Course Outline (General Education)

Course Code/Section: UGEB2364 Year: 2024-2025 Term: Term 1

Course Title: Food Safety and Processing Technology
Time/Venue: Thursday; 11:30-13:15
Room 306, Lee Shau Kee Building, CUHK
Medium of Instruction: English Teaching Materials: English
Course Teacher: Dr. Erika Kwek Email: [email protected] Phone: 3943 4403
Office Location: MMW526, CUHK Office Hours: 10:00-18:30 (Mon-Fri)
Teaching Assistant/Tutor: N/A Email: Phone:
Office Location: Office Hours:

Course overview

In modern cities, a wide assortment of food products is available in the markets and consumers are able to
enjoy delicious foods conveniently and safely. Behind the scenes of food enjoyment, lots of science and
technology has been applied in the manufacturing processes to ensure that the food products are preserved
in high standards of quality, nutrition and safety. Among those food manufacturing and processing methods,
however, some of them are quite controversial and thus arouse many public concerns over food safety and
security issues.

This course is designed for the general students to provide them with some key concepts and scientific
knowledge in food preservation, processing technology and food safety control, as well as to explore the
interactive relationships between them. Through learning the basic properties of foodborne hazards, which
are the origins of most food safety problems, students are able to enhance the understandings on the
principles and practices of respective food preservation methods and processing technologies. Meanwhile,
the potential risks and adverse effects of particular food processing technologies will be discussed.
Furthermore, some highly concerning topics and incidents about food safety will be analysed based on
scientific facts and discussed from different perspectives. After finishing the course, students are
encouraged to use the acquired knowledge to make better food choices, distinguish the fallacies about food
and appraise the impact of modern technology on human food safety and security.

Learning outcomes

After completing this course, students are expected to be able to:

ž identify the foodborne hazards in various aspects and describe their properties
ž elucidate the causes and mechanisms of foodborne diseases
ž identify the applications of food preservation methods and technologies in daily food products and
explain their working principles
ž apply the knowledge to make better food choices and safer domestic food preparations
ž analyze the contemporary food issues with scientific discipline and make informed judgment in some
controversies of food concerns
ž appraise the pros and cons of food processing technologies and evaluate their impact on food safety
and security

Learning Activities
ž Lecture
ž Online Quizzes
ž Class Discussion

1
Course Schedule and Reading Assignment
Week/Date Module Required readings1/other requirements
1
1/ 05 Sept 24 1. Introduction: Course brief Understanding Food, Principle and
introduction; Overview of food safety Preparation - Ch. 4: Food Safety
1
2/ 12 Sept 24 2. Biological Hazards in Food: Food Biodeterioration and Preservation -
3/ 19 Sept 24 Understanding food microorganisms; Ch. 1: Control of Biodeterioration in Food
2
4/ 26 Sept 24 Essential conditions for food microbe Food Safety for the 21st Century: Managing
growth; Characteristics and sources of HACCP and Food Safety throughout the
food-borne pathogens; Causes and Global Supply Chain - Ch.5: Recognizing
effects of food-borne illnesses: food safety hazards
infection and intoxication

2
5/ 03 Oct 24 3. Chemical and Physical Hazards in Food Safety for the 21st Century: Managing
6/ 10 Oct 24 Food: Nature of food toxins; Existence HACCP and Food Safety throughout the
7/ 17 Oct 24 and sources of food contaminants; Global Supply Chain - Ch.5: Recognizing
Understanding food allergens; Causes food safety hazards
and effects of food poisoning and
allergy; Physical hazards in food

1
8/ 24 Oct 24 4. Food Processing: Principles and Understand Food Principle and
objectives of food processing; Effects Preparation - Ch. 28: Food Preservation
of processing treatments on food
2
properties Food Safety for the 21st Century: Managing
HACCP and Food Safety throughout the
Global Supply Chain - Ch. 6: Designing
safety into a food product and Ch. 7:
Designing a safe food process

