FUNCTIONAL FOOD AND NUTRACEUTICALS COURSE AT MASTERS LEVEL:

EXPERIENCE SHARING FROM TEACHING AND COURSE DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES

BENJAMIN TAK-YUEN CHAN *Open University of Hong Kong, LiPACE and *Formerly University of Hong Kong, SPACE

Functional food and nutraceuticals are an emerging area of food science that is increasingly being taught in food and nutrition, biotechnology, agriculture, health and life science Masters programmes worldwide. There is a compelling reason to teach this subject as more epidemiological evidence accumulates in support of a linkage between lifestyle diseases and dietary habits. Certain food components can contribute towards preventing these chronic diseases, or that certain harmful components of food can be removed to reduce the risk or to delay onset of chronic disease development. A general survey of various Masters programmes with a course on functional food/nutraceuticals in it indicates that each course has its unique emphasis determined by the focus of the parent programme. For example, if the parent programmes are in food biotechnology, food product development or nutrition, the corresponding emphases are respectively: identification of bioactive components in food, food product development, and health promoting applications or nutrigenomics. In some case, a specialized department is formed to teach the subject such as the arrangement of Shinshu University (Nagano, Japan). Invariably, most courses are designed to train students to become food technologists, formulation scientists, R&D managers, or professional consultants to companies in functional food and nutraceuticals.

SURVEY OF COURSE OFFERINGS

ASSESSMENTStudents are assessed through a portfolio emulating submission of a new product for health claim application to FDA. To gain good marks, the written assignment report (50% of the total marks) requires understanding not just of the product’s scientific evidence in support of its functions but the detail application of regulatory guidelines for making qualified health claims (e.g. evidence based ranking system of FDA) and how to differentiate between the other types of claims that are confusing even to experts. From an outcome-based perspective, the assessment task requires students to operate at and demonstrate higher-level thinking skills of Blooms’s taxonomy (i.e. synthesis and evaluation). Apart from the written assignment, students are paired in advance to comment on each other’s submissions and act as proponents and opponents of the hypothetically filed applications during moderated debates taking place in class. This part makes up another 50% of the total marks. In this manner, not only the writing and oral skills are being developed, but also students are exposed to the intricacies of establishing the validity of scientific information in the face of administrative procedures set by regulatory bodies.

FEATURES OF THE NHP COURSEIn this presentation, the author shares his experience of developing and delivering a course on Natural Health Products (NHP) that is taught as a half-year 30-credit course of the Master of Science in International Pharmaceutical Science offered by the University of Sunderland in collaboration with University of HK, SPACE. The parent programme targets in-service personnel working in pharmaceutical business sector and thus belongs to a unique category of programmes different from that found in the general survey which are based mainly in research departments. The course contents are divided into two parts: Part I on Western herbal medicines and Part II on functional food/nutraceuticals. Essentially, the content delineation was dictated by the need to allocate separate teaching expertise. In line with the practical slant of the parent programme led by the combined staff expertise of a pharmacy school and continuing education pharmaceutical subject area, the NHP course is designed to incorporate four elements into the curriculum – product, technology, market and policy/regulation. This curriculum philosophy serves to inform teaching throughout the NHP course.

TEACHING

Comments received from student evaluations have been positive but due to the small class size (N<20), further teaching experience accumulation and learning from other successful courses are required to continuously modify both the content and teaching methods as the subject matter of functional food/nutraceuticals is fast-changing and instructional delivery needs to keep pace with these changes.

PRELIMINARY EVALUATION

Teaching is conducted through lectures and workshops. The contents are adapted from the core curriculum framework explained in a sister poster. The aim here is to explain how the curriculum philosophy can be applied into teaching. In teaching the topic of technology innovation for new product development, we use the example of “Inulin” with improved solubility as a case for illustration. First, the characteristics of inulin are provided (the product). This is then followed by explaining how inulin as a functional food ingredient meets the public health objectives enunciated by WHO (policy). A profile of the market showing inulin-related product launches in Asia-Pacific is then analyzed (the market). Lastly, the characteristics of different inulin products in terms of functionality are compared (technology). This example is taken from a trade publication (Food Pacific-Health & Nutrition Technology) which matches the practical orientation of the parent programme.