Food Science and Nutrition BSc

Flavour plays an important role in our enjoyment of food, consumption experience, repeat purchase and health and wellbeing. It can be measured by both scientific instruments and sensory panels. But what are the differences between the two, and how can we use them to solve current challenges in the food industry?

In this module, you will study:

• the chemistry, physics and physiology of food flavour
• advanced methods to measure sensory and consumer perceptions of food
• factors that affect our sensory perception and food choice, like genetics
• a range of analytical techniques (APCI-MS, GC-MS, GC-O and HPLC-MS) for flavour analysis
• dynamic flavour release and its role in eliciting flavour perception

You will respond to a current food industry challenge and apply the advanced knowledge you have gained from this module to design and present a realistic scientific solution to a technical brief.

What are you going to do after your degree? Options include:

• Technical roles
• Research and development
• New product development
• Further study
• Specialised areas, such as flavour or sensory science or legislation

Through a range of workshops you will gain an awareness of what opportunities exist, identify your strengths and interests and practice how to manage your transition into your next steps.

The module has opportunities to engage with industry guests, alumni and your peers to support you in making good decisions about your future career.

Gain exciting insights into our current research and how it is shaping current and future food formulations and processes. Seminar topics include:

• flavour and sensory science
• properties of biopolymers
• sustainable nutrition
• salt reduction
• engineering new food structures

From these seminars you will identify an area of study that interests you the most for your final year research project. Through discussions with the academic you will create a title for your research project, which you will undertake in your final semester on your course.

Innovation is crucial within food science. It involves translating scientific, engineering, and technological insights into nutritious, sustainable, and commercially viable foods. This module combines lectures from world-leading internal and external experts, with a practical project, where you will work in a group to create a new food product. 

In this module you will study: 

• food factory operations and engineering   
• new product development, brands and consumer trends
• packaging, unit operations, process and quality control 
• microbiological testing, HACCP and compliance
• intellectual property and entrepreneurship

You'll then work with an industry partner to develop a new food product. Using our Food Processing Facility you'll explore all areas of product formulation, manufacture, quality control, microbiological safety analysis, sensory and consumer assessments.

The module culminates with our New Product Development Showcase, where you can present your work to external visitors, industry partners and members of the broader university community. 

This module will provide you with an opportunity to use your initiative and knowledge to undertake an original research project under the supervision of an individual member of academic staff. You will design the study, gain familiarity with the techniques, undertake data collection, debate ethical issues and where appropriate safety procedures relevant to the topic. Examples of recent research projects include:

• omega-3 oils from sustainable non-fish sources
• the impact of UV-C treatment on nutritional composition of fruit and vegetables
• does the antibody specificity to food proteins from maternal milk reflects the serum levels?
• do dietary polyphenols reduce blood pressure?

Basic relationships dilute solutions of small molecules (perfect and real gases ideal solutions concentration vapour pressure Raoult's law Henry's law freezing point depression boiling point elevation osmotic pressure). Solution thermodynamics (1st law: enthalpy entropy and free energy 2nd law: water as a solvent ideal solution from a thermodynamic viewpoint chemical potential non-ideality) physical chemistry of macromolecules (sizes and shapes of proteins and polysaccharides macromolecular concentration measurement macromolecular non-ideality macromolecular heterogeneity and molecular weight averages macromolecular flexibility analytical ultracentrifugation for measuring shape and molecular weight colloidal properties of macromolecules phase transition phenomena).

Content to be confirmed.

This module considers nutrition at all stages of life. The lifespan will be split into pregnancy, infant (0-1 year), early years (1-5 years), primary school age (5-11 years), adolescence (12-18 years), adult (18-65 years), and old age (65+ years). At each stage we will consider the nutritional needs of that age group and how this can be achieved. Students then get the opportunity to be actively involved in the content for the second semester by choosing areas of lifespan nutrition they would like to learn about.

