Credit Hours - 3

Course Description: 
Course discussions cover contracts (formation, performance, breach, and termination), corporations and partnerships, insurance, professional liability, risk management, environmental law, torts, property law, evidence and dispute resolution.  The course emphasizes those principles necessary to provide engineers with the ability to recognize issues which are likely to arise in the engineering profession and introduces them to the complexities and vagaries of the legal profession.

Credit Hours - 3

Course Description: 
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the definition of management and the evolution and perspectives of management: classical human relations and management science. The hierarchy of management, managerial roles and management styles will be introduced to students. Inside and outside an organization: adapting to change and understanding the environment. Management functions: Planning and decision making, organizing, leading and communicating. The entrepreneurial process and types of business, creating new products/services and business plans.

Credit Hours - 3

Objectives: 

To introduce students to the fundamentals of engineering design. 

Description: 

This course develops a basic understanding of the key considerations for successful design of food processes and food processing plants. It entails discussions around the design and selection of food processing equipment, identification of food processing problems and application of design principles as well as a supervised design project. It also covers hygienic design of food processing equipment sizing and costing of equipment, evaluation of economics and other operational concerns of specific process.

Credit Hours - 2

Objectives: 

To enable students to acquire the knowledge of occupational, safety and health in process operations and the compliance to safety and health law and regulations.

Description: 

Students will be exposed to several methods in identifying hazard and risks in process industries. Safety principles in food plant design and operations. Personal Safety and Personal Protective equipment. Hazard evaluation procedures. Process Safety Management (PSM) and the food industry. Safe Design and operation of plants: Design control for safety, Principles of Inherently Safer Designs (ISD). Laws and regulations on plant safety. Field evaluation of safety in the Ghanaian Food Industry.

Credit Hours - 1

Objectives: 

To guide students in defining career goals and objectives, and to introduce them to the code of ethics in engineering.

Description: 

The course teaches students about their responsibilities towards employer, colleagues, subordinates, the community, and local businesses. Emphasis is on skills development and continuing education, leadership, teamwork, and trust. It exposes students to methods of developing professional profile (Curriculum vitae, etc.), interviewing, negotiation, and job appraisal. It provides an understanding of the food industry and career options including consulting and setting up professional practice.

Credit Hours - 3

Objectives: 

To introduce students to various control systems and techniques and to learn about the concept of quality control and management and various quality control frameworks with regards to the food industry through the application of statistics.

Description: 

This course explores the underlying concepts and statistical techniques used to monitor and control process and quality variations.  It introduces students to basic principles and tools for quality management in the food industry. It also provides an overview of statistical quality control techniques and their application to improve the quality and productivity of a process. The course also covers topics such as Total Quality Management, process monitoring charts for variables and attributes, process capability analysis, development of grades and standards of quality, acceptance sampling, process improvement with designed experiments- response surface methodology, and Six-Sigma processes.

Credit Hours - 2

Objectives: 

To introduce students to plant-based food commodities and their conversion to value-added products.

Description: 

The course covers cereals processing in which discussions include basic cereal chemistry, wheat milling processes, dough testing, etc. Roots and tubers processing and preservation methods are also discussed.  Students are also made to appreciate the processing of legumes and oilseeds, especially oil extraction and refining. Students are also familiarized with fruits and vegetables processing and preservation as well as spices and herbs: essential oils and essences, chemistry and processing. The course emphasizes the design of processes for industrial production.

Credit Hours - 3

Objective: 

To improve understanding of engineering design systems, food processes and packaging options, using raw materials from animal origins.

Description: 

In this course, students study characteristics of food raw materials and commodities from animal origins and their conversion to value-added products. Topics included in the discussions cover Fish and fish products processing and preservation, Milk and milk products processing, Meat and poultry processing, and Eggs processing and preservation. Industrial and traditional technologies for processing and preservation of fish and meat are also highlighted. Students are also introduced to the efficient applications of low temperature processing and storage, smoking, packaging, dehydration, etc. to processing of animal products. Additionally, the design of processes for industrial production is explored.

Credit Hours - 2

Objective: 

To introduce students to the application of key concepts of control and instrumentation within the food processing industry.

