Graduate Course List

All courses carry 3 credits unless otherwise specified. Two 700-level Food Science courses are offered each semester. Each is offered every two years. Check SPIRE for availability.

521 - Food Quality and Safety Control

This course will provide an overview of food quality assurance and food safety regulation while training students to obtain quality control FDA-recognized training certificates. Upon successful completion of the course, students will obtain FSPCA Qualified Individual Certifications. Prerequisites: A basic microbiology course (FOOD-SCI 466 & 467, MICROBIO 310, or MICROBIO 265) and one semester of organic chemistry (CHEM 261 or CHEM 250). Credits 4. 

541 Food Chemistry I

Overview of the chemical, physical, and biological properties of food components including water, proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates. Consequences of the properties of food components and their reaction products to health and nutrition also emphasized. Prerequisite: organic chemistry. 

542 Food Chemistry II

Chemistry of minor components in food - minerals, vitamins, nutraceuticals - and food additives e.g., colors, flavors, preservatives, texture modifiers, stabilizers, etc. The interaction between the major components of food and the application and regulation of food additives are also emphasized. Prerequisite: Food Chemistry I.

544  Food Chemistry Lab

Laboratory exercises emphasizing chemical, physical, and biological changes in foods, during processing and storage. Prerequisites: concurrent enrollment in FOOD-SCI 541 and consent of instructor. Credit 1.

561 Food Processing

Basic principles of current technology and equipment of food processing. Raw material preparation, thermal processing, dehydration, cooling, freezing, mechanical processing.

563 Food Processing Laboratory

Laboratory component of Food Processing 561. Credit 1.

566 Food Microbiology Laboratory

Laboratory exercises emphasize quality control and experimental approaches to food microbiology. Labs teach basic culture methods, in addition to chemical, immunological, and molecular techniques employed for the microbiological analysis of foods. Prerequisites: MICROBIO 312 and concurrent registration in FOOD-SCI 567 or consent of instructor. Credits 2.

567 Food Microbiology

This course will provide an overview of food microbiology, focusing upon fundamental principles and considerations related to microbial properties and behavior and how they influence food safety, quality, and production. Specific topics in the course include but are not limited to foodborne disease, traditional and emerging laboratory detection methods, fermentation, food quality assurance, sanitation, and other microbiology-related topics. This course will also include a survey of current food microbiology-related topics and problems being addressed by research at UMass and elsewhere. Prerequisites: MICROBIO 310 or FOOD-SCI 466 and concurrent registration in FOOD-SCI 566, or consent of instructor.

575 Elements of Food Process Engineering

Topics include unit conversion, mass and energy balance, the principles of fluid flow, viscosity, heat transfer, refrigeration, evaporation, and drying. Emphasis on industrial implementations in equipment and process calculations. Credits 4.

581 Analysis of Food Products

Physical, chemical, and biological techniques in food analysis: proximate analysis, extraction, densimetry, spectroscopy, rheology, microscopy, refractometry, polarimetry, chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance, enzymatic and immunological assays, and sensory evaluation methods emphasizing theoretical basis of measurements and laboratory calculations. Prerequisite: CHEM 312 or equivalent. 

583 Food Analysis Laboratory

Laboratory component of Analysis of Food Products, 561. Credit 1.

590E - Practical Aspects of the Food Industry

This course will provide a basic understanding of the practical aspects of the food industry to help students make a rapid transition to the private sector and help them adapt to the very diverse environment of food companies. Lectures will be given by individual with direct experience in the food industry.

690STA Genomic Approaches/Food Science

This course will provide an applied introduction to bioinformatics, computational biology, and genomics. Topics covered include genome assembly, gene prediction, functional annotation, gene expression quantification, variant identification, amplicon sequencing, metagenomic analysis, etc. Students will use the UMass UNITY high-performance computing cluster during this course, and will learn a basic understanding of command-line software in a LINUX environment. Students will undertake a research project using their own genomic data or publicly available data. Examples in class will focus on food science-related questions, but the concepts are transferable to any biological system.

696 Independent Study

Mainly for candidates for the Master of Science degree who do not write a thesis. Original research expected. Two bound copies of a written report of the study required by the department. Credits 1-6.

696L IS- Literature Review

For candidates in the One-Year Professional Master of Science degree only. Focused literature review aligned with the student’s lab research topic. Summarizes current trends, methods, and advancements in the chosen field. Emphasis on identifying research gaps and potential innovations. Must be written in manuscript format, adhering to professional publication standards. Credits 1-6.