The timetable for the spring semester will be built around these suggestions, examples of previous taught content has included oral health through the lifespan, bone health and prevention of osteoporosis, and nutrition and skin health. We aim to provide a programme of taught material that takes the student from cell to population level content which will support interest at both clinical and population level lifespan nutrition.

This module will introduce students to ideas about the role food plays in the social world, and how those roles shape, and are shaped by, social processes. It is taught from a pluralist approach, in which students are challenged to develop their sociological imagination to value the social properties of food from diverse perspectives. Classical sociological theory will introduce students to the ‘big’ ideas and thinkers of the social world, and their interpretations of food. After a reading week, contemporary ideas will be taught, introducing new and radical perspectives on food and systems for the future of nutrition.

Students will develop an appreciation of the complex, dynamic nature of food in the social world, exploring what food means from a diverse range of challenging, controversial, and contested positions. As the module progresses, students will take part in a weekly photo captioning exercise, illustrating their developing appreciation of the complexities of food in the social world. The sociological theories and ideas taught change annually according to the evolving interests of students, lecturers, and social events. The final assessment will challenge students to make sociological sense of a food and nutrition topic of interest to them, seeing the challenge from the diverse perspectives experienced by their future clients and communities.

This module puts theoretical ideas of food in the social world into practice, with an exploration of people-led, grassroots actions which support healthy diets through processes of social change. Students will first be introduced to Salutogenesis, to think beyond expert-led actions. Each lecture following this serves as an example of people taking control of their health and the food system, with a series of case studies presenting grassroots social actions to improve wellbeing using food and nutrition. Salutogenesis, the social process of health creation, will come to life as we explore brilliant innovations in local communities, celebrating the value of food in supporting healthy spaces and lives.

Students will develop an appreciation for the amazing potential of consumers and communities, using their knowledge of scope of practice to reflect on how they might support that potential as a nutritionist. Each lecture showcases examples of grassroots food and nutrition activity, in local, national, and global settings, and the grassroots activities will change annually aligned with social developments. The assessment for this module will see you visit a grassroots activity to write an observational, experiential reflection on the connections between food and social action, and how you as a nutritionist might support them.

This module concerns the roles, functions and values of food and nutrition in the social world, and how they shape, and are shaped by, social processes. 

In the autumn, students explore food and social thought, appraising diverse social perspectives on food, nutrition, and health. Students are challenged to develop their sociological imagination, as they learn classical sociological theory concerning the ‘big’ ideas about food and society, and later more radical contemporary perspectives. A weekly photo captioning exercise gives students the opportunity to make sense of their own experience of food, and how it interacts with the world around them. Different social ideas are taught each year, reflecting the dynamic and ever-evolving nature of food and society. 

In the spring, the theoretical ideas are put into action, as we imagine new ways of using food to improve social experience, by exploring people-led, grassroots actions which support healthy diets through processes of social change. Each lecture serves as a showcase of grassroots food and nutrition activity, seeing people taking control of the food system to improve health and social justice. Salutogenesis, the social process of health creation, will come to life as we showcase brilliant innovations in local communities, celebrating the value of food in supporting healthy spaces and lives. 

The final assessment for this module will see you visit a grassroots initiative, to undertake an ethnographic exploration of how people are using food to develop communities and change the world. You will write a reflective, theoretical account of what you experienced, and use it to propose actions you can undertake as a nutritionist to provide support. 

Healthy diets are vital for healthy lives. But how do nutritionists change health behaviours to achieve optimal nutrition? In this module, you'll study the psychological origins of dietary behaviour. You will learn the behaviour change techniques nutritionists use to modify food choice. You'll look at how to promote healthy diets using community, legislative, persuasive and empowerment tools. You'll work as an intervention team to achieve improved dietary health. Working together, you'll design an evidence-based behaviour change programme.

You’ll study:

• psychodynamic, behaviourist, cognitive and humanistic explanations of food choice
• social influences on consumer behaviour and the social determinants of health
• behaviour change techniques used in professional practice
• health promotion tools used to achieve dietary health across populations