Caracotsios teaches food science course in Netherlands
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Kinetic modeling of food quality attributes can be a powerful tool in food product development, according to Wageningen University Emeritus Special Professor Martinus AJS “Tiny” Van Boekel.
Kinetic modeling is a useful tool that gives a better understanding of the mechanisms of reactions. More specifically, the study of chemical kinetics helps to play an important role in the preservation, preparation, and analysis of foods. Chemical engineers are involved in food production processes, including growing food, enhancing the appeal of food, packaging, and even the increased convenience of prepackaged, frozen, fast-cooked, dehydrated, and microwavable foods.
In fact, Wageningen University in Wageningen, Netherlands, is home to a food science course that University of Illinois Chicago Chemical Engineering Clinical Associate Professor Michael Caracotsios has been teaching every other year for the past 20 years.
This week-long course, which Caracotsios helped teach in October, goes over reaction kinetics in food science and is led by Van Boekel, Caracotsios, Matthjas Dekker also of Wageningen University, Carolina Astudillo Castro of the School of Food Science at Pontifical Catholic University in Valparaíso, Chile, and Juan-Eugenio Alvaro Martinez-Carrasco of the School of Agronomy at Pontifical Catholic University in Valparaíso, Chile.
The course analyzes experimental data and models and delves into how food breaks down while cooking, calculates the parameters, and explores how impurities travel on a microbial level.
Caracotsios shared that the students of this course are often from around the world, including countries throughout Europe and Africa.
He also shared that he enjoyed exploring Wageningen and its many restaurants and hopes to expand this course to UIC eventually.