696R IS- Lab Research

For candidates in the One-Year Professional Master of Science degree only. Perform guided lab research directly related to the literature review topic. Focus on experimental design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation. At the end of the semester, present the research findings to a faculty panel. The presentation includes an overview of the research objectives, methodology, results, and conclusions. Address challenges faced and how they were resolved during the research. The faculty panel will grade based on: Quality and clarity of lab work and results. Depth of analysis and understanding of the topic. Presentation skills, including organization, delivery, and the ability to respond to questions. Credits 1-6.

699 Master’s Thesis 

Individual Research. Credit, 1-10.

741 Lipid Chemistry

Composition and chemical properties of edible fats and oils. Physical characteristics/plasticity, polymorphism, melting, solidification. Technology of industrial fats- extraction, refining, hydrogenation, inter-esterification. Deteriorative reactions oxidation, thermal degradation. Biological significance. New methods of analysis. Review of current literature. Consent of instructor required. 

745 Food Biochemistry

Effects of storage and processing on food quality governed by changes in cellular milieu, structural components, cellular organization, membrane deterioration, and free radical production, plant and animal tissues used as foods. 

750 Bioactive Food Components

The goal of this course is to help understand the biological significance of food. This course will cover basic physiology, pathology, and toxicology to understand health impacts of food components, particularly in disease prevention.

751 Future Foods

This course reviews recent developments in food science, such as food architecture, nanotechnology, genetic engineering, personalized nutrition, food design for health and wellness, nutraceuticals, and sustainability.  Grading is based on oral and written, and individual and team projects.

761 Physical Phenomena in Foods

Physical and functional properties of foods: origin and modification of surface forces; electrophysical phenomena; colloidal aggregates and dispersions; stability of emulsions and foams; adsorption phenomena; properties of food polymers in solution; interfacial charge effects; structure and formation of gels. 

781 Advanced Food Analysis

This course includes lectures of fundamental and application of Raman, Infrared and X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy in food, agricultural and environmental analysis. It also offers hands-on training of these techniques, supported by the Raman, IR and XRF core facility.

790D Applied Food DataSci & Modeling

This course introduces graduate students in Food Science to the principles and applications of data science, machine learning, and deep learning for analyzing complex food systems. Students learn to organize, visualize, and model experimental data such as kinetic, rheological, spectroscopic, imaging, and process data using Python in a cloud-based environment. Topics include exploratory data analysis, regression and classification, multivariate calibration, and modern deep learning approaches for nonlinear feature extraction, including autoencoders and nonlinear PCA. Emphasis is placed on applying these computational tools to real food datasets to reveal structure function relationships and improve formulation and processing design. Designed for students with minimal coding or mathematical background, the course integrates conceptual lectures, hands-on coding labs, and a project-based learning component.

790S Advanced Topics in Food Safety

This course will provide a survey of advanced topics and concepts in food safety. Specifically, this course will cover more insight into foodborne pathogen pathogenesis, specifically expanding on a number of pathogens discussed in the Food Microbiology Lecture, as well as providing further discussion of pathogens and contaminants not discussed in as much depth. The course will also contain a unit covering advanced concepts in foodborne pathogen and contaminant detection and control. Finally, this course will contain coverage of emerging issues and research in food safety, for example, topics like antimicrobial resistance and emerging foodborne pathogens.

790STA Research Methods

An orientation course for graduate students, designed for first-year graduate students who have limited research experience and is required for first-year incoming graduate students. The course aims to help the students engage in activities and discussions that are tightly aligned with the expectations of graduate students in the food science department. We will introduce campus resources, literature review, forming hypotheses, critiquing the literature and writing, peer-review, and oral presentations.

790T Sustainable Foods

In this course, we will dive into the fundamentals and advanced properties of sustainable food matrices. We will start right where food scientists come into play along the food value chain: transforming a raw material into a food product. The course will teach you about the various sustainable raw materials, the extraction processes for obtaining ingredients from these raw materials, and the subsequent properties of these ingredients, along with the potential processes as well as products that can be developed using sustainable ingredients. After the completion of the course, you’ll be able to design foods with new sustainable ingredients and be able to solve challenges associated with formulating foods with a new type of raw material.

791A Seminar

Reports and discussions on current literature in the area of food science. Credit 1.

796 - Independent Study

797V: Special Topics in Biosensors and Pathogen Detection

This is a weekly journal club that is relatively flexible in terms of specific topics related to biosensors and microbial detection. The scope of topics and articles covered will be generally broad and include different classes of microfluidic biosensors, viral detection, bacterial detection, fungal detection, toxin detection, and portable next-generation sequencing. A secondary interest of the class will involve detection in complex samples, especially with relevance to point-of-care and in-field detection applications. The specific article content will be chosen to reflect the interests of those enrolled in the class. Prerequisites: None. Credit 1.

899 Doctoral Dissertation

Credits 1-18.