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Wageningen University

Nutrition and Health: Food Safety

Wageningen University via edX

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Overview

Everyday reports of food scandals and recalls are published. One day it’s scary bacteria in meat, and another day it’s dangerous pesticides in fruits. According to some, meat needs to be cooked well to prevent food-borne illness while others warn not to heat food to prevent the formation of poisonous substances.

Many consumers worry about the conflicting and confusing messages about food hazards.

This nutrition and health course will teach you about the risk factors associated with food and give you the tools to assess and quantify the dangers they can present. You will learn about food safety, the effects of food processing, the shared responsibility in the food chain and the prevention of food poisoning. After this course, you will be able to differentiate what is a food myth and what is an actual health risk. Finally, you will gain a contemporary view of how different risks can be weighed in a scientific way.

Syllabus

Module1: Hazards and risks in the modern food chain
Introduction to the difference between a hazard and a risk, the different types of hazards present in food and the perception of risk by public.

Module 2: Interpretation of risks, probability and relevance
Introduction to risk reporting, how ways of presenting information can mislead consumers and difference between significance and relevance.

Module 3: Microorganisms in food: good, bad and/or a nuisance
Introduction to ubiquitous, good/bad or spoiling microorganisms.

Module 4: Qualitative and quantitative principles food safety of chemicals
Classification of risks as avoidable or unavoidable, difference between genotoxic and non-genotoxic compounds and examples of important genotoxic carcinogens present in the food chain as well as introduction to dose-response concept.

Module 5: Toxicological risk assessment
Introduction to risk assessment framework, different ways of performing risk assessments depending on the nature of the chemical (i.e. genotoxic vs. non genotoxic) and hands on risk assessment of the food additive cyclamate and the carcinogen acrylamide.

Module 6: Microbiological risk assessment
Introduction to contamination routes, dose-response relationship and effect of temperature on microorganisms' growth as well as sampling and legal requirements.

Module 7: Ways to reduce risks in food
Introduction to prevention of avoidable hazard, effect of heat on hazards and inactivation as well as prevention techniques to reduce risks in food.

Module 8: Final assignment/exam
Wrap-up.

Taught by

Ivonne M.C.M. Rietjens, Marcel H. Zwietering, Martine Reij, Jochem Louisse and Jonathan Nicolas

