Second Major in Future Foods (Cohort 2024 Onwards)

Food security has become a critical concern both locally and globally, driven by a convergence of environmental, economic, and social factors. In response, Singapore has repositioned itself strategically to enhance food security, focusing on research and development in urban agribusinesses. This includes a wide spectrum of initiatives—from modern farming practices and reducing food waste through improved processing technologies, to meeting the nutritional needs of an aging population.

The Second Major in Future Foods (FF) is an expansion of NTU Food Science and Technology (FST) education which aims to strengthen the ongoing FST education partnership with Wageningen University & Research (WUR), and at the same time offer new aspects of food technology and nutrition for sustainable future foods to NTU students.

This second major incorporates relevant courses across all five schools to provide students with the foundation and practical tools for understanding the concepts of food sustainability and applying them to real world scenarios.

The NTU centric second major focuses on sustainable food and nutrition. The compulsory courses are offered by NTU and include Food Chemistry & Nutrition, Future Foods – Introduction to Advanced Meat Alternatives, Food Standard – Food Safety & Risk Assessment, Food Process Technologies and Production System, Data Analytics in Food Systems. Students will have a list of NTU and WUR electives to choose from.

The program will also address broader challenges associated with the sustainability of urban food systems, including urban farming, emerging food sources, supply chain management, and nutrition security.

The Second Major in Future Foods (FF), led by NTU, will offer two specialized tracks. It is distinguished by several unique features:

a) It is designed as a Second Major focuses on the broadening in learning and has been welcomed by the food industry.
b) It is the only education curriculum with WUR partnership in Singapore;
c) It is the only food education curriculum with a perspective in food sustainability.

Students can choose from 2 tracks, to be declared by Year 2 Semester 1:

Track 1
Students will do a 1-semester exchange in Wageningen and complete all 5 FF electives at WUR as part of their FF requirement and one NTU elective course from Track 2.
Track 2
Students will complete all their FF requirements with NTU courses.

Learning Outcomes
Students from different programmes will have a set of dedicated learning outcomes to be achieved with everyone who takes on this second major programme:
a. Sustainability including environmental impact on food production
b. Future Foods including novel foods such as plant-based proteins, fermentation-based foods and cultivated meats.
c. Nutrition Security including analysis of nutrition profile and consumer health benefits from diets incorporating future foods.