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Wageningen University

Nutrition and Health: Food Safety

Wageningen University via edX

Overview

Everyday reports of food scandals and recalls are published. One day it’s scary bacteria in meat, and another day it’s dangerous pesticides in fruits. According to some, meat needs to be cooked well to prevent food-borne illness while others warn not to heat food to prevent the formation of poisonous substances.

Many consumers worry about the conflicting and confusing messages about food hazards.

This nutrition and health course will teach you about the risk factors associated with food and give you the tools to assess and quantify the dangers they can present. You will learn about food safety, the effects of food processing, the shared responsibility in the food chain and the prevention of food poisoning. After this course, you will be able to differentiate what is a food myth and what is an actual health risk. Finally, you will gain a contemporary view of how different risks can be weighed in a scientific way.

Syllabus

Module1: Hazards and risks in the modern food chain
Introduction to the difference between a hazard and a risk, the different types of hazards present in food and the perception of risk by public.

Module 2: Interpretation of risks, probability and relevance
Introduction to risk reporting, how ways of presenting information can mislead consumers and difference between significance and relevance.

Module 3: Microorganisms in food: good, bad and/or a nuisance
Introduction to ubiquitous, good/bad or spoiling microorganisms.

Module 4: Qualitative and quantitative principles food safety of chemicals
Classification of risks as avoidable or unavoidable, difference between genotoxic and non-genotoxic compounds and examples of important genotoxic carcinogens present in the food chain as well as introduction to dose-response concept.

Module 5: Toxicological risk assessment
Introduction to risk assessment framework, different ways of performing risk assessments depending on the nature of the chemical (i.e. genotoxic vs. non genotoxic) and hands on risk assessment of the food additive cyclamate and the carcinogen acrylamide.

Module 6: Microbiological risk assessment
Introduction to contamination routes, dose-response relationship and effect of temperature on microorganisms' growth as well as sampling and legal requirements.

Module 7: Ways to reduce risks in food
Introduction to prevention of avoidable hazard, effect of heat on hazards and inactivation as well as prevention techniques to reduce risks in food.

Module 8: Final assignment/exam
Wrap-up.

Taught by

Ivonne M.C.M. Rietjens, Marcel H. Zwietering, Martine Reij, Jochem Louisse and Jonathan Nicolas

Reviews

4.5 rating, based on 189 Class Central reviews

4.1 rating at edX based on 16 ratings

Start your review of Nutrition and Health: Food Safety

  • Anonymous
    I had a great opportunity to learn food safety in the MOOC and was knowledgeable about all kinds of food risks and I'm sure this course will help me a lot and I'm able to apply them in my daily life and The instructors are excellent at teaching and…
  • Profile image for Anower Foysal
    Anower Foysal
    That's really great and a good way to learn "Food Safety". A useful course for food safety workers and for personal knowledge about risks we are exposed to when consuming food. The course is very relevant and content is very rich. The time allocated to it , that is the duration by your partners in my opinion should be a little much longer considering the fact that there are lots of calculations and computing based exercises and the questions need lots of reflections and deductive reasoning.
  • Jinane Ghawi
    I personally found this course very interesting, informative and I really enjoyed learning. Instructors were able to clearly explain topics that are completely new to me, and there were some nice relevant illustrations that facilitate and enhance learning.
    A useful course for food safety workers and for personal knowledge about risks we are exposed to when consuming food.
  • Anonymous
    The course is very relevant and content is very rich. The time allocated to it , that is the duration by your partners in my opinion should be a little much longer considering the fact that there are lots of calculations and computing based exercises and the questions need lots of reflections and deductive reasoning.
  • Profile image for David Leuliet
    David Leuliet
    The MOOC was very informative and helpful to me since I am learning cooking right now. However, it would be good if the MOOC creators check the validity of their links every now and then. Some of the links were broken and did not lead to the right web page for information in assignments.
  • Anonymous
    I’ve learned a lot. The videos are very clear and helpful, it’s like a classroom. The practice in between, to check if I understood the subject was helpful. The explanation of the answers, was most of the time clear. Unfortunately the bmds software changed so I couldn’t practice with this. The background information is really good and gives a lot of extra knowledge.
  • Anonymous
    It is very important to take this course, since we do not keep in mind many details to lead a healthy life. Here you will learn everything related to the reduction of risks and dangers with food.
  • Anonymous
    This course is very good, even though it is online. The material given is not as complete as in lectures, but I can take important points from each material
  • Anonymous
    This is an excellent and educational course which definitely boosts your understanding of the Food safety. i have gained lots of knowledge on risk assessment.
  • Anonymous
    I thought it was very good, I was able to delve deeper into the topics seen in class and learn more about food quality.
  • Anonymous
    Good course I really enjoyed it. It was very easy to understand the lessons although in the calculations section you can improve the way you explain things but overally I was really impressed.
  • Anonymous
    I'm still studying the course, Nutrition and Health: Food Safety. But, I have learned this course up to the Module -7. For our health, we need to eat not only the nutritional foods and vitamin rich ones but also foods that are safe. To be safe the f…
  • Anonymous
    I found the course very informative and educational about not only the safety of food on a microbiological level, but also the different hazards at every level of food production and consumption.

