Food is an important resource for human life. The needs to produce and process food in large quantities necessitate the application of engineering knowledge, so that quality foods can be produced for human consumption through safe, efficient and economical processes. Hence, UPM offers the Bachelor of Process and Food Engineering, a multidisciplinary course to produce a competent process and food engineer capable of:
Utilization of efficient processes for preparing and preserving raw agricultural/biological materials,
Transforming and processing agricultural/biological materials by using appropriate techniques taking into consideration properties of materials initially, during processing, and of the final products, to ensure maximum production rate and highest quality products for purpose of consumption and further manufacturing.
Extracting and purifying agricultural/biological materials into high quality food, pharmaceutical, and industrial materials.
Students can opt for one of the three options during their final year of study:
1. Bio-material Process Engineering Option. This option emphasizes on the application of process engineering principles and concepts for processing of major agricultural commodities and for processing to develop new bio-based products for use as food materials and raw materials for manufacturing industries.
2. Food Engineering Option: This option emphasizes on the application of process engineering principles and concepts for food processing industries.
3. Process Machine Design Engineering Option. This option focuses on courses related to machine design specifically for the process and food industries. Elective courses are also available for the students in their final year such as palm oil processing course, pharmaceutical technology course, food extrusion technology course, powder technology course and rice processing course.
Career Opportunities
There is currently a relevant demand for graduates in the process and food engineering. Management Performance and Delivery Unit (PEMANDU) speculated that request for processed food and convenience food will continue to increase to over 10% per year. Most of the graduates successfully secured employment with multinational and national companies, as well as government bodies related to the field of process and food engineering. Some of the companies that have previously employed our graduates include Nestle, Top Glove, GSK, Sime Darby and FELDA.