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FOOD7018 – Food Bioprocessing assignment information

The assignments are 2500-3000 words.

Topics
Assignment topics will be determined through consultation with the Course Coordinator and/or a relevant academic (they need to be approved before you commence working

on them). Students will first discuss this with the course coordinator who will suggest the most appropriate academic supervisor. In some cases students will be

encouraged to study a topic in an area related to the topic of their Graduate Research Project, but ensuring that there is little or no overlap between the two.
Examples of assignment topics can include (but are not limited to) the following:
-Treatments of food processing wastes
-Value-adding to food processing waste products
-Bioseparations of valuable compounds
–
-Lactases in food processing
-Enzymes used in fruit juice processing
-Oxidoreductase applications in food processing
-Immobilisation of enzymes
-Enzyme engineering
-Genetic modification of plants for use in food applications
-GM High oleic acid soybean
-GM Golden Rice
-Genetic modification of animals for applications in the food industry
-GM Super salmon
-Genetic enhancement of microbes used in food enzyme production
-Controversies and issues surrounding GM foods and additives
-Biosensors
-Solid state fermentations
-Fermentation scale up considerations
-Traditional fermentations of Asia
-Traditional fermentations of Africa
-Methods to characterise microbes in fermentations
-Bacteriocins
-New molecular methods for detection of food microbes

General information
In the assignments students are expected to present a good coverage of the information available on their topic. This includes information from a range of sources

including text books, reference books including encyclopaedias, and journal articles and journal reviews. Presentation of recent information on the selected topics

will be looked on particularly favourably. In many cases, recent journal articles will contain useful references to consult. Web sites can also be valuable sources if

used with caution (avoid Wiki websites as they are not peer reviewed). Academic staff may provide guidelines for assignment content.

A major tool for searching for information are the databases. Many of these are available in electronic form through the university library website; it is essential

that you know how to use these to search for the information you require. Major databases relevant to food science are FSTA, CAB and Web of Science but several others

may be useful. Contact library staff if you are uncertain how to use the databases or which to use. Also remember that a lot of very good information was generated

before the electronic databases appeared (~1970) and hard copy abstracts such as Food Science and Technology Abstracts (FSTA) are the easiest way of accessing this

information.
The assignment must be prepared in your own words. Do not copy directly from your sources. Evidence of this will attract a severe penalty – students who do this will

be reported to the Academic Integrity Officer in the School and may be sent to the Head of School and Dean. If found guilty this will be recorded against the student’s

name and expulsion from the University may result in a subsequent occasion.

Format and Organization of assignment
The assignment should:
• be typed using size 12 font and 1.5 line spacing.
contain the number of words specified by the course coordinator (exclusive of cover sheet, figures, tables and references. Marks may be deducted for assignments that

are unacceptably short or excessively long).
• consist of
o Title page: including course name and code, assignment title, due date, word count, student name and ID number
o Contents page: including table of contents, list of tables, and a list of figures as appropriate.
o Introduction to the topic
o Main body with suitable subheadings to separate sections and main points. All the headings and subheadings should be numbered, eg 1.0, 1.1, 1.1.1.
o Summary/conclusion
o Bibliography/List of References
o Attachments: Optional
• be in an clear, easy-to-follow style and language and be free of spelling and grammatical mistakes.
• be logically set out with appropriate flow charts, tables, diagrams, figures, appendices etc. Tables, charts and diagrams should be appropriately titled and

numbered. Titles should be under figures but above tables. If figures and tables are not your own work, their source must be acknowledged underneath and referenced in

the bibliography.
References
Use an accepted format of referencing in the text and the bibliography such as the Harvard system. http://www.library.uq.edu.au/training/citation/harvard_6.pdf. Be

consistent with the format. If you are in doubt about how references are cited and listed, consult the course coordinator and look up journal articles.

Some referencing issues
• The bibliography must contain all the references cited in the text.
• All references in the bibliography must be referred to in the text.
• Initials of authors must not be used in references cited in the text
• The term ‘et al.’ stands for ‘et alia’ (‘and others’) and is therefore an abbreviation. It should thus be written as et al. The italics are used because it is a

Latin phrase. Examples of use – (Brown et al., 2004) or Brown et al. 2004
• A full stop is NOT used before a reference cited in the text.
• Distinguish between references with exactly the same author(s) and year. This is done by using a, b, c etc, e.g. Brown and Jones, 2004a, Brown and Jones, 2004b
• The names of organisations should be written in full the first time they are used together with their abbreviation which can then be used subsequently. e.g. “The

body who develops and maintains the Food Standards Code is Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). The seafood standard is currently being developed (FSANZ,

2005).” Otherwise the full name with abbreviation should be cited in the text. In any case the full name with abbreviation should be used in the reference list.
• Websites should be referenced in the text like any other source with an author and a year. Do not put the URL in the text. An author can be a person or an

organization. In the bibliography or reference list, as well as the author and year, give the name of the document and/or the URL plus the date of access, since

websites can change. Remember, most websites are not scientifically validated and hence information from websites, including Wikipedia, should be used with caution.
• References should be listed in alphabetical order
• The way references are cited in the text should match with how they are cited in the reference list.

Criteria & Marking:
The written assignment will be judged on the following criteria
Presentation
6 polished, professional, free of errors, clear, well structured, logical flow, sharp, use of highly relevant tables and/or figures
4 generally clear, succinct, minimal errors, sections and points clearly separated, easy to follow, generally well organised, use of some relevant tables and/or

figures
2 has appearance of first draft, multiple errors, some attention to structure, not easy to follow
1 very sloppy, placement of material appears almost random
0 unreadable, no apparent organisation

Literature

6 comprehensive, evidence of thorough search, numerous references with most from recent original articles, few texts, referencing completely correct.
4 several references, few texts, many recent original articles, or some minor referencing errors
2 small number of references or multiple references but only small number explored or heavy reliance on a book or review or several referencing errors
1 very few useful references cited, or referencing largely incorrect
0 no references

Content

8 comprehensive, in-depth, focused, excellent integration
6 good coverage of topic, generally well integrated
4 fair coverage, some integration
2 superficial coverage, little integration
0 poor coverage, no integration

Submission: You must submit your Assessment task, in Blackboard, via the Turnitin link by the submission deadline. Your score must be lower than 20%. You will be

allowed to re-submit to Turnitin as many times as you want before the due date, at which point your last submission will be locked. You should also retain an

electronic copy of every piece of assessment you submit.