![[Dept. of Food Science]](http://njaes.rutgers.edu/_common/images/subheads/foodscience.gif "[Dept. of Food Science]"){kind=small}
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Teaching
Dr. Montville takes pride in his courses and goes to great length to make them interesting and sometimes, even entertaining. One doesn't have to be a "rocket-scientist" to understand the science of food.
Chickens can carry a tune as well as salmonella.
The Science of Food Class Web Site
This 100 level undergraduate course introduces students to the concept that there is science in foods. Using activities such as "Guess the expiration date" "Reward-reinforced class participation" and songs by U.C. Davis' Carl Winter, the class covers principles and practices involved in food quality, microbial safety, nutrition, deterioration, preservation and current controversial topics in food science. Coverage of current issues in food science, such as "mad cow" disease, dietary supplements, the obesity epidemic and anything else that is "hot" links the course to the real world. Given in the spacious food science auditorium every Fall to a standing room only crowd.
Dr. Montville holds samples used in "Guess the Expiration Date" while modeling his extensive knowledge of the digestive tract.
Microbial Fermentation in Food Biotechnology
Graduate students acquire both factual information in the area of food biotechnology and some sense of the process by which industrial microbiology is conducted in the food industry and related fields. An underlying premise of the course is that the microbe is the fundamental actor in the fermentation or biological process. Therefore, special emphasis is given to the metabolic regulation of biochemical pathways leading to important fermentation products, and differences between E. coli and the Gram-positive organisms used in food fermentations. Fermentors as laboratory tools, new microbial technologies, and novel approaches to the use of microorganisms are introduced. Philosophical and pragmatic differences between food biotechnology and other areas of biotechnology are an underlying theme of the course. Taught in alternate years..
Colloquium in Food Safety: Fads, Facts and Politics
This junior/senior colloquium examines the scientific, regulatory, agribusiness and consumer interests that interact to determine the safety of the food we eat. Student peer groups use case studies to obtain an orientation to the web of federal agencies, federal, state and local laws, regulations, and "action levels" which govern different aspects of the food supply. Students explore through role playing and participatory exercises a variety of multifaceted issues such as "mad cow" disease, food irradiation, Alar, E. coli in fast food hamburgers. Finally, students working in multidisciplinary groups "take action" on some current issue in food safety, prepare a white paper on their topic, and present what they have learned to the class. Every Spring Semester.
Web site: http://foodsci.rutgers.edu/422
Dr. Montville has directed students in the completion of more than eighteen masters theses and fifteen doctoral dissertations