I totally don't come up with these titles on the spot

10. Entry blog 27 November 2015: Teaching class

Today was the day. The teaching class. Some love presentations, some don’t. Some are indifferent but overall, it needs to be performed. I found this class to be one of the more enjoyable classes since playing those games in the very first lecture. I felt very much at home standing up in front of people and presenting what was around 10 weeks of hard work. However, what made the class more enjoyable was the array of the other groups’ presentations. It was a very enjoyable class with one of the groups handing out  free samples of their product along with their business cards, one group doing a game show and one group with a treasure map theme with their end product as the “x” that marks the spot. It was amazing to see the creativity that was put into their presentations, but also to their project and their process.

Overall, I found this project both easy and difficult; it is a theoretical project meaning that you don’t actually have to carry out tests which makes it easier since you only have to make your method theoretically sound, but it’s also hard to prove the method since you’re not actually performing tests.

The last laugh

9. Entry blog 20 November 2015: 7^th and last Bioprocessing lecture

The last lecture of the bioprocessing module, today we talked about downstream processing of the product and purification of product.  It’s proving to be difficult to translate some of the things we are learning in the lectures to food production. However, with enough critical thinking, not all of the things that are taught are useless to the food industry groups, e.g. Test to see if API is there would be the equivalent of checking for “gluten” in a gluten-free product. Quality checks for food are not as rigorous as pharmaceutical products (sensory analysis, microbial count etc.).

One of the last tasks was to work on other marketing aspects (logo, slogan, target market and unique selling point). Having done the patent and 3 similar products, I felt that I had a firm grasp of what our target market and unique selling point are. In addition, I can finally put my marketing and business module skills to use in critically analysing why our product would sell and why the customers would buy our product.

I thoroughly enjoyed working on the presentation for the teaching class. I love doing presentations and therefore, it really played to my strengths. Our biggest challenge was how do we convey our process in a simple, fun, engaging way that would invoke the audience to learn more about it themselves when they got home. I felt that this presentation was a good way to finish things off. I am really excited to hear what everyone else had to say, and very eager to learn about the other group’s bioprocesses.

Infographic

8. Entry blog 13 November 2015: No lecture, but working on e-portfolio and Inforgraphic

No lectures this week. However, we are left to work on our infographic, and two other tasks involving finding a publication with a similar process to the one we’re currently developing and 3 products that are out on the market that are similar to our product. In addition, we are to create an infographic, depicting our product and the subsequent bioprocess involved in making our product.

The first task of looking for similar processes out there proved to be a simple task since the process of cheese-making and bread-making have been around since the beginning of time. In addition, our methods were really just other methods stitched together into a cesspool of gluten-free bread-making madness.

The second task was to look for 3 similar products and it also proved to be a piece of cake, gluten-free cake, should I say. The increased prevalence of coeliac disease in the world, means there is also a rise in the availability of gluten-free products, which makes the job of hunting down these goods a cinch.

Working on the infogrpahic was as fun as it was stressful. Having no previous experience in creating infographics, I was a little bit anxious of the task ahead. However, having researched the area a little bit, I felt a little bit more confident but I knew that this particular task does not play to my strengths and skills. Luckily, I was not alone and worked in a group who can see the big picture, which was needed when working on an infographic. Doing this task really helped me with my interpersonal skills as I further collaborate with my group-mates, utilising their strengths to play with my weaknesses.

The tasks undertaken this week were really helpful into making it seem like we’re developing an actual product. By looking at all these aspects, especially the marketing side, seeing what’s out there, tells us if our product is actually viable for the current market, and that this product could eventually be a real product that will be sold in the market.

The humble bioreactor

7. Entry blog 6 November 2015: 6^th bioprocessing lecture

This week’s lecture we talked about bioreactors, just what are they, how they are set up, what makes up a bioreactor and what ancillaries do we need for our chosen bioreactor. One of the tasks beset upon us this week is to think about what type of bioreactor we need for our bioprocess and the scale of the bioreactor and the different ancillaries required for our bioreactor. As I’m only focusing on the bread production, I did not really think of what is required for the cheese production. This was both an advantage and a disadvantage, a double-edged sword. Firstly, it’s an advantage as it’s one less thing to worry about, however, it sets you up for being complacent and really miss out on the big picture of the bioprocess as a whole.

I thoroughly enjoyed building the bioreactor/equipment we needed for the bread production, albeit theoretically. I got to implement the knowledge I gained during my biotechnology lecture in the previous year, a module which I found very enjoyable, which therefore made this task equally pleasant.

Limitations

6. Entry blog 23 October 2015: 5^th Bioprocessing class

This week’s lecture we talked about the basic unit of bioprocessing, inclusion bodies, cell lines etc. More and more as the weeks pass, do I see how this module would link it to product development, but how it’s not so relevant for the food industry. What was discussed this week wasn’t really relevant to our chosen bioprocess, nor is it relevant to the bioprocesses for the other groups who are doing food. At first I thought that we are limited to what we can learn because of the particular food product we chose, however, it was the whole concept of food production itself that is limiting us from using the knowledge we are being taught in these bioprocessing lectures.

A turning point

5. Entry blog 16 October 2015: Critical Review of a publication

No lectures this week, but we are given a task to do for this week and that is to write a Critical Review of a publication. A critical review of a journal article is an evaluation of an article’s strengths, weaknesses and validity. I was really excited to be doing this task. I feel this is one of my strongest points of assessment, where I can really apply and show my innate and acquired skills as being a detail oriented person and a trained food scientist. This review involved a lot of critical thinking, a skill I had developed and strengthened in my work placement during the summer. It involved breaking down the article into its constituent parts, analysing its strengths and weaknesses, giving it context in a flowing, cohesive manner.

For this assessment, I chose to critically review a review article on the strategies for the aeration of gluten-free bread. This is a turning point in the project, in that after critically reviewing this article, we decided that it was more suitable to produce bread rather than a cracker, as it is a more versatile product, increasing the overall enjoy-ability of the product and how it would have around the same shelf-life as the cheese, solving several logistical problems in our process. 

Process Optimisation

4. Entry blog 9 October 2015: 4^th Bioprocessing class

This week’s lecture, we talked about fermentation. The advantages and disadvantages of continuous/batch/fed-batch process. We were asked during the class on what our definition of fermentation is. Being a food scientist, I had a firm grasp of what fermentation is “exploiting microorganisms to create a desired product”. I was quite familiar with bacterial growth rates however, this week’s lecture got me thinking on our bioprocess and the timing for the cheese production and the cracker production if it were to be the one product. The cracker would have a really long shelf-life even at room temperature, but the cheese is a different story and the product would probably have to be refrigerated in order to have sufficient shelf-life.

This week’s task was to design a website to act as an e-portfolio for the pseudo-company we are working for. This task was as enjoyable as it was difficult. I did not think it would be this difficult when I first started the task. There were as many factors to consider designing this website as there are in our bioprocess, which I found quite amusing, but I feel is an important part of the learning experience. Yes, you have all the information there, but is it presented in a clear, cohesive, processional manner. This was something that I needed to ponder.