Vision and Objective of the PhD Education at the Department of Food Science

The Department of Food Science aims to provide a PhD degree in Food Science at the highest international level. This requires dedicated PhD students and supervisors as well as a fine working environment. The Department of Food Science considers the PhD programme to be an important part of the research programme and supports facilitation of an inspiring environment for the PhD students.

PhD students at the department are normally enrolled at SAFE, the PhD school at The Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, and furthermore they become members of FOOD, the research education programme within food science and technology managed by Centre for Advanced Food Studies (LMC).

Research Areas

Research in Food Science often takes place in close cooperation with leading food and biotechnology companies, and provides good opportunities for Food Science students to cooperate with these companies. Furthermore, the department has a broad cooperation with national and international research partners.

The aims of the research are to develop tools including concepts to be used as quality management in the production and managing of raw materials in demand by consumers and the food industry, nationally as well as internationally, and to form the basis for dissemination of knowledge at the highest level within the area.

The institute carries out research to enable management of food quality characteristics of significance for the consumers perception of food quality, nutritional and health quality of the raw material and of its suitability for further processing. Focus is on management of food quality through a basic understanding of the physiological, biochemical, chemical and physical processes during the formation of the raw material, and how these processes can be controlled through raw material management, production parameters (e.g. genetics, food supply/feeding and other production conditions) and process technology parameters. This includes furthermore identification of biochemical, chemical and physical markers which can be used for optimization of quality from farm to fork.

Facilities and Organization

The department has modern research facilities in Foulum (Jutland near Viborg) and in Årslev (Funen near Odense) with well equipped laboratories, offices and meeting facilities.

The department is organized in three groups:

· Muscle Biology and Meat Quality (Foulum)

· Milk and Egg Quality (Foulum)

· Vegetable Quality (Årslev)

The department has state-of-the-art facilities including facilities to grow cells, a pilot plant for milk processing, a research abattoir, sensory facilities, modern instrumentation for separation including low and high pressure chromatography, gas chromatography, 2D electrophoresis, CE and high vacuum distillation. Furthermore, the department can freely dispose of LC/MS, MALDI-TOF/TOF, GC/MS, ESR, lowfield-NMR, DSC, instrumentation for rheology and for particle measurements.

Admission Requirements

The preceding university education must include qualifications in chemistry, biochemistry, physiology and biology at M.Sc. level.

Course Requirements

Comprise 30 ECTS which can consist of PhD courses, seminar courses at the department, at University of Aarhus or externally. Further information can be obtained by contacting the PhD Coordinator.

Examination and Thesis

The PhD thesis must be written in English. It should be based on a minimum of 4 accepted or submitted papers to peer-reviewed journals, and a section should link the papers and put the results from the papers into perspective in relation to the most important works in the area of research.

Comments

It is the aim that the student will carry out part of the project at a foreign research institute, but the essential part of the education will be carried out within the framework of the Department of Food Science.

Contact and Further Information

PhD Coordinator: Lotte Bach Larsen, Senior Scientist (LotteBach.Larsen@remove-this.agrsci.dk, telefon 89 99 11 71)

Secretary: Aase Sørensen (aase.sorensen@remove-this.agrsci.dk)