Year
2024Credit points
5Campus offering
Prerequisites
NIL
Incompatible
NUTR500 Advanced Culinary Nutrition Science in Practice
Unit rationale, description and aim
Eating is integral to life and a multitude of factors affect the eating experience. The relationships between food, perceptions of food, the eating environment and food and beverage intake are only beginning to be understood. This microcredential will support students to obtain a critical understanding of the factors believed to influence the eating experience and dietary intakes, from the composition and function of ingredients to the dining environment. The aim of the microcredential is to help students acquire the complex high-level knowledge and understanding to solve nutrition related problems through highly innovative planning of food, eating environments and eating occasions that have high sensory appeal.
Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
| Learning Outcome Number | Learning Outcome Description |
|---|---|
| LO1 | Critically examine the relationship between the functionality of single and composite ingredients and the sensory experience of eating/drinking |
| LO2 | Demonstrate highly professional written communication skills |
Content
Topics will include:
Composition and function of ingredients
Taste, odour, and flavour
Sensory experience of eating
Advanced sensory analysis
Influence of the eating environment design and gastrophysics
Sensory principles for healthy ingredient substitution
Food styling principles for the table, in plating and in amateur food photography
Scientific principles of preparation and cooking methods
Culinary nutrition science communication
Culinary science research
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
The microcredential begins with approaches designed to support acquisition of specialist knowledge needed to link food and eating with the senses, culinary nutrition science research approaches and food styling. The approaches used to facilitate students’ learning include asynchronous online interactive learning modules. Interaction will be driven by engagement with forums using formats with high visual impact e.g. Padlet. The approaches used in this microcredential have a constructively aligned developmental sequence designed to progressively, and logically, support students’ learning in ways that maximise the perceived (and actual) relevance and value of each activity. It is expected to engender high levels of engagement, efficiency, and effectiveness in students’ study behaviours, and to maximise their learning achievements. This strategy and approaches will allow students to meet the aim, learning outcomes of the microcredential. Learning and teaching approaches will reflect respect for the individual as an independent learner. Students will be expected to take responsibility for their learning and to participate actively in learning activities.
Assessment strategy and rationale
In this microcredential, a single assessment tasks will involve a written assessment task submitted anytime within the teaching period. This task provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to evaluate and communicate complex culinary science principles using clear examples.
This assessment task will allow microcredential coordinators to assess students’ demonstration of the learning outcomes.
Overview of assessments
| Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment Tasks | Weighting | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|
Written assessment task Enables students to demonstrate their ability to assess and clearly articulate the links between the composition and function of a single or composite ingredient and sensory experience | 100% | LO1, LO2 |
Representative texts and references
Blumenthal, H. (2008). The Big Fat Duck Cookbook. London: Bloomsbury.
Segnit, N. (2010). The Flavour Thesaurus. London: Bloomsbury Publishing
Spence, C. (2017). Gastrophysics. United Kingdom. Penguin Random House.
The Science of Taste Symposium. (2014). Originally published in the journal Flavour which is no longer published. Collection of articles published by BMC https://www.biomedcentral.com/collections/the-science-of-taste
This, H. (2008). Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor. New York: Colombia University Press
This, H. (2010). Kitchen Mysteries: Revealing the Science of Cooking. New York: Colombia University Press
Vega, C., Ubbink, J. & van der Linden E. Ed. (2013). The Kitchen as Laboratory: Reflections on the Science of Food and Cooking. New York: Colombia University Press
Recipe based
The Editors of America’s Test Kitchen & Crosby, G. (2012). The Science of Good Cooking. Massachusetts: Cook’s Illustrated
Other
International Food Information Council Foundation https://foodinsight.org/
Explore the Smarter Lunchrooms Movement and other work by Cornell Food Lab (note recent controversies) https://www.smarterlunchrooms.org/scorecard-tools/smarter-lunchrooms-strategies
Food Styling resources TBC