Food, Nutrition and Health University of Padua

Overview

This innovative joint Master’s degree is offered by 5 Universities (Padua, Lyon-1, Granada, Krakow, and University of British Columbia).

It enables students to acquire interdisciplinary skills in the fields of food, nutrition and human health by teaching them how to address the multiple and complex relationships underlying food production and quality, their connection with human nutrition and health. Rigorous theoretical coursework, complemented by a dedicated internship semester in industries and research laboratories, allows students to understand how multiple factors — including dietary behaviours — interact and influence human health.

The Joint Master in Food, Nutrition and Health (FOOD-H) is a fully integrated, globally competitive program focused on how nutrition, food science and technology interact with human health. The overarching goal is to offer an innovative educational program that comprehensively addresses the interplay between food and its implications for human health, in a globalized market.

It aims at educating graduates to cope with contemporary challenges such as nutrition issues in food habits, food trends evolution, and effective connection between production domains, international differences, policy constraints, and sustainability. Interdisciplinary education will take advantage of the joint determination of the full partner universities [University of Padova as coordinator, University Claude Bernard Lyon1, University of Granada, University of Agriculture in Krakow] plus an associated partner [University of British Columbia, Canada] to merge complementary experience into a new education scheme. The joint master program is designed to allow students to fulfil physical mobility and provide them with the best learning experience. Accordingly, in the first year, the University of Padova will offer a joint learning, to build an interdisciplinary knowledge base and a hands-on critical understanding: this will help students to successfully attend the second year, while creating a solid theoretical and practical background essential for a clear understanding of societal issues.

Career opportunities

Graduates work in: Health and Nutrition, Public Health and Policy, Agri-Food Services, Food Safety and Regulation, Institutional and NGOs, Research and Academia, Public and Private Sector Leadership, Industry advising, Product development, Neurosciences for food, Consumer Behaviour and Market Analysis, Education and Outreach, Healthcare and Prevention.

Programme structure

1st Year at Unipd

1st semester:

• Food science and safety (elective subject)
• Nutrition and metabolic pathways: from cells to organs (elective subject)
• Research methods in economics: understanding decision making and consumer behavior to promote healthy choices
• Methodology for the hazard analysis in food-related jobs (elective subject)
• Genomics of nutrition
• Human Nutrition: sustainability and multidisciplinary perspective
• Nutrition related diseases (elective subject)

2nd semester:

• Ecology of foodborne pathogens, food toxicology and antimicrobial resistance
• Mechanisms of tissues diseases and how environmental clues alter organ function
• Sustainable resource-efficient food production and processing
• Metab-Contam-AI laboratory
• International regulations for food safety, certification and trading

2nd Year – 3rd semester: 

Path 1 – Food and Neurosciences – Lyon 1

• Neural basis of cognition
• Project Management
• Psychophysiology of perception
• Sensory Analysis and consumer studies
• Business Applications
• Data

Path 2 – Food and dietetics – UAK

• Clinical pathophysiology
• Education and nutrition consulting
• Immunodietetics
• Methodology of assessment of food and nutrition pattern
• Methodology of experiments 1
• Nutrition during pregnancy, lactation and infants’ nutrition
• Seminar
• Planning and organisation of dietary nutrition – nutritional, technological and hygienic aspects (elective subject)
• Natural and synthetic sweeteners (elective subject)
• Gluten-free products and their role in human nutrition and diet therapy (elective subject)
• Allergens in food (elective subject)
• Functional properties of bee products (elective subject)
• Cereals and pseudocereals in dietetics (elective subject)
• Nutrigenetics (elective subject)

Path 3 – Food and Nutrition – UGR

• Students will select 10 out of the 14 listed optional courses:
• Introduction to experimental nutrition
• Nutritional epidemiology
• Endocrine disruptors
• Nutritional and physiological aspects of physical activity and sports
• Functional foods
• Nutrition and digestive system 1. Digestion
• Nutrition and digestive system 2. Absorption
• Oxidative stress and ageing
• Nutrition in the development, evolution and prevention of prevalent chronic pathologies
• Mediterranean diet and health
• Nutritional therapy: allergies, intolerances and other eating disorders. diets adapted to special situations
• Methodologies for the assessment of nutritional status
• Relevance and use of cell cultures in nutrition research
• Micronutrients and human health: scientific advances related to their preventive and therapeutic effects

4TH SEMESTER

INTERNSHIP + THESIS UBC – Food science 

or 

INDUSTRIAL INTERNSHIP + THESIS Lyon1 – Microbiology