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Certificate Program (Proposed)

Certificate in Nutrition and Sustainability of Food and Biological Processing 

For this web-delivered certificate, students will take 4 courses of three credits (US equivalent) each. Experts from ISU and partner institutions will teach the modules. The courses will not have regular meeting schedules, but will be delivered online within the confines of a semester. Students will share and learn from the experiences of peers from France and the US, providing a unique opportunity for them to build awareness of international concepts regarding sustainability issues as related to the food industry. 

Upon successful completion of the Online Certificate, the students will be able to:

  • Understand the challenges facing the food industry towards the concept of sustainability 
  • Apply methods to determine calculation of life cycle analysis parameters 
  • Demonstrate critical thinking in food sustainability issues in the food industry through problem solving activities
  • Understand processing parameters affecting the nutritional quality of foods

Proposed Core Courses

Life Cycle Assessment in Biological Systems (ABE 480). This course will include the study of methods necessary to evaluate environmental impact including mass and energy balance in the life cycle of food product, environmental impact of ingredients.

Life Cycle Assessment Applications (Analysis of Case Studies). Each student will be trained on the use of LCA software that is used to calculate and identify important environmental issues of a product, and will develop a project related to a case study.

Alternative Food Engineering & Processing. The most advanced non-traditional food processing methods will be presented and advantages/disadvantages discussed. Processing methods may include: high pressure processing, ultrasound, pulsed electric field, etc. Energy consumption of traditional food processing will be covered and a review of energy requirements involved in the most traditional food processing (pasteurization, canning, drying, spray-drying) will be performed.

Nutritional Impacts of Food & Biological Processing. Description of the main impact of food processing on the nutritional quality of foods.