like out of a graduate student?

 

 

I presume you meant a graduate and postgraduate student respectively ? Or perhaps you considered them equivalent in the present context ?

The "program" appears to be unspecified. I assumed it related to working in the "Food Business"..

 

1. Profit. Knowledge. Training. Compatibility. Communication. Not necessarily independent of course.

 

2. The Perfect requirements.

 

3. You and the Jungle

 

4. Survive and Conquer.

 

Rgds / Charles.C


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Kind Regards,

 

Charles.C


Simon

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Posted 23 February 2015 - 06:47 AM

Great ideas.

 

Just another one.

 

You have a good index if you pick a standard like the BRC.

What each section means and how you go about implementing each clause successfully.


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Satya Vavilapalli

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Posted 23 February 2015 - 10:38 AM

Dear Mesophile . .

 

i want to mention my ideas regarding post graduation program design

 

In my view it may contain

 

1) Elective Subject sponsored by food industry -example: Confectionery technology, Dairy technology, Frozen food tech . .am not saying these subjects are must, it depends on your collaborations. So that student will have good understanding about industrial problems.  

 

2) Plant Design & Economics Aspects - Manufacturing Process understanding, Break even analysis

 

3) Virtual labs along with technical laboratories - virtual labs do not have any boundaries to experiment something.

 

4) Plan for Project works that have high scope

 

5) finally implementation of food safety standards and quality aspects

 

that's it . .

 

 

Regards / Satya

 

3)


Regards

 

Satya


cazyncymru

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Posted 23 February 2015 - 11:53 AM

I must admit Satya, I like point 2. In fact I like it a lot.

 

The main thing that drives production is efficiency / productivity. That's all they understand. And in some perverse part of my mind, I agree with them.

Quality, to production, is secondary.

 

But lets be honest, productivity (and efficiencies) are secondary to a number of technical people. WE have become blinkered and all we concern ourselves with is Food Safety & Quality. We have to have an understanding that sometimes you can't just stop a line (and that it's going to stop immediately) to do something. We have to look at the bigger picture and liaise with production, engineers etc as to our best course of actions, as long as we don't compromise Food Safety. (Quality, well normally you can do something with 2nd grade product such as rework)

 

So I'm also going to suggest an engineering module. Understand the difference between types of valves or pumps. Understand how a separator works. CIP systems are like the great unknown (when your a graduate) so understanding how they work. I would say metal detector as we seem to discuss them on a very regular basis. Average weight technology. I could go on.

 

I've learnt about these things the hard way. Or by doing a course created by the manufacturer (Moody's, Satourius, Klenzan)

 

Caz x



it_rains_inside

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Posted 23 February 2015 - 03:19 PM

1.  think that you covered most of the 5 that I would have chosen in your examples. Internal Audits / RCA and CAPA ; Customer Complaints, Engaging and informing management, developing HACCP Principals, Sanitation controls, "Food Grade" engineering, GFSI Standards... the list could go on for days.

2. I agree with others that have posted, having some actual experience in a production facility is always nice. I think the internship is a great idea

3.  Food Safety and Quality Systems Management (?) Although, Charles' idea may get more followers, lol.

 

3. You and the Jungle

 

4.  I think that most of us have a good understanding of the broad "food safety principals", a good idea for a stand- alone module may be something based on common 'areas of expertise' Dairy Industry, Meat, Beverages, Packaging, etc.


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Mr. Incognito

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Posted 23 February 2015 - 03:35 PM

It would be difficult to teach people all of the standards SQF, BRC, IFS, FSSC, etc. but it would be helpful to compare and contrast the standards showing students how they are very alike yet have different requirements or different ways to get the same thing accomplished.  How to read a standard and how to find what you are looking for is a must.  Nobody remember exactly what is in the standard they use but they know how to find it and how to apply it.

 

Techniques for going through an audit.  Audit prep.  Audits are very stressful the first few times trying to make sure you have everything set to go.   What to do if you find something is missing before, during, and after an audit.

 

Continual improvement.  What is it and why is it so important?  

 

History of GFSI / Food Safety Standards,  3rd party auditing, etc.


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it_rains_inside

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Posted 23 February 2015 - 03:45 PM

It would be difficult to teach people all of the standards SQF, BRC, IFS, FSSC, etc. but it would be helpful to compare and contrast the standards showing students how they are very alike yet have different requirements or different ways to get the same thing accomplished.  How to read a standard and how to find what you are looking for is a must.  Nobody remember exactly what is in the standard they use but they know how to find it and how to apply it.

 

 

Thanks for saying it better that I could Mr. I - that is kind of what I meant. I attended a course that summarized the history of each standard, how different industries apply them and the major pros/cons of each. Huge help!


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mesophile

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Posted 26 February 2015 - 02:44 PM

Hi All,

 

Thank you for your feedback. Reflecting on my question, I should really have given some more detail to this. 

 

We currently have BSc and MSc Food Science and Technology programmes however feel that there are many aspects of the food industry that simply are not covered (or covered in enough detail) in the programmes. As a result, we decided to launch a BSc Food Production Management programme a few years ago whereby we cherry picked food science modules and integrated these with business management. This did not work. From speaking to industry, we found there is definitely a need for an additional programme like Food Production Management (or another more snappy title), however we thought this time we should really speak to those working in the industry instead of 'assuming' what a food business needed when we originally designed the programme. 

 

Your ideas are BRILLIANT! many thanks for your feedback and points raised. 

 

Any more ideas, please post further! 

 

Kind Regards,

 

Simon





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