niftem.ac.in RET 2014 Syllabus Research Entrance Test : National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management

Name of the Organisation : National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (niftem.ac.in)
Type of Announcement : Syllabus
Designation : Research Entrance Test (RET-2014)

Download Syllabus here : https://www.indianjobtalks.in/uploads/