Ateneo - UPO

- Food biotechnology: an introduction
- Characteristics of microorganisms useful in biotechnology: the cell as “ molecular factory”
- Fermentations in food area
- Virtuous microorganisms and “microbial starters”
- Prebiotic, probiotics and synbiotics
- Fermented foods
- Industrial microbiology: classification of fermentations and characteristics
- Bioreactors and downstream processes
- Fermentation’s kinetics (basic)
- Enzymes and cells immobilization
- Biomasses, Single Cell Proteins (SCP)
- Examples of primary and secondary metabolites: alcohols, sweeteners, gums, organic acids, amino acids, flavorings pigments.
- Examples of bio-conversions and bio-remediations (overview)
- Enzymes: classification, production and applications.
- Recombinant technology in food area: MGMOs e GMOs
- Regulatory framework (overview)
- Analytical biotechnology: overview
- Web resources

Material prepared from the Teacher (slides copies);
Fundamentals of Food Biotechnology, 2nd Edition. 150 Euro
Byong H. Lee
ISBN: 978-1-118-38491-6 December 2014 Wiley-Blackwell 544 Pages

The class related to food biotechnologies, provides the students with the basic knowledge in the field of biotechnology in the food industry (molecular biology bases; virtuous microorganisms and microbial starter, fermentation, bio-production and recovery of bio-products used in food, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries; production of flavourings and additives through biotechnology, food enzymes and applications; recombinant biotechnology, GMO and GMO; notes on the regulatory field).
The knowledge will complete the skills in the "Food Science" field related to the other disciplines activated in the Degree Course, providing useful tools to understand the value of the foods derived from the application of these technologies.

We recommend the acquisition of specific knowledge on chemistry from the courses of Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry and Food chemistry, of fundamental importance for the understanding of the lessons of this course.

The teaching method used provides lessons held by the teacher, completed by the discussion of particular case studies.
The lessons will be delivered in person; the attendance at lessons of the students will be checked using EasyBadge.

The course must to be considered finalized to complete the knowledge and the skills in "food area" of the chemist expert in biology of nutrition, both considering the analysis of foods (quality and safety assessment) and the control of new bioactive ingredients/food by mean of biotechnology methodologies, beside their use in nutrition. The Biologist will also gain experience in the management of enzymes, microorganisms and fermentation systems for the production (at pilot and scaled-up level) of bio-products of food interest.

Students with physical disabilities, Learning Disabilities or Special Education Needs can request specific services and tools via the Staff Sviluppo e Coordinamento Carriere e Servizi alle Studentesse e agli Studenti, consulting the University webpage: https://www.uniupo.it/en/services/services-students-physical-or-learning-disabilities.
Students with disabilities, learning disabilities or special education needs, once they have contacted the University Staff, can refer to the tutor in charge of the course to define the examination modalities, concerning academic aspects.

The learning assessment is based on a oral exam, focusing on the topics covered in the course: a question concerns the first part of the course (introduction, fermentations, starter and virtuous microorganisms, probiotics), a second part of the course (industrial and bio-product fermentations) and a third part of the course (GMOs and biotechnological products). The questions foresee and require a critical description of the topics covered during the course, requesting to clarify all possible links between the topics covered as well as links with other topics covered in the "food" and "nutrition" courses.

Brief history and meaning of food biotechnology. Molecules/macromolecules of biotechnological interest. Features of microorganisms (prokaryotes and eukaryotes), characteristics. Cell as "molecular factory." Food fermentations: alcoholic, homo- and hetero-lactic malo-lactic, propionic, acetic, butyric, and isobutyric, citric fermentation. Virtuous and starter microorganisms in food productions. Fungi of food interest (filamentous fungi, yeasts, edible mushrooms). The lactic acid bacteria. Bifidobacteria. Prebiotics, probiotics and synbiotics. Bioactive peptides of milk; prebiotic oligosaccharides.
Industrial production of starters cultures and probiotic microorganisms. Bacteriocins: features and classification. Cyanobacteria and microalgae, biomass and pigments production.
Industrial microbiology: classification of fermentations (continuous, discontinuous). Bio-reactors. Fermentation parameters. Kinetics, yields of fermentation. Immobilized enzymes/cells. Application of immobilized systems. Operations Units for recovery, separation and purification of fermented products (downstream processing). Biomass, Single Cell Protein (SCP). Red yeast rice, Pruteen, Quorn. Primary and secondary metabolites obtained by fermentation: alcohols, amino acids, organic acids, neutral polysaccharides, other bioproducts. Production of sweeteners. Examples of bio-conversion and bio-remediation in food.
Flavourings. Examples of flavourings from biotechnology.
Enzymes: meaning and production, classification. Enzymes as markers of food processes. Enzyme applications in food technology. Enzymes from extremophiles microorganisms.
Food Biotechnology of the second generation: recombinant DNA. GMMO: r-Chym and r-BGH. Plant biotechnology: GMO foods. Food biotechnology in animal area (cloning, salmonids, mammals, other experimental modifications). National and international regulatory framework. Outline on Analytical Biotechnology in food area.
Web resources useful in food biotechnology.

The student must demonstrate the acquisition of basic knowledge on the application of “first” and “second” generation biotechnologies to food, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical products; knowledge about the main themes of biotechnology applied in nutraceutical-food field, showing to have understood a technical language and good technical-scientific exposure capacity. The student will demonstrate learning knowledge about the production techniques related to biotechnology, the related regulatory framework and to master the possible choice of the most useful technique for managing an applied work situation (at laboratory and industry level, in this last case as a part of an interdisciplinary scientific technical team). Finally, the student must demonstrate the ability to plan a biotechnological project applied to the food and nutraceutical sector.