2 -
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u(r New England Association of C h e m B c h e r s 4-
Samuel A. GoldbliA
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge 39, Massachusetts
The Teaching of Food Technology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Food technology has been defined as the application of science and engineering to the production, preparation, processing, packaging, distribution, and utilization of foods. It is a relatively new field of scientific endeavor, and one of which most high school students are not aware. Its curriculum a t any institution is influenced markedly by the factors of heredity and environment. The factor of heredity is inherent in the professors in the department and particularly in the department head. The factor of environment deals with the location of the department within a given school, e.g., within the School of Agriculture or at the School of Science. Until 1945, food technology a t MIT was taught within the department of biology as the "Industrial Biology Option." Thus in the years between 1927 and 1944 the program was considerably influenced by the environmental factor and was heavily weighted in the areas of the biological sciences, particularly bacteriology, biology of food supplies, chemistry of water and sewage, chemistry of foods, comparative anatomy, general biology, industrial microbiology, and industrial hygiene. This curriculum also emphasized the classical biological sciences of zoology, anatomy, physiology, and theoretical biology. In addition it offered several courses in various aspects of chemistry, a brief course in food engineering, two courses in the technology of food supplies (that is, the raw materials), and two courses in food processing or the technology of food products. In the senior year, a thesis was required dealing with a small research investigation conducted by the student. A further point of interest in this curriculum is the so-called "general study" required in the second, third, and fourth years. This general study dealt with non-professional subjects such as philosophy and history. In 1944 the Administration and Corporation of MIT recognizing the importance of the food industry and the necessity for training food technologists to enter this industry, created as a separate department on a par with other devartments, the department of
nology. Contribution No. 395 from Department of Food Tecbndogy, MIT.
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Journal of Chemiccrl Education
food technology within the School of Science. The change resulted in an environmental effect upon the teaching and research in the department. The choice of Chairman, Professor Bernard E. Proctor, recently deceased, has had a marked hereditary influence on the department a t MIT and, in fact, in food technology teaching all over the world. By 1949 the department recognized the need for the proper teaching of thermodynamics and unit operations in food technology. Instruction in this area was initiated within the department by the appointment of a chemical engineer who had had considerable experience with foods and who used food materials and food equipment for problem examples. The instruction in thermodynamics was coordinated with the course in food engineering given by the mechanical engineering department. In 1949 a committee was appointed by the president to report to the faculty relative to the general educational policies of the Institute. This committee was known as the Lewis Committee, named after the chairman, Dr. Warren K. Lewis, famed emeritus professor in the department of chemical engineering. The report of this committee strongly recommended that (1) there should be an increase in the number of subjects taught in the humanities and social sciences, and (2) that it be made compulsory for every student to take courses in the humanities and social sciences for at least eight semesters. The committee further recommended the adoption of an integrated program in the humanities and social sciences. As a result, a revised program of imtmction in a11 courses with the Institute evolved. As applied to the department of food technology this varies markedly from the original program offered in 1934. In certain respects, the present program differs even from that existing in January, 1958. Organic chemistry will be moved from the third to the second year, qualitative analysis will be removed from the curriculum, and quantitative analysis will be taught in the third year after the student has acquired a basic knowledge of physical chemistry. Thus quantitative analysis and related laboratory work may be taught at a more advanced level. In addition, this program will raise the level of teaching in the department. Courses formerly offered in the senior and junior years will be offered in the junior and sophomore years,
respectively. This will allow more time for elective subjects in the senior year, when students are better able to take such elective training and utilize it to best advantage. Furthermore, this new curriculum win offer an extra course in food bacteriology to teach newer techniques in the quantitative aspects of bacteriology as applied to foods, a stronger course in the chemistry of nutrition, and a stronger course in the applications of chemical engineering in food technology, with an extra laboratory section. Mathematics is required for four semesters beginning with differential calculus, and physics is taught a t a corresponding level. Typical elective subjects that are to be offered are Industrial Microbiology, Bacteriology of Foods, Food Applications of Ionizing Radiations, New Food Product Evaluation, and Introduction to Industrial Management. In the teaching of food technology per se, the subject matter should deal with the fundamental disciplines of microbiology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, and the like, and the applications of these techniques to the processing of foods integrated and expressed through an
engineering operat,ion. At MIT this is not taught by means of descriptive courses concerning the main food industries and the principal food products such as dairy products, cereals, fruits, and vegetables, but rather by a positive method dealing with the sequence of unit operations common to all food industries; food commodities are used only as examples. Present-day emphasis on some phases of science and engineering has distorted to a disproportionate extent the relative importance of military instruments, while the tremendous relative survival value of food, and the role of food technologists in their functions to humanity is practically forgotten. The absence of only a halfdozen well-balanced meals could certainly make an indelible impression on our population of the primary role which the many million persons in the food industry play in our modern civilization. The teaching of food technology presents just as great a challenge as the training of the youth who may tomorrow man the rockets, build the electronic mechanisms which visit the moon, or penetrate the depths of the universe.
Volume 37, Number
4, April 1960
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