    Below are few points I wish will be applied to the course in the future:

    - The marerial was comprehensive but I wished there was interactive follow up for the material, via weekly zoom updates for example.

    - The mathematical sections were less educational in my opinion and I wished more time was dedicated to interpretation rather than production of values.

    - The material I enjoyed the most was the microbiological sections and I hope that they can be expanded in future editions.
  • Anonymous
    I have learned the course, Nutrition and Health: Food Safety.
    For our health, we need to eat not only the nutritional foods and vitamin rich ones but also foods that are safe.
    To be safe the foods that we eat daily for health, everyone should learn this online course which gives a lot of knowledges.
    After learning this course, everyone will be able to better weigh and critically interpret the information overload about risks in food. And also you all can define ways to reduce risks in food and make your own food safer.
    I recommend everyone that a lot of good knowledges will be gotten from this online course.
    Just do enrollment and learn it!!!!
  • Anonymous
    According to the "Nutrition and Health: Food Safety" online course by MOOC in Wageningen University, we had studied the differentiation of risk & hazard of food safety. We got a lot of knowledges of chemical or microbiological risk, carcinogenic chemicals in daily foods, avoidable or unavoidable risks. Moreover, we also knew the process in the food chain that influences food safety and risk of natural toxins. These knowledges are important for the health of the elderly, pregnant mothers, and children, so everyone should learn it. Finally, I strongly recommend that everyone should attend this course by Wageningen University.
  • Anonymous
    The MOOC was very informative and helpful to me since I am learning cooking right now. However, it would be good if the MOOC creators check the validity of their links every now and then. Some of the links were broken and did not lead to the right web page for information in assignments.
  • Anonymous
    I have to say that this course helped me to strengthen my knowledge in food safety and risk assessment. The simplicity of the presentation coupled by the questions and tests played a major role in understanding the topic. Ιn addition I really enjoyed the transmissibility of the professors. Finally I would like to attend more online courses around the food science and technology.
  • Anonymous
    This MOOC program is a very interesting program. I learned about the food safety process.
    How to take risk assessment, food illness diseases, food pathogen and food spoilage are very important for food safety. Weekly quiz bowl answering is very interesting and getting to much knowledge. So this program must be studied for everyone because food safety is essential for human.
  • Anonymous
    some parts are a little to hard for a starter. But towards the end it was more easy to understand. And I love the DIY hack and the myth of the week parts. I hoped that the myth of the week parts would come to a clearer end.
  • Anonymous
    Excellent course!
    The audiovisual material used and the teachers of a high level.
    The topics that were discussed such as dangers, risk assessments, preventive actions are very practical and applicable on a day-to-day basis.

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