A New Food Engineering Elective Course for Chemical Engineering Students

A degree in chemical engineering offers a variety of career paths, including petrochemical, pharmaceutical, pulp and paper, and food industries. However, chemical engineering students are rarely exposedto the application of chemical engineering principles to food processes. By providing the opportunity forstudents to acquire a deeper knowledge and the skill sets on the food industry, would possibly makethem more comfortable in choosing the food and beverage sector as a career. This paper describes thedevelopment of a new food engineering class offered as elective for chemical engineering students atRoseHulman Institute of Technology. The course was developed based on backwards design where itsprinciples and course structure are described followed by a discussion. Since the course was offered during Spring 2020, the initial design and assessments had to be slightly modified in order to accommodateremote teaching and such modifications are presented. The manuscript also presents suggestions on howto implement a minor in food engineering for chemical engineering students and educational researchperspectives. (c) 2021 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.