If you are teaching food science, nutrition and dietetics, or a related course, then this book will be an indispensable companion for your students entire degree programme. This ‘one-stop’ text will guide your students through the wide range of practical, analytical and data handling skills that they will need during their studies. It will also give them a solid grounding in wider transferable skills such as teamwork, using information technology, communicating information and study skills. 

Practical Skills in Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics provides an easy-to-read guide to help students develop the skills they need to succeed. It explains the essential elements of practical techniques and procedures in a step-by-step manner to help students understand their application in the context of food science, nutrition and dietetics.

This text’s unique and comprehensive coverage includes: general advice on practical work; measuring techniques; statistical techniques; analysis and presentation of data; and study skills.  

Table of Contents

Contents

Study and examination skills

1 The Importance of transferable skills

2 Managing your time

3 Working with others

4 Taking notes from lectures and texts

5 Learning and Revising

6 Curriculum options, assessments and exams

7 Preparing your curriculum vitae

Information technology and library resources

8 Finding and citing published information

9 Evaluating information

10 Using online resources

11 Using spreadsheets

12 Word processors, databases and other packages

Communicating information

13 Organising a poster display

14 Giving a spoken presentation

15 General aspects of scientific writing

16 Writing essays

17 Reporting practical and project work

18 Writing literature surveys and reviews

19 Communicating with the public

20 Client consultation skills

Fundamental laboratory and clinical techniques

21 Your approach to practical work

22 Health & safety

23 Legal and ethical requirements for nutrition & food analysis

24 Basic lab procedures

25 Working with liquids

26 Principles of solution chemistry

27 Working with body fluids

28 pH and buffer solutions

29 Introduction to microscopy

30 Setting up and using a light microscope

The investigative approach

31 Making and recording measurements

32 SI units and their use

33 Scientific method and experimental design

34 Research project work

Analysis and presentation of data

35 Using graphs

36 Presenting data in tables

37 Hints for solving numerical problems

38 Descriptive statistics and surveys

39 Choosing and using statistical tests

Dietary assessment and intervention

40 Nutritional recommendations and guidelines

41 Dietary assessment systems

42 Physical examination

43 Anthropometric measurements and body composition

44 Estimating energy requirements

45 Assaying biochemical markers of malnutrition

46 Testing for food allergies and intolerances

47 Integrating nutritional assessment data

48 Sports nutrition

Analytical techniques in food science

49 Basic physico-chemical techniques

50 Calibration and its application to quantitative analysis

51 Indirect calorimetry

52 Immunological methods

53 Spectroscopic techniques

54 Chromatography

55 Electrophoresis

56 Molecular biology techniques

57 Centrifugation [AND HOMOGENISATION?]

Assaying food components and properties

58 Analysis of biomolecules in foods: fundamental principles

59 Assaying proteins, amino acids and enzymes

60 Assaying lipids

61 Assaying carbohydrates

62 Assaying nucleic acids 

63 Assaying active phytochemicals in functional foods

64 Sensory analysis techniques

65 Product development and evaluation

Food microbiology and processing

66 Sterile technique and microbial culture

67 Isolating, identifying and naming microbes

68 Culture systems and quantitative measurements

69 Advanced food microbiology techniques

70 Food processing methods

71 Effects of food processing