Italian food and wine

This MSc degree will focus on the understanding, management, promotion and protection of high-value food products including wine. The internationally-recognised Italian food production system will be analysed as a model for defining and characterising the individual elements that contribute to the unique value of food products that are inextricably linked to place (terroir) through historic, social and cultural ties. These elements also include more recent developments in technology, nutrition, food safety, diet and health, and sensory science that are at the heart of a growing international demand for terroir-related high-value foods. The specific learning outcome for graduates of this programme will be a deep understanding of the multi-faceted characteristics that distinguish these foods from others in the marketplace and that can be exploited in products’ valorisation and consumer information strategies. The ultimate objective of this multi-disciplinary program is to train professionals who are well-versed in the complex system of producing high-value foods and wines whose quality is profoundly linked to traditions and place of origins.

Teaching will include lectures, laboratory and field activities, practical exercises, and seminars by outside experts that feature a rich variety of relevant case studies. Opportunities for intensive tutoring and for master thesis-related stages of at least six months duration will be available with outstanding companies in this sector of the food industry or with other relevant organisations in the private or public sphere.