Food safety & quality
Students explore global perspectives on food safety and quality through a series of guest speaker videos and a collaborative project on an internationally recognised food safety management system.
Context
- Faculty/School: School of Agriculture, Food & Ecosystem Sciences, Faculty of Science
- Number of students: 150-200 per semester
- Year level: Graduate
- Curricular/or co-curricular: Curricular
Description
This subject provides multiple opportunities for students to gain a global understanding of food safety and quality. Throughout the semester, students explore a series of short videos featuring national and international guest speakers. Topics include the food standards regulatory environment of jurisdictions other than Australia, international and national food safety and quality management standards, global food safety issues, innovations in managing these issues, and international case studies such as the 2011 Germany E. coli O104:H4 outbreak.
Students also participate in a six-week-long group project (with 4-5 students per group) to develop a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) food safety plan. HACCP is an internationally recognised system for managing food safety and has worldwide applications. The project is therefore a realistic example of necessary collaboration in the field. The aim is to equip students with the technical and collaborative skills needed to tackle global food safety issues while working with peers from various backgrounds.
How does this program support IoC aims?
This subject enhances students’ understanding of food safety and quality by providing information from and about multiple international contexts.
It also facilitates meaningful and effective collaboration among students from different countries and backgrounds, primarily through a six-week-long group project. Skills gained through this project equip students with the attributes needed to provide solutions for challenging food safety-related problems in an international context.
Thus, through both the international content and the peer collaboration, students have access to a high-quality global learning experience.
What have students said about this program?
Feedback from students is encouraging and positive. Many have indicated that the best aspect of the subject is the HACCP group project and that the recoded guest lectures were also highly valuable; for example:
"The HACCP project was a transformative learning experience that boosted my confidence in tackling real-world challenges within the food industry. The international content helped me develop a unique global perspective, which I believe will be key to succeeding in the international food sector."
Considerations for implementation
- Engage with the industry and professional bodies during the internationalisation of the curriculum process. This will help connect academic learning with real-world applications both nationally and internationally, and can provide valuable global perspectives and different viewpoints outside academia.
- Consider time, effort and resource requirements at the beginning, and plan early.
- Use existing collaborations both locally and internationally to deliver internationalised content. This will help with the workload consideration above.