Courses

Technology and Quality Control of Cereals

General

Course Contents

The course includes the following major contetnts:

  • Introduction to cereals, importance and storage.
    Cereals in general. Importance of cereal grains for nutrition. Storage of grains.
  • Structure and composition of grains.
    Morphology of cereal grains. Cereal components: content, chemical, biochemical and mechanical properties .
  • Dry milling of cereals.
    Dry milling of wheat: cleaning, sorting, grinding (types and importance of each), general arrangement in flour mills, principles of operation of basic machinery. Commercial types of wheat flour. Fine grinding, air classification of flour. Dry milling  and flour of other cereals.
  • Hulling of grains.
    Rice: Milling and parboiling.
    Description of stages of rice cleaning and hulling. Parboiling: purpose of the process, stages, and properties of parboiled rice. Grinding oats. Cleaning, Bleaching, Hulling, and Polishing of Barley.
  • Wet milling of cereals.
    Description of wet milling process of maize. Peculiarities wet milling of wheat. Products of wet milling:  starch syrups.
  • Various types of grain foods.
    Food from whole , crushed or ground grain. Puffing, flaking, extrusion products (pasta).
  • Wheat flour preparation (dough).
    Dough rising -Baker’s Yeast: Necessary Ingredients and Process. Stages of baking, physical, chemical and enzymatic actions occurring involved. Chemical rising (baking powder) or by air and steam. Common mistakes during preparation of bakery products expanded by yeast or other ways.
  • Bakery ingredients.
    Role of different ingredients in bakery products. Characteristics of flour for various uses. Improving the properties of flour (grinding, flour mixing, additives and  improvers). Staling process of bakery goods.

Educational Goals

Upon completion of the course, the student is expected to be able to:

  • Appreciate the importance of cereals as tasty food and for their  nutritional value.
  • Critically select appropriate handling methods and grain storage conditions.
  • Recognize and apply botanical, physical and chemical wheat quality criteria for the selection of the appropriate treatment.
  • Acquire advanced knowledge of the individual components of cereals in terms of their content, and Their functional role cereal foods as well as their methods of analysis.
  • Understand the dry milling processes of soft and durum wheat, as well as the husking and parboiling processes of rice.
  • Understand the stages of wet grain milling.
  • Understand and interpret biochemical, chemical and technological processes during bread preparation as well as identify the parameters involved in the evaluation the quality of the final product.
  • To apply the above advanced knowledge and analytical skills to solve complex and unpredictable problems in laboratory and industrial environment.

General Skills

  • Analyzing and interpreting empirical data obtained from experimental measurements.
  • Searching and analyzing information using information and communication technologies.
  • Promotion of analytical, productive and inductive thinking.
  • Working in an interdisciplinary environment.
  • Autonomous work.
  • Teamwork.
  • Decision making.

Teaching Methods

Face to face:

  • Lectures in the classroom.
  • Laboratory exercises.

Use of ICT means

  • Lectures with PowerPoint slides using PC and projector.
  • Notes in electronic format.
  • Video projections.
  • Posting course material and communicating with students on the Moodle online platform.

Teaching Organization

ActivitySemester workload
Lectures112.5
Laboratory exercises75
Total187.5

Students Evaluation

Evaluation methods:

  • Compulsory attendance at (at least) 80% of the laboratory exercises.
  • Written final exams in the theoretical part of the course with short development and multiple choice questions(60% of the final grade).
  • Written final exams in the laboratory part of the course with short development and problem-solving questions (40% of the final grade).
  • Optional group (up to 3 people) presentation (20 Minutes)in cutting edge topics (20% increment in grade the written examinations of the theoretical part for grades >4.2).

The evaluation criteria are presented and analyzed to the students at the beginning of the semester.

Recommended Bibliography

  1. Κεφαλάς Π., Τρόφιμα από Σιτηρά, Εκδόσεις Γαρταγάνη, Θεσσαλονίκη, 2009.
  2. H.-D. Belitz, W. Grosch, P. Schieberle., Χημεία Τροφίμων, 3η Έκδοση, Μετάφραση: Εκδόσεις Τζιόλα, Θεσσαλονίκη, 2006.
  3. The ICC handbook of Cereals, Flour, Dough & Product Testing. , DEStech Publications, Inc. 2009.
  4. Principles of Cereal Science and Technology, AACC 1986—International Association For Cereal Chemistry, ICC-Standards.

Related Research Journals

  1. Cereal Chemistry.
  2. Cereal Foods World.
  3. Journal of Cereal Science.