Admission to the Master’s Degree Programme in Food Safety and Control (class LM-70) is subject to the possession of a university degree obtained in Italy in one of the degree classes indicated in the educational regulations of the degree programme, or other qualification obtained abroad and deemed valid pursuant to the applicable legislation, as well as the curriculum requirements and also subject to the verification of the knowledge acquired.
Graduates in class L-26 and class 20 (Food Sciences and Technologies) automatically meet the curriculum requirements for this degree programme (D.M. 509/1999).
Students holding a university degree obtained in the classes listed below, as well as in the corresponding classes relating to the D.M. 509/1999 are entitled to enrol:
L-25 (Forest and Agricultural Sciences and Technologies),
L-2 (Biotechnologies), L-13 (Biological sciences),
L-27 (Sciences and Chemical Technologies),
L-29 (Sciences and Pharmaceutical Technologies),
L-38 (Livestock Sciences and Technologies of Animal Productions),
LM-42 (Veterinary Medicine).
Graduates may enrol only if they have obtained at least 70 credits in the classes listed above, divided in the basic and/or distinctive training activities in the following SDS: FIS/01-08, MAT/01-09, INF/01; CHIM/01-03,06; BIO/01-05, 10,11; AGR/02-03-04-07-11-12-15-16-18-19, BIO/09, CHIM/10, INGIND/10, MED/42, VET/04; AGR/01.
An access requirement is a suitable knowledge of the English language (B1).
The details of the curricular requirements that applicants must possess and the admission procedures for the compulsory assessment of the knowledge are outlined in detail in table A3.b, in compliance with the Educational Regulations of the Degree Programme.

Food technologist
Master graduates in Food Safety and Control are skilled to:
- optimise production and transformation industrial processes - both traditional and innovative - in the agrofood sector
- design, implement and verify quality systems in the various food production sectors, in accordance with compulsory and voluntary legislation
- adopt innovative chemical, physical, and biological analytical techniques for assessing and ensuring the quality of food, and for developing new products
- select and manage the microbial population of traditional and non-traditional products, in order to optimise production, and ensure food quality and safety
- deal with the transformations occurring in food matrixes and control them

Food technologist
Master graduates in Food Safety and Control are involved in programming, monitoring, coordination, and training activities relating to food production, storage, distribution, and provision.
The wide breadth of knowledge characterises a professional who is able to take on all roles of the food industry and related production activities including:
- the coordination and responsibility of processes relating to food transformation and to the selection of suppliers of raw materials, additives, processing aids, packaging materials, and systems;
- the study, design and optimisation of food processes: from modelling pilot tests, to industrial scaling-up
- the integrated management of the quality in the production chain, aimed at achieving product safety and quality objectives;
- the ability to develop innovative analytical protocols aimed to monitor the safety, identify emerging risks and assess the quality requirements of food products

Training objectives:
The master’s degree in Food Safety and Control has the purpose of providing advanced knowledge that helps train professionals to carry out coordination and planning activities in connection with all the research and control activities regarding the conservation, transformation, and technological valorisation of agricultural products, with the main objective to ensure food safety, quality, and healthiness, even through innovative methodologies.

Training programme
To the purpose of defining the graduates’ Professional Profile, the following learning areas have been identified.
Area 1: FOOD QUALITY AND SAFETY
The definition of food quality means being aware that every stage of a food production process - even minimally transformed - determines a modification of its physical, chemical, sensory and nutritional characteristics of raw materials of plant and animal origin. Therefore, the food quality is in terms of understanding of the modifications occurring to the food matrix as a consequence of the biologic transformations and technological treatments, which may cause the emergence of new and/or degenerating molecules with positive or negative effects on the overall quality of food, still taking into account the considerable influence that the raw materials manufacturing techniques have on the final quality of the products derived therefrom. In addition, the food quality is also assessed in terms of its nutritional properties, with specific focus on the valorisation of the natural nutraceutical properties of the food.
The division of the concepts of food safety and quality may be considered artificial, because the second one can never be distinguished from the first one. However, this learning area provides for the acquisition of competences related to the identification of food contamination issues due to unforeseeable and non unforeseeable intrinsic and extrinsic causes. An integral part of this learning area is also the acquisition of nutritional knowledge, when the contamination causes may be attributed to substances metabolised by the human body and that are potentially dangerous for the health. The learning objectives are also defined based on the knowledge of possible sources of alteration of the food chemical composition, resulting from the presence of xenobiotic residuals and an incorrect use of additives and processing aids. The addition of a law course completes the students’ training, as they are provided with an overall picture on food legislation, but also on criminal law regarding this topic, with specific reference to food safety and counterfeiting.

Area 2: QUALITY AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT
Food quality and safety are ensured by monitoring the processes in a correct and accurate way, but also through the knowledge and application of instrumental chemical, physical, biological, and sensory techniques of which the fields of application must be reported, as well as their importance in representing the alteration phenomena of the food matrix. The acquisition of analytical skills is aimed at developing laboratory abilities in general, but mainly food quality and safety management abilities in forecasting post-production control terms; ability to formulate and carry out experimental protocols; ability to make advanced processing of the experimental data. As regards the productive processes, management principles of a process will be provided, also by implementing innovative technologies and assessing the effects of the actions taken.

At the end of their studies, graduates will have developed personal communication abilities, multidisciplinary group work skills, and sense of judgement both technical and economical, and human and ethical; they can speak and write in at least one language of the European Union other than Italian. English is preferred, with specific reference to the lexicon of the various subjects. These skills will enable them to express their professional activity responsibly in contexts that require a specific relational ability with different skills of different levels, also at international level.
These communication skills are nurtured by encouraging students to present their papers both orally and in writing, also relating to group activities. The participation in internships, traineeships, seminars, and internationalisation activities allow students to gain further possible tools that help develop the communication abilities of the single student.
The overall assessment of individual papers, mid-term and final examinations will be mainly determined by the communication quality and effectiveness shown by the student.

At the end of the studies, master graduates possess a conscious and independent judgement that enables them to analyse the different situations of a productive and market context, programme actions and manage interventions to improve the quality and efficiency of the production of food and beverages. In addition, they shall be skilled to work in a group and assess their own potentials and abilities, in order to constantly keep up-to-date from both a scientific and a technical point of view.

The independent judgement and the awareness of their professional role develop and are mainly attained through the classroom activities organised by the professors, who will encourage the students to imagine themselves in the feasible professional situations and suggest individual interpretations of both technical and scientific results, and specific events related to the productive and distribution context of food products. The development of the research activity relevant for the compulsory final test, as well as the processing of data and their interpretation, are another important opportunity to assess the level of independence reached.

The degree programme provides the cognitive tools and logical elements that enable master graduates to constantly update their knowledge in the specific professional sector of preparation, conservation, and distribution of food and beverage and in the field of related scientific and technological research. Specific focus is on the tools of the new IT technologies, both for the forms of communication and for everything that regards data processing and search for information.
The main tool for assessing the level of training reached and relating to this specific descriptor is the student’s evaluation made by his tutoring professor. In fact, it is by processing an original scientific project that students may best prove their skills attained when approaching new opportunities for their personal knowledge and development.