Specialisation Quality Control and Assurance

The specialisation Quality and Safety Control and Assurance educates students in complex problem solving by the techno-managerial approach, food safety knowledge, quality and safety standards, fraud and authenticity, and food law. Students will perform research in topics such as, food safety culture, risk-based auditing, food integrity management, effectiveness of food safety management systems (FSMS) in global supply chains, FSMS development and food safety enforcement in emerging countries.

Academic year, study load and course names and codes

The Academic Year of Wageningen University consists of 6 periods from 4-8 weeks (6 or 12 credits per period). In one study year you are assumed to take 60 credits (European Credits or ECTS). In period 1, 2 and 5 two subjects are taught, generally one in the morning and one in the afternoon. These periods consist of 6 weeks of teaching, followed by one week of self study and one week of exams. Period 3 and 4 are shorter, 4 weeks long, and in these weeks one course is taught blockwise (courses are scheduled whole day, in the morning and in the afternoon) and fulltime. In week 4 the course exam is scheduled. Period 6 consists of 9 weeks, due to many national holidays in the spring. In this period MFQ students can attend either one 12-credits-course or two 6-credits-courses (this depends on the MFQ specialization)..

Every course has besides its name a code. The code: AAA-xyyzz, with AAA the teaching group ('department') responsible for the course (for example FQD=Food Quality and Design, FHM=Food Microbiology), x indicates the level of the course (1=basic, 2=intermediate, 3=advanced), yy is an arbitrary number, zz indicates the number of credits in ECTS.

The table below shows the specialization programme and courses. The course content can be found in the on-line study handbook.

First year

Course	Type	Period and Time*
Compulsory courses (CS):
FQD-20306 Food Quality Management	CS	1M
LAW-22806 Food Law	CS	2M
FQD-38306 Advanced Tools in Quality Management	CS	3WD
FQD-64306 Food Quality Management Research Principles 1	CS	4WD
FQD-64806 Food Quality Management Research Principles 2	CS	5M
FHM-61312 Food Safety Management	CS	6WD

Choose 1 restricted optional 1A course (RO1A) based on your background:
FQD-22306 Food Quality Analysis and Judgement	RO1A	2A
FQD-31806 Product Properties and Consumer Wishes	RO1A	2A
When your background is in food science or technology, choose the course FQD-31806 Product Properties and Consumer Wishes. When your background is not in food science, choose FQD-22306 Food Quality Analysis and Judgement.

Choose 1 restricted optional 1B course (RO1B):
BEC-21306 Food Safety Economics	RO1B	5A
FQD-36306 Food Fraud and Mitigation	RO1B	5A

*M=Morning course, A=Afternoon course, WD=Whole day course, scheduled in the morning and in the afternoon.

Second year

The second year consists of an individual thesis project (minimum 36 ECTS) and an internship/traineeship (minimum 24 ECTS). The topics of the thesis and internship has to be within the scope of the specialisation. The thesis is carried out at Wageningen University. Thesis topics are offered by the Food Quality and Design group. The internship is always outside Wageningen University and can be in any country, at a university, an industry or an institute, under supervision of the Food Quality and Design group.