3
9/ 31 Oct 24 5. Food Preservation Method and Food Biodeterioration and Preservation -
10/ 07 Nov 24 Technology: High temperature Ch. 3: Thermal processing; Ch. 4: Chilling;
12/ 21 Nov 24 processing: pasteurization and Ch 5. Freezing; Ch. 6: Drying; Ch. 7:
13/ 28 Nov 24 sterilization; Low temperature Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), Ch.
processing: chilling and freezing; 8: Preservatives, Ch. 9: Hurdle techniques
Control of modified atmospheres; and Ch. 10: Novel commercial preservation
Control of water activity; Control of methods
pH; Food irradiation; Functions and
regulations of food additives; Hurdle
2
Technology Food Safety for the 21st Century: Managing
HACCP and Food Safety throughout the
Global Supply Chain - Ch. 13: Food Fraud
and Food Defense

2
Required readings and other recommended readings/ learning resources

Required readings:

1. A. Brown, 2019, Understanding Food, Principle and Preparation, 6th Edition, Cengage Learning
Inc., Boston, MA, US.

2. C.A. Wallace, W. H. Sperber and S.E. Mortimore, 2018, Food Safety for the 21st Century:
Managing HACCP and Food Safety throughout the Global Supply Chain, 2nd Edition, Wiley,
Hoboken, NJ, US.

3. G . S. Tucker, 2016, Food Biodeterioration and Preservation, 2nd Edition, Wiley Blackwell,
Chichester, West Sussex, UK.

Other recommended readings/ learning resources:

4. Centre for Food Safety, HKSAR, 2018, Food Safety Topics. Retrieved from
http://www.cfs.gov.hk/english/whatsnew/whatsnew_fst/whatsnew_fst.html

5. D.H. Watson, 2001, Food Chemical Safety. Volume 1, Contaminants, CRC Press/Woodhead Pub,
Boca Raton, F.L.

6. H. P. Riemann and D.O. Cliver, 2006, Foodborne Infections and Intoxications, 3rd Edition,
Elsevier, USA (Part II: Food Infections and Part III: Food Intoxications)

7. J. deVries, 1997, Food Safety and Toxicity, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. (Part 1A From raw
materials to consumer: chemical, microbiological and technological aspects of food: Ch. 1-6; Part 2
Adverse effects of food and Nutrition: Ch. 10 Food contaminants and Ch.14 Food allergy and food
intolerance)

8. J. Spink and D.C. Moyer, 2011, Defining the public health threat of food fraud, Journal of Food
Science, vol76(9), R157-R163

9. J. S. Smith and Y.H. Hui, 2004, Food processing: principles and applications, Blackwell
Publishing Professional, Ames, Iowa. (Ch. 1 Principles of Food Processing)

10. L. Branen, P. M. Davidson, S. Salminen and J.H. Thorngate III, 2002, Food Additives, 2nd Edition,
Marcel Dekker, New York. (Ch 1: Introduction to food additives; Ch. 3: Risks and benefits of food
additives; Ch. 8: Regulation of food additives in United States)

11. N.N. Potter and J.H. Hotchkiss, 1995, Food Science, 5th Edition, Chapman & Hall, US. (Ch7: Food
Deterioration and its Controls; Ch8: Heat Preservation and Processing Ch9: Cold Preservation and
Processing; Ch10: Food Dehydration and Concentration; and Ch11: Irradiation, Microwave and
Ohmic Processing of Foods)

12. R.H. Stadler and D.R. Lineback, 2009, Process-Induced Food Toxicants: Occurrence, Formation,
Mitigation, and Health Risks, A John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Pub, Canada

13. S.J. Forsythe and P.R. Hayes, 2000, Food hygiene, microbiology and HACCP, 3rd Edition,
Springer Science + Business Media Dordrecht. (Ch. 1: Fundamental principles of microbiology;
Ch.2: Food poisoning and other food-borne hazards and Ch. 3: Food Spoilage)

14. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2012, Bad Bug Book, Foodborne Pathogenic
Microorganisms and Natural Toxins Handbook, 2nd Edition, Retrieved from
http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodborneIllnessContaminants/CausesOfIllnessBadBugBook/

15. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Surveillance for Foodborne Disease Outbreaks
United States, Annual Report, Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/fdoss/data/annual-summaries/index.html

3
Assessment Scheme:
Assessment component Description Weight (%)

Online Quizzes Module 2 to 5 70

Writing Assignment Analytical essay on food safety issue 30
Class Discussion (5 Bonus)

Academic honesty and plagiarism

Attention is drawn to University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work, and to the
disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations.
Details may be found at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/.