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Reviews

4.6 rating, based on 207 Class Central reviews

4.3 rating at edX based on 52 ratings

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  • Anonymous
    Mi nombre es Damarys Lucelly Caipe Cuatin ;el desarrollo del MOOC me ha parecido muy interesante ya que me ha permitido adquirir nuevos conocimiento acerca de la seguridad alimentaria, los diferentes riesgos que podemos encontrar en nuestros alimentos, y también , que existen microorganismos que se pueden desarrollar en estos, según sea como este compuesto el alimento y que estos pueden proporcionar a bacterias a que estas se propaguen con mayor facilidad, de igual manera, también he aprendido sobre cual es la cantidad de microrganismos que pueden deteriorar el alimento y que cuando estos se encuentran en mayor cantidad nos pueden causar ,enfermedades, como también intoxicaciones, cuando un alimento se somete a cambios de temperatura.
  • Anonymous
    The Nutrition and Health: Food Safety course from Wageningen University via edX provides a comprehensive overview of food safety, essential for anyone interested in nutrition and public health. The content is well-structured, covering everything from basic hygiene practices to complex regulatory guidelines on food safety. The interactive quizzes and real-world examples make the material engaging, and the instructors explain concepts clearly. One highlight is the practical focus on preventing contamination and understanding foodborne risks, which is valuable for everyday application. Some topics could benefit from more in-depth exploration, but overall, it's an informative and worthwhile course!
  • Anonymous
    I love this course. The structure of this course is clear and intriguing. Learning this course is like climbing a mountain, steps by steps reaching the top, and the whole course is complete for me like a circle. For example, in the WEEK 1, the difference of hazard and risk is clarified and exposure is described. And these concepts kind of serve as background information of the later courses like DALY, risk assessment and so on. In addition, the courses about risk assessment also paves the way for the later toxicological and microbiological assessment. This structure makes me easily understand and even easily memorise the knowledge, better than what I did in my undergraduate study.
  • Anonymous
    Excellent educational videos, and the tests are great because you can see where you are wrong and why because they have the explanation when you check correct answer.
    If you have a calculator beside you it makes it easier if you are using your cell phone for the course in lieu of struggling with your phone back and fort. I'm truly enjoying this learning experience.
  • Anonymous
    I learnt more about toxicology and how you can perform a risk assessment yourself than in all the years I studied food technology. Great course with great resourses provided that you can use to expand your knowledge. I enjoyed the structure and although a very serious topic was covered you could enjoy it too with the addition of different forms of a education. Congrats to all the responsible personnel since you could easily understand the knowledge they have and how much they enjoy their occupations. I really hope more courses on food technology, microbiology are available in the future.
  • Anonymous
    This course is suitable for refreshing on food safety basics with clear definitions, syllabus, real-world scenarios, and applicable skills. I appreciated the clear explanations with animated videos, and also many practice questions to ensure I understand the content. It is suitable for people of all backgrounds, but of course it is best to read up on the additional materials provided to have a deeper and broader knowledge of existing problems that are managed by effective food safety understanding.
  • Anonymous
    The course seemed very interesting to me, since it allowed me to learn about topics regarding food safety and nutrition. Many times we as consumers do not realize the food that reaches our table, and we must be careful with these aspects, because that affects our health. There are foods that come with preservatives, and read the labels properly, because that is where the information is, for example for people who are allergic, this data is of crucial importance.
  • Anonymous
    This course provided a comprehensive overview of food safety risks, including chemical and microbiological hazards. It effectively highlighted the importance of choosing relevant topics and target audiences when discussing food safety. I appreciated the emphasis on applying course knowledge to real-world scenarios and the practical tips for communicating safety measures to different groups. The peer review criteria were helpful for improving our assignments.
  • Anonymous
    Great course, very well structured and comprehensive. I would suggest to explain up-front the structure of the course and in particular the fact that the exercises are as important as the lessons to achive the learning objectives.
    I would have appreciated a module on the risk management side. Codex is hardly mentioned in all the course for instance.
    In any case, I found the course meeting my needs and I am very satisfied.
  • Anonymous
    I’ve learned a lot. The videos are very clear and helpful, it’s like a classroom. The practice in between, to check if I understood the subject was helpful. The explanation of the answers, was most of the time clear. Unfortunately the bmds software changed so I couldn’t practice with this. The background information is really good and gives a lot of extra knowledge.
  • Anonymous
    I've learned alot by this course, now I know the difference between risk and hazard, different types of contaminants and their preventive methods,about microorganisms,food preservation,etc..
  • Anonymous
    Too much maths and calculation detracts from the message to be sent across.
    Will probably need to re-do the course due to these "lost messages".
  • Subhash Barman
    It is very nice course , people can understand about food safety in different supply chain of food , so this course can help worlds wide
  • Anonymous
    The course helped me learn about nutrition, health hazards, food safety, microbiology, and chemistry. It is a very helpful course.
  • Anonymous
    Good video experiences and the mentors are good and the idea and the way of explaining reaches the students well
  • Anonymous
    The course is very good and interesting as you learn new topics by applying different evaluation methodologies.
  • Anonymous
    Good course I really enjoyed it. It was very easy to understand the lessons although in the calculations section you can improve the way you explain things but overally I was really impressed.
  • Anonymous
    I had a great opportunity to learn food safety in the MOOC and was knowledgeable about all kinds of food risks and I'm sure this course will help me a lot and I'm able to apply them in my daily life and The instructors are excellent at teaching and…
  • Anonymous
    The MOOC was very informative and helpful to me since I am learning cooking right now. However, it would be good if the MOOC creators check the validity of their links every now and then. Some of the links were broken and did not lead to the right web page for information in assignments.
  • Profile image for Anower Foysal
    Anower Foysal
    That's really great and a good way to learn "Food Safety". A useful course for food safety workers and for personal knowledge about risks we are exposed to when consuming food. The course is very relevant and content is very rich. The time allocated to it , that is the duration by your partners in my opinion should be a little much longer considering the fact that there are lots of calculations and computing based exercises and the questions need lots of reflections and deductive reasoning.
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