Food Engineering Laboratory

You will undertaking one of the following experiments which relate to both the Part B Food
Engineering module and the Part A Chemical and Biochemical Processes module:
1. Protein/amino acid titration (Chem & Biochem)
2. Protease enzyme kinetics (Chem & Biochem)
3. Canning (Food Eng)
4. Rheology (Food Eng)
5. Fluidised bed drying (Food Eng)
6. Spray drying (Food Eng)
You will either be performing labs on Tuesday afternoons (10 am start) or Friday mornings
(9 am start). Please refer to the lab schedule on LEARN for details of your lab partner and
your experiment. Your session times should correspond to your on-line timetable.
Before the first lab session you will need to have read the laboratory script (pdf file) and
watched the video corresponding to your experiment. You will also need to have taken a
COVID test within 7 days leading up to the lab. If you are required to self-isolate at the time
of either the first or second lab then please email Dr Stapley (A.G.F.Stapley@Lboro.ac.uk)
with a screenshot of your test result or other evidence, and you will be excused the lab. For
departmental policies on lateness, absence or general non-engagement in labs you should
refer to the Departmental Undergraduate Student Handbook (sections 9.2 and 9.3) on LEARN
(under “Department Information”  UG Students). If both sessions are missed for good
reasons (e.g. positive COVID tests) then you should claim for Mitigating Circumstances.
For each session, please make sure that you are wearing appropriate clothing (including
lab-coat) and footwear for laboratory work (no sandals/open-toed shoes or
shorts/skirts). Proceed to your experiment but do not begin until you have “checked in” with
the demonstrator for that experiment, who will make themselves apparent. Please be
prepared to show them evidence of your valid negative COVID test. They will run through the
experiment with you and ask questions to check that you can perform the experiment safely.
If you are unsure of any aspect of the experiment, please ask.
Between the first and second weeks you should analyse your results and bring these
results to the second week’s lab session. Five marks of your total lab mark will be given
for a satisfactory presentation and analysis of these results. This is important as it will highlight
any problems with your data that might be remedied in the second week. You can also discuss
your results with us if you are unclear on any aspect of the analysis or interpretation.

Reports
You will be required to submit via LEARN a joint written report (approx. 10-12 pages) in the
same way as for Mass Transfer and Particle Technology labs. Please refer to the lab schedule
or the LEARN submission point for the submission deadline. You are encouraged to use
shared OneDrive/Sharepoint folders when collaborating on report writing.

Format of the report:

You should prepare your report for a technical competent person who is not familiar with your
experiment. The logic/reasoning behind the experiment should be clear. The written report
should be structured using the headings overleaf.
 P.T.O
Title page – to include title, author names and the dates of the experiments.

Summary – Approximately a third of a page which should encapsulate all the important points
below, including (briefly) how the experiment was performed and what the main outcomes
were. It should not include figures or tables but should quote important results. It should be
able to stand alone from the rest of the document – i.e. make sense in its own right and not
refer to other parts of the report. (Imagine that the summary is detached from the report and
marked completely separately). Similarly, when writing the main body of the report you should
assume the summary has been removed, i.e. when writing the introduction you should start
again from scratch.

Table of contents – as a separate page

Introduction – This should put the work in an industrial context (including references) and
why it could be considered to be important. Then outline briefly (3 or 4 sentences each) what
the experiment is about, what experiments were performed, and how they were performed. It
should explicitly state what the aims of the experiment are (which you later return to in the
conclusions section).

Experimental method – How you put these principles into practice and actually do the
experiment. This should include either an experimental diagram or a flowchart of actions. This
should not be a set of instructions for the experiment. The logic behind why each step is
performed should be clear.

Method of analysis – This should outline the calculations and analyses you performed on
the raw data, such that another person could reproduce your analysis exactly. The reasons
and logic behind these should also be made clear.

Results and discussion – Present your results clearly first along with curve fits if appropriate
and then discuss them. Be clear to differentiate between what the results directly tell you and
the subsequent interpretations that you make with the help of outside information (such as
lecture notes or the literature). You should make an estimate of the experimental errors in
your data (on a percentage or absolute basis) stating the sources of error. Also, do your
results fit in with information from other sources (i.e. literature references)?

Conclusions - These should primarily address the aims of the experiment that you
mentioned in the introduction. Also do the results have any wider implications?

References – Externally derived information used in the report should be cited, and the full
reference listed using the Harvard system or numerical referencing. Use published sources
(journals or textbooks, which may be online) rather than websites where possible.

Appendix – Sample calculations (excluding curve fitting) should be provided here, to enable
your numerical calculations to be checked.

Andy Stapley March 2021