Description:  

This course discusses the basic principles & relevance of process control and the requisite instrumentation to ensure adequate control in industrial process plants. Key topics that are covered include basics of monitoring and control (objectives and types of control, social & economic issues of automation, applications in food processing) and instrumentation in the food industry (instrumentation, and monitoring, measurement devices/sensors and their selection. Additionally, students are introduced to data capture (data loggers, data historians, data visualization), dynamic modelling, and automatic control (feedback and feed forward control, controller tuning).  The practical application to batch and continuous food processing is emphasised.

Credit Hours - 6

Objective:  

To encourage students to think critically to solve identified challenges within the food industry. To develop skills in research, problem solving, project planning, and communication.

Description: 

The course is a supervised but independent study which affords students an opportunity to apply their accumulated knowledge to solve an identified problem within the food industry. It provides a problem-based learning experience involving food process problem identification, formulation of project proposal, project execution, and reporting.  Seminar presentations of project proposals and project outcomes as well as submission of a written project report are required.

Credit Hours - 3

Objectives: 

To introduce students to plant-based food commodities and their conversion to value-added products.

Description: 

The course covers cereals processing in which discussions include basic cereal chemistry, wheat milling processes, dough testing, etc. Roots and tubers processing and preservation methods are also discussed.  Students are also made to appreciate the processing of legumes and oilseeds, especially oil extraction and refining. Students are also familiarized with fruits and vegetables processing and preservation as well as spices and herbs: essential oils and essences, chemistry and processing. The course emphasizes the design of processes for industrial production.

Credit Hours - 3

Objectives: 

To acquire knowledge and skills in designing and developing industrial scale chemical reactors.

Description: 

The course will cover topics including the concepts of rate, stoichiometry, equilibrium, and the analysis of chemical and biological systems. The students would be guided to appreciate derivation of rate expressions from reaction mechanisms and equilibrium or steady state assumptions. Also discussed are batch, plug flow and continuous stirred tank reactor designs, heterogeneous and enzymatic catalysis, heat and mass transport in reactors, including diffusion to and within catalyst particles and cells or immobilized enzymes.

Credit Hours - 3

Objectives: 

To introduce students to design systems for food processing and methods of estimating costs of equipment, operations, among others for determining project profitability.

Description: 

Discussions include process simulation or modelling for optimization as applied to food processing, as well as evaluation of food processing plant systems. An overview of utilities and regulatory requirements, relevant food laws and social impact of the plant, as well as equipment design and evaluation is provided. Other key areas include process economics, investments, and capital investment, total production cost, estimation of capital investments, revenue and methods for calculating profitability, alternative investment, replacements and sensitivity analysis.

Credit Hours - 2

Objectives: 

To provide a detailed understanding of the principles and practices of the organization and management of plant operations in the food processing industry.

Description: 

The course covers a wide range of topics including plant layout and flow patterns, plant and warehouse siting and design, pilot operations and optimization, cleaning operations, use of detergents and sanitizers, water use, waste disposal and pollution control. It explains the Public Health Acts and Regulations as well as environment issues in food processing. Students are given the opportunity for two industrial visits.

Credit Hours - 3

Objectives: T
o broaden students’ knowledge of specific attributes of microorganisms and their role in food processing and to introduce the underlining concepts of food safety in the food processing industry.

Description: 
This course provides an understanding of the characteristics of microorganisms and how these can be applied or controlled in the production of safe foods.  It will also develop a basic understanding of the microbiology of foods, food-borne illnesses, and food spoilage.  It will further introduce students to the applications of microorganisms in the fermentative production of foods and the principles underlining the production of safe foods. Key topics for discussion include: Microbial spoilage of foods; Foodborne illnesses, Preservation: principles and methods; Physical methods of food preservation, Chemical preservatives and natural antimicrobial compounds, biologically based preservation systems. Probiotic bacteria, Prebiotics. Food fermentations, Fermented foods products (dairy, vegetables, meat, poultry, and fish). Traditional fermented foods, Cocoa and coffee, Beer and Wine. Principles of quality control and microbial criteria, Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point system (HACCP), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Good Hygiene Practice (GHP).