The Master in Human Nutrition, Education and Food Safety provides knowledge on the nutrition and conscious diet field, and trains professionals who can suggest healthy lifestyles, by promoting suitable prevention, with career opportunities in the nutrition-related field.
Purpose of the Master is helping students acquire the right tools to implement nutritional guidelines and indications with a critical sense, and through in-depth an updated knowledge thereof. Moreover, after acquiring such knowledge and skills, students will be able to transfer them in their work fields, by working proactively in the public and private human nutrition sector.
The activities of the Master in Human Nutrition, Education and Food Safety provide the tools required to work in the nutrition sector, and to address the issues concerning collective catering, and food control, education and safety. The Master includes lectures by professors of the University of Padua, and highly qualified graduates. It also includes several seminars organized by University professors or by external experts.
The Master in Human Nutrition, Education and Food Safety provides valid post-graduate learning tools to graduates in Pharmacy, Medicine, Biology, Biotechnologies, etc., who can implement their knowledge. The Master is also addressed to professionals already working in the Human Nutrition field, who can deepen their knowledge.
The Master forms professional figures with the competences and knowledge necessary to work in regional, provincial, municipal healthcare service facilities, or in the private sector, as nutritionists and experts. Students can become nutrition experts, to help maintain a healthy population, by focusing on prevention, and on personal or community needs (groups of athletes, school cafeterias or nursing homes). Their activity is a precious addition to any public institution (regional, provincial and municipal structures, such as: National Healthcare Service, in the Nutrition, Food Hygiene and Food Education sectors), and private companies, in the food education and safety fields.
The Master in Human Nutrition, Education and Food Safety provides training on the following topics:
Module 1 – NUTRITIONAL BIOCHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGY
- Molecular aspects
- Diet regulation and hunger-satiety control
- Human food nutrient classes
Module 2 – FUNCTIONAL FOOD, FIBRES, ADDITIVES AND NUTRACEUTICS ELEMENTS
- New food items, probiotics and prebiotics, sweeteners, micro- and oligoelements and food supplements
- Nutraceutics elements
- Free radicals and oxidative stress
- Functions of phytochemicals
Module 3 – FOOD CHEMICAL-PHYSICAL TRANSFORMATIONS AND MODIFICATIONS
- Fundamentals of food chemistry and transformations after preservation and cooking
Module 4 – FUNDAMENTALS OF NUTRIGENETICS AND NUTRIGENOMICS
- Interaction between genetic heritage and nutrients la for personalized nutrition
Module 5 – NUTRIGENETICS AND NUTRIGENOMICS APPLICATIONS
- Practical examples
- Scientific bases of a personalized diet
- Epigenetic diet- and microbiota-induced modifications in the first thousand days of life
Module 6 – PHYSIOLOGICAL DIETETICS
- Correct nutrition at different ages and physical conditions
- From Mediterranean diet to ketogenic diet
Module 7 – DIETETICS APPLICATIONS
- Diet therapy to prevent and treat the main metabolic and chronic diseases
- Organization and operation of a nutritional clinic
Module 8 – SPORTS NUTRITION
- Athlete’s nutritional needs
- Characteristics and needs of the different sports
Module 9 – NUTRITIONAL MANAGEMENT: PERSONAL OR COMMUNITY DIET PLANS
- Diet plans: from theory to practice
- Building a diet plan for a single person or a community, with a practical nutritional approach
Module 10 – FOOD INTOLERANCES AND ALLERGIES
- Fundamentals of food intolerances and allergies, related psychological issues and marketing
Module 11 – BIOTECHNOLOGIES APPLIED TO NUTRITION Part 1
- Relationship between micro-organisms, food and main environmental parameters
- Technological use of micro-organisms: fermentation and GMOs
- GMOs on today’s food market
Module 12 – BIOTECHNOLOGIES APPLIED TO NUTRITION Part 2
- Socially responsible individual and community consumption
- Institutional consumption and land management
Module 13 – FOOD HYGIENE, RISK ANALYSIS
- Drafting food safety plan during food production, preservation, sale, and consumption phases
Module 14 – FOOD SECTOR LAW
- From basic epidemiology concepts to food-related law
Module 15 – SUSTAINABLE NUTRITION
- Sustainable food
- Biodiversity and food sovereignty
- Socially responsible individual and community consumption
Module 16 – NUTRITION AND LONGEVITY
- Calories and lifespan
- Nutrition and cancer
- Cardioprotective diets
- Nutrition and cognitive decline
- Diet adaptation
Module 17 – PLANT-BASED FOOT DIETS
- Suggesting a balanced plant-based diet
- Principles of plant-based diets
- Managing a suitable supplementation
Being a level-2 Master, the titled admitted include Master’s Degrees or Specialist Degrees in the scientific-healthcare area (Biology, Biotechnologies, Motor Sciences, Agricultural Sciences and Technologies, Agri-food Sciences and Technologies, Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technologies, Pharmacy, Psychology, Human Nutrition Sciences, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Orthodontics), Specialist Degrees in healthcare professions (Nursing and Ob-Gyn Sciences, Healthcare and Rehabilitation Profession Sciences, Technical Healthcare Profession Sciences, Prevention Healthcare Profession Sciences); for a complete overview of the main titles, visit the Master’s website: https://www.bca.unipd.it/nuesa/. All the other graduates deemed relevant by the Master’s Committee may also enrol, upon request.
The general ranking of merit for the academic year 2024/25 will be published on the Italian page of this Master according to the timing provided in the Call.
Information
FAQ
The Master will last one year. Lectures will be held on Friday and Saturday morning (usually twice a month), for 366 hours, and 25% of them will be issued digitally. The Master will also include trips during the entire year. Each trip will include a seminar-like lesson, held by professors and by external experts. The course will also include a project work, with an internship to be completed in public or private companies in the field. Also, there may be trips to local agri-food companies and nutrition clinics. Lastly, the students will take part in themed conferences and conventions. The total number of credits awarded is 60, including also the project work and the final dissertation.
Lessons will be held on weekends (Friday all day and on Saturday morning) to meet everyone’s needs.
It consists of a practical experience to be completed at:
- SIAN (Servizio di Igiene, Alimenti e Nutrizione),
- Agri-food companies,
- Nutrition and sport clinics,
- Sustainable and organic catering enterprises,
- Collective catering enterprises
The project work has no minimum hours, so as to allow all the students – including working students – to experience it, and as such, it cannot be considered an internship.
Healthcare professionals attending a post-graduate course, belonging to their category (specialization course, PhD, Master, scientific post-graduate course and specialization degree, as provided for and governed by the MURST Decree No.509 of 3 November 1999, published in the Official Journal No.2 of 4 January 2000), in Italy or abroad, will be exempted from the ECM obligation. (http://ecm.sanita.it/opsan/faq.htm).