Presentation of the Study Programme

The main legacy of the Expo universal exhibition held in Milan in 2015 (Expo 2015 "Feeding the planet, energy for life") is the Milan Charter that contributed to defining access to healthy, sufficient and nutritious food as a fundamental and universal human right. Civil society, businesses and institutions face an immense cultural and technological challenge: fair access to natural resources, sustainable management in production processes and food waste reduction require a systemic approach, supported by technical and scientific knowledge. Food Engineering principles can be the way to address the complexity of such requirements.

Food engineers manage the entire food and beverage supply chain involving the production, distribution and management applying chemical, physical, mathematical, social sciences and engineering knowledge acquired. The master degree program in Food Engineering at Politecnico di Milano provides students with transversal skills and capabilities for intervening in the food industry transformation technologies, in the analysis and modeling the production systems, including agriculture and consumption, and their effects on the social, economic and environmental dimensions.

Food engineering is substantially linked to processes and products, not only related to transformation technologies for food and beverages production, but also to the product conceptualization and properties’ definition. The professional role of a food engineer is supported with a transversal educational path involving chemical and management engineering skills, also possessing mechanical and energy engineering. Therefore, the food engineer profile completes the basic curriculum of industrial engineering.

Practical examples of the Food Engineering application can be: the study and design of a packaged food or drink production (from the food matrix to the packaging aimed at extending shelf-life); support for machinery design; support for technology development for food processing and sterilization; quality, certification and food safety management with also with microbiology technical skills; sustainable processes design for the food industry, including product life study and the energy reduction associated with production and logistics.

The relevance of the professional profile built with a master's degree program in Food Engineering is linked to the Italian agri-food supply chain impact. The chain, as a whole, amounts up to 1.3 million companies (25% of the active companies registered in the Chambers of Commerce Registry) with over 3.2 million people employed (13% of the total nationwide), with 55 billion euros generated value in production, 132 billion in processing, 115 billion in distribution (2017). Food processing industry alone is the second industrial sector in terms of national GDP impact, only after the metalworking industry. The 2016 ICE data also shows that more than 60% of the food Italian exports represents the Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont regions, geographically close to Politecnico di Milano.

Structure of the study programme

The Master Program in Food Engineering corresponds to a Master's Degree (2nd level), for students already holding a Bachelor of Science degree. The program corresponds to 120 University credits (CFU) and two-year durations, giving access to doctoral studies, specialization courses and second level university masters.