Why I took this course

I was looking for a course that would help me learn more about food, and what it takes to produce, serve and trust it. I wanted a program that would give me a broad understanding of how food is grown and prepared, but also give me some practical skills that I could use in my business to be more aware of the practices in the food supply chains.

The online course Trust in Our Food: Understanding Food Supply Systems presented by EIT Food was perfect for me!

What I have learned

I learned so much about the different aspects of food production from first steps to packaging and distribution.

It was also great to get an overview of how restaurants operate, which will help me be a more conscientious consumer when I go out to eat with friends or family members who aren’t as interested in eating healthy food.

My favorite part was learning about food safety throughout the entire process. It begins with how we get our food from farm to table and ends with how we dispose of it when we’re done eating, and that was a very essential part for me to develop a conscious business.

The application of food supply systems for me

I am a part of an Egyptian startup called “Alfraza”, I started it with other founders in Egypt from my own kitchen. I always have the passion towards hygiene, healthy food, easy home meal preparation and circular business models which sustain our environments.

I am that kind of person who really can not imagine a meal without the taste of the freshness and color’s energy of fruits and vegetables. I am not vegetarian, but fruits and vegetables have the power to charge me with energy and positivity of a healthy diet.

Our startup used to sell fresh cuts of fruits and vegetables. We reach the number of 200 fresh cuts and more depending on seasons and the availability of imported types, as we mainly focus on our local crops. So the knowledge I got from the course was very fruitful to my business.

What you will learn in this course

Through the course I closed up to the real meaning of trusting in food, and how business could play a vital role to help increase awareness by consumers and help them decide better. I also learned about how we can make smart choices when it comes to eating healthy foods.

In addition to learning how to prevent contamination from happening in the first place (which is important no matter what). There was also info dedicated towards helping us identify when something has gone wrong with our food supply chain – whether it’s due to contamination or not – so we can take action immediately.

This course was one of the most interesting I’ve taken. It was entirely online, which allowed me to work on it while I was working from home and also to take breaks when I needed them. The course material was very thorough, and the instructors provided excellent materials, references and resources.

I learned a lot about sustainable aspects of business. I especially enjoyed learning more about how businesses can use their products as a way to promote sustainability in society. The material covered topics such as working with local farmers and suppliers to reduce carbon emissions, recycling products and packaging materials, using renewable energy sources for production facilities, and much more!

I really enjoyed the class, I learned a lot of things that I could apply in my daily life. The course was very interesting and well structured, I liked the fact that we had to use different resources to find information about the topic. This helped me understand the topics better and how to find relevant information.

Although much of the information was relevant to the EU and I am in the middle east, that really gave me a very wide meaning of traceability and chain of custody, which we can follow too in our business and develop the food chain cycle.

Assessment and time commitment

After every main concept you will be tested to check your knowledge over the course of the course, the questions are mostly easy and if you have been mistaken, no worries, you will be guided through a small declaration to make you choose the right answer.

As I am a mom working from home with 3 kids, I didn’t have enough time everyday to attend the class, so it was easier for me to spend my weekend learning the course, and because I enjoyed it, it wasn’t totally a load on me.

Anyone can manage his/her own time to get the best time management, maybe for others it will be easier a daily snippet portion to complete the course, as it’s classified to be taken within 4 weeks.

Conclusion

The experience was very impactful and gave me a very wide range of information. The thing I learned from this course is that food is something that we need to trust in order to live healthy lives. We can only eat healthy foods if we know where they come from and how they are produced. If we don’t know where our food comes from, we might accidentally be eating something unhealthy or contaminated with chemicals.

I had a lot of fun and learned a lot. I would recommend this course to anyone who wants to learn more about trusting in food! All you need is your passion towards a healthier life, because health is not only ours, our Earth has to live healthy too!

You will enjoy every step in the course, as everything is well classified and supported with all required explaining materials such as videos, infographics, articles, examples, products & services’ websites and more.

What’s next

After a couple of days of finishing the course I started and ended the course Circular Business Models for Sustainable Urban Food Systems’. I enjoyed this course too.

My current plan is to complete all the lists from EIT Food courses to develop myself and discover more relevant businesses, initiatives, technologies and more all over the world.

All of us are responsible towards the environment we share everywhere on earth. The more conscious we are, the more power we have to promote the way businesses and individuals react toward societies.

A great thanks for everyone everywhere facing challenges to make our world better, and special thanks to EIT Food and all participants in this amazing institution.