With each assignment, students will be required to submit a signed declaration that they are aware
of these policies, regulations, guidelines and procedures.

• In the case of group projects, all members of the group should be asked to sign the
declaration, each of whom is responsible and liable to disciplinary actions, irrespective of
whether he/she has signed the declaration and whether he/she has contributed, directly or
indirectly, to the problematic contents.

• For assignments in the form of a computer-generated document that is principally text-

based and submitted via VeriGuide, the statement, in the form of a receipt, will be issued
by the system upon students’ uploading of the soft copy of the assignment.

Assignments without the properly signed declaration will not be graded by teachers.

Only the final version of the assignment should be submitted via VeriGuide.

The submission of a piece of work, or a part of a piece of work, for more than one purpose (e.g. to
satisfy the requirements in two different courses) without declaration to this effect shall be regarded
as having committed undeclared multiple submissions. It is common and acceptable to reuse a turn
of phrase or a sentence or two from one’s own work; but wholesale reuse is problematic. In any
case, agreement from the course teacher(s) concerned should be obtained prior to the submission
of the piece of work.

The copyright of the teaching materials, including lecture notes, assignments and examination
questions etc., produced by staff members/ teachers of The Chinese University of Hong Kong
(CUHK) belongs to CUHK. Students may download the teaching materials produced by the staff
members/ teachers from the Learning Management Systems, e.g. Blackboard adopted by CUHK
for their own educational use, but shall not distribute/ share/ copy the materials to a third-party
without seeking prior permission from the staff members/ teachers concerned.

Feedback for evaluation

a. Course and teaching evaluation survey will be conducted in the second last week of the
course. Students are reminded of their responsibility and right to give feedback to facilitate
enhancement of the course.
b. Students are welcome to give feedbacks to the course teacher at any time in person or
through emails.

4
General Regulations and Late submission policy

Online Quizzes:

A student is only allowed one attempt per online quiz on Blackboard. No re-opening or re-attempt of
online quizzes will be allowed.

Where a student exits, closes, or for any reason partially completes the online quizzes, the grade
awarded will be in accordance with the final recorded grade on Blackboard.

Where a student does not complete the online quizzes by the deadlines specified, zero marks will be
awarded for the specific quizzes.

Analytical Essay:

Where a student does not submit the writing assignment to both Veriguide and Blackboard by the
deadline specified, 10% of essay total grade will be deducted per day of late submission. Late
submissions after 3 days will not be graded (zero marks awarded).

Where a student does not submit the writing assignment using the accepted formats of submission
(MS Word or PDF), zero marks will be awarded.

Where a student submits multiple versions of the writing assignment, only the last submission will
be graded.

This course adopts Approach 1 (Prohibit all use of AI tools). Where a student submits writing
assignment that uses artificial intelligence, penalties will be incurred accordingly. Further information
on AI usage can be found: https://www.aqs.cuhk.edu.hk/documents/A-guide-for-students_use-of-AI-
tools.pdf

5
 Attachment 1

Declaration for written assignment

I am/we are submitting the assignment for:

□ an individual project or
□ a group project on behalf of all members of the group. It is hereby confirmed that the submission
is authorized by all members of the group, and all members of the group are required to sign this
declaration.

I/We declare that the assignment here submitted is original except for source material explicitly
acknowledged, the piece of work, or a part of the piece of work has not been submitted for more than
one purpose (i.e. to satisfy the requirements in two different courses) without declaration, and that
the submitted soft copy with details listed in the <Submission Details> is identical to the hard
copy(ies), if any, which has(have) been / is(are) going to be submitted. I/We also acknowledge that I
am/we are aware of University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work, and of the
disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations, as
contained in the University website http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/. In the case of
a group project, we are aware that each student is responsible and liable to disciplinary actions should
there be any plagiarized contents in the group project, irrespective of whether he/she has signed the
declaration and whether he/she has contributed directly or indirectly to the plagiarized contents.

It is also understood that assignments without a properly signed declaration by the student concerned
and in the case of a group project, by all members of the group concerned, will not be graded by the
teacher(s).

____________________________________ ______________________________________
Signature(s) Date

____________________________________ ______________________________________
Name(s) Student ID(s)

____________________________________ ______________________________________
Course code Course title

6
Grading Criteria for UGEB2364

Grade Descriptor Assessment

Exam Written Assignment

Excellent (A) Profound knowledge of the materials over a wide range of Thorough grasp of the subjects related to food hazard and food The topic is addressed and studied in great depth. Deep understanding of the
topics related to food safety and processing technology. processing technology is demonstrated. More than 90% (A) / issue and great ability to apply the theory and concept are well demonstrated.
Very Good (A-) Demonstrate evidence of insightful original thought, strong 85% (A-) of the multiple-choice questions are scored. The most critical aspects of the topic are clearly identified. Insightful ideas
analytical and critical abilities as well as thorough grasp of the or/ and excellent arguments are clearly established from well-articulated
food issues from readings and up-to-date information. Overall, analysis with logical consistency. The citations are accurate, detailed and
outstanding performance on all learning outcomes. convincing. Well written with clear focus and appropriate scientific wording.
All aspects conform to an excellent academic standard.

Good (B+/B/B-) Well knowledge of food safety and processing technology. Substantial grasp of the subjects related to food hazard and food The topic is addressed and studied in detail. Good understanding of the issue
Demonstrate good abilities of critical and analytical thinking. processing technology is demonstrated. More than 75% of the and well ability to apply the theory and concept are demonstrated. The critical
Adequate grasp of the food related issue from readings and up- multiple-choice questions are scored. aspects of the topic are identified. Some thoughtful ideas or/and logical
to-date information. Substantial performance on most of arguments are developed with well-articulated analysis. The citations are
learning outcomes. sufficient, accurate and detailed. Well written with suitable focus and
scientific wording. Most aspects conform to a high academic standard.

Fair (C+/C/C-) Satisfactory knowledge of food safety and processing Satisfactory grasp of the subjects related to food hazard and food The topic is addressed and studied adequately. Satisfactory understanding of
technology. Demonstrate fair abilities of critical and analytical processing technology is demonstrated. More than 60% of the the issue and fair ability to apply the theory and concept are shown. Some
thinking. Reasonable grasp of the food related issue from multiple-choice questions are scored. ideas or/and arguments are developed but not always logical and consistent.
readings and information. Satisfactory performance on the The citations are accurate but insufficient. Satisfactory written but scientific
majority of learning outcomes, possibly with a few weaknesses. wording is not always appropriated. Most aspects conform to an acceptable
academic standard.

Pass (D+/D) Limited knowledge of food safety and processing technology. Limited grasp of the subjects related to food hazard and food The topic is addressed and studied in basic manner. Mainly description is
Demonstrate inadequate ability of critical and analytical processing technology is shown. More than 45% of the multiple- demonstrated, reflecting the limited understanding of and the ability to apply
thinking. Basic understanding and comprehension of the food choice questions are scored. the theory and concept. Little evidence of logical analysis is found, but no
related issue. Barely satisfactory performance on a number of significant ideas or/and arguments are settled. The citations are insufficient
learning outcomes, with a few weaknesses. and inaccurate. Poorly written in general. Little aspects conform to an
academic standard.

Failure (F) Poor knowledge and understanding of the food safety and Little or no grasp of the subjects related to food hazard and food The study of the topic is superficial. No evidences of analysis are
processing technology. Demonstrate limited ability of critical processing technology is shown. Less than 45% of the multiple- demonstrated. No reasonable ideas or/and arguments are settled. The
and analytical thinking. Unsatisfactory performance on the choice questions are scored. citations are insufficient and inaccurate. The poorly written work is not of an
learning outcomes. academic standard.