Practical Food Inspection

Program Overview

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Practical Food Inspection

2024/25 Part-time Undergraduate Short course and CPD

Award

Contributes towards the CPPD Personal and Professional Development

Faculty

Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment

School

Belfast School of Architecture and the Built Environment

Campus

Belfast campus

Credit points

10

Start date

1 May 2025

Overview

This course provides knowledge & training to develop a range of food inspection competencies & to pass the CIEH accredited Practical Food Examination.

Summary

Students will develop fundamental food inspection skills, including identification of foodstuff, hazards and their controls, judgment of fitness for human consumption and intervention to safeguard public health and consumer protection.

In addition to achieving academic credit from Ulster University, the module provides students with an opportunity to pass the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health accredited Practical Food Examination and provides evidence that the candidate is suitably qualified to inspect, seize and detain food. It demands participants to demonstrate knowledge across a broad range of pertinent learning objectives.

About this course

About

This course explores food inspection skills including: identification of foodstuff, hazards associated with specific foodstuff and their controls, judgment of fitness for human consumption of specimens, intervention (including legislative tools) to safeguard public health and consumer protection.

This is a practical hands-on course covering a wide range of foodstuff including red meat, poultry, game, fish, shellfish, nuts, pulses, fruit and vegetables.

Successful completion provides evidence that you are suitably qualified to inspect, seize and detain food and awards the CIEH accredited Practical Food Examination.

The aim of this short course is to provide students opportunities to demonstrate a range of food inspection competencies including identification, capacity to explain food hazards and their controls, ability to assess fitness of foodstuff and knowledge of interventions to ensure health and consumer protection.

It is intended to further the career progression of environmental health practitioners working within the food industry, food enforcement or for students embarking in a career in this field.

Successful completion provides evidence that you are suitably qualified to inspect, seize and detain food and awards the CIEH accredited Practical Food Examination.

Linked programmes

• CPPD Personal and Professional Development

Assessment

• Oral assessment (exam) (Practical) [100%]

This module will be assessed via a 20 minutes oral examination. The oral exam is assessing student's achievement of the learning outcomes using practical food specimens.

Assessment and Feedback Strategy

Ongoing feedback on knowledge uptake will be provided during the practicals. Students will also receive feedback on their exam score on completion.

Attendance

This course is blended learning (online and face-to-face teaching) and requires attendance, at our Belfast campus, in May/June 2025.

• Please note, dates and timetabling are to be confirmed and may be subject to change.

Attendance and Independent Study

This module will be delivered in a blended approach, comprising of online directed learning sets, online pre-recorded lectures, face to face lectures and practical and independent directed study.

• The directed learning sets and pre-recorded lectures will provide the students with the core learning materials required to meet the learning objectives. These activities will be delivered via Blackboard Learn using a range of relevant tools (Blackboard, Panopto, etc.).
• Independent study will be supported via the provision of appropriate directed material and learning resources.

Entry requirements

• Holder or registered on Environmental Health degree (BSc or MSc).

English Language Requirements

Applicants whose first language is not English must meet the minimum English entrance requirements of the University and will need to provide recent evidence of this (certified within the last two years).

• Most of our courses require a minimum English level of IELTS 6.0 or equivalent, with no band score under 5.5. Trinity ISE: Pass at level III also meets this requirement.

Start dates

• 1 May 2025

Teaching, Learning and Assessment

Fees and funding

Prices

• Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and EU Settlements Status Fees: £395.80
• England, Scotland, Wales and the Islands Fees: £770.80

Fees information

Payment of Fees and Deposits

Information about how to pay for a course including different payment options is available.

Fees and Funding

Information and advice about course fees and a guide to budgeting for your living costs, as well as sources for financial assistance including hardship funding, scholarships, prizes and awards, is available.

Additional mandatory costs

It is important to remember that costs associated with accommodation, travel (including car parking charges) and normal living will need to be covered in addition to tuition fees.

Where a course has additional mandatory expenses (in addition to tuition fees) we make every effort to highlight them above. We aim to provide students with the learning materials needed to support their studies. Our libraries are a valuable resource with an extensive collection of books and journals, as well as first-class facilities and IT equipment. Computer suites and free Wi-Fi are also available on each of the campuses.

There are additional fees for graduation ceremonies, examination resits and library fines.

Students choosing a period of paid work placement or study abroad as a part of their course should be aware that there may be additional travel and living costs, as well as tuition fees.

See the tuition fees on our student guide for most up to date costs.

Academic profile

The University employs over 1,000 suitably qualified and experienced academic staff - 60% have PhDs in their subject field and many have professional body recognition.

Courses are taught by staff who are Professors (19%), Readers, Senior Lecturers (22%) or Lecturers (57%).

We require most academic staff to be qualified to teach in higher education: 82% hold either Postgraduate Certificates in Higher Education Practice or higher. Most academic and learning support staff (85%) are recognised as fellows of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) by Advance HE - the university sector professional body for teaching and learning. Many academic and technical staff hold other professional body designations related to their subject or scholarly practice.

The profiles of many academic staff can be found on the University’s departmental websites and give a detailed insight into the range of staffing and expertise. The precise staffing for a course will depend on the department(s) involved and the availability and management of staff. This is subject to change annually and is confirmed in the timetable issued at the start of the course.

Occasionally, teaching may be supplemented by suitably qualified part-time staff (usually qualified researchers) and specialist guest lecturers. In these cases, all staff are inducted, mostly through our staff development programme ‘First Steps to Teaching’. In some cases, usually for provision in one of our out-centres, Recognised University Teachers are involved, supported by the University in suitable professional development for teaching.

Figures from the academic year.

Sustainability at Ulster

Ulster continues to develop and support sustainability initiatives with our staff, students, and external partners across various aspects of teaching, research, professional services operations, and governance.

At Ulster every person, course, research project, and professional service area on every campus either does or can contribute in some way towards the global sustainability and climate change agenda.

We are guided by both our University Strategy People, Place and Partnerships : Delivering Sustainable Futures for All and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Our work in this area is already being recognised globally. Most recently by the 2024 Times Higher Education Impact rating where we were recognised as Joint 5th Globally for Outreach Activities and Joint Top 20 Globally for Sustainable Development Goal 17: Partnership for the Goals.

Visit our Sustainability at Ulster destination to learn more about how the University strategy and the activities of Ulster University support each of the Sustainable Development Goals.