Aspects of product quality in plant production
BOKU course no. 957.315, lecture with exercises and excursions, 3 units per week, winter term, ECTS: 4.5 credits
By Johann Vollmann and Heinrich Grausgruber
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General course information
       This course will be given in English language only ! 

First meeting
 Meeting time Location
13 October 2011, 17.00  17.00 to 20.00 on Thursday evenings (further meeting dates will be fixed during the first meeting) Seminarraum MENH0101/10.9 (1180 Vienna, Gregor Mendel-Str. 33, first floor)


Timetable of course

 01 First meeting (technical matters, introduction)
13 Oct 2011
 02 General aspects of crop quality
20 Oct. 2011
 03 Quality of cereals, maize, sugar and carbohydrate crops (breeding, agronomy)
27 Oct. 2011
 04 Oilseeds and protein crops, fibre plants (breeding and agronomy)
3 Nov. 2011
 05+06  Practical work at Tulln: BOKU Tulln, Konrad Lorenz Str. 24, 3430 Tulln
Oilseeds - NIRS calibration, analysis of oil and protein content, testing for glucosinolates, image analysis etc.)
Cereals: breadmaking tests, extensograms etc.
10 Nov. 2011
14.00-19.00
 07 Further topics (or excursion or seminar)
17 Nov. 2011


Objective of the course

Product quality is of key importance for success in marketing and utilisation of crop products harvested. Various specific aspects of processing and utilisation have contributed to a diversification in crop production in recent years. The course is devoted to crop specific criteria of product quality and to agronomic and genetic possibilities to meet quality criteria. The practical section is for experiencing the most important analytical screening methods used for determination of product quality in agronomy and food processing.

Class time
Approx. 50 % lecture, 25 % laboratory, 25 % excursion

Course schedule / topics

General Section
- Criteria of crop product quality
- Crop composition (proteins, oils, carbohydrates, fibres, vitamins, toxic components, GMO-testing etc.)
- Agronomy and product quality (general remarks)
- Analytical methods for crop quality determination 

Section on Breeding for Quality Characters
- Genetics of quality characters and quality breeding goals
- Wheat and rye (bread making quality)
- Malting barley, durum wheat and other special-use-cereals
- Oilseed rape and sunflower (oil content, fatty acid profile, ANF's etc.)
- Soybean (protein and oil content, protein quality, amino acid profile, trypsin inhibitor content, isoflavones)
- Fibre crops (fibre content and fibre quality)
- Starch and carbohydrate crops 

Section on Agronomy
- Environmental implications of crop quality
- Influence of agronomic treatments and cultivation techniques on crop quality 

Practical Section
- Introduction to NIRS (near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy)
- Breadmaking quality (baking tests, mini-extensograms, dough hardness, dough stickiness, ...)
- Rapid screening methods (tests for Kunitz trypsin inhibitor, linolenic acid, glucosinolate content, image analysis applications)
- Molecular genetic methods of quality analysis (protein- and DNA-markers, electrophoresis, QTL-analysis etc.)

Food Processing
- Selected cases of technology and processing of plant products

Handouts:
Student handouts will be presented during classes.

Suggested reading:
Basra, A.S. & L.S. Randhawa (eds.), 2002, Quality improvement in field crops, Food Products Press, New York.
Hoveland, C.S. (ed.), 1980, Crop quality, storage, and utilization, American Society of Agronomy, Madison, WI.
Murphy, C.F. & D.M. Peterson (eds.), 2000, Designing crops for added value, Series Agronomy, No. 40, American Society of Agronomy, Madison, WI.

For further information, examinations, inquiries and comments please contact:
Dr. J. Vollmann,Tel. (01) 47654-3309, e-Mail: johann.vollmann@boku.ac.at
Dr. H. Grausgruber, Tel. (01) 47654-3308, e-Mail: h330pj@edv1.boku.ac.at

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29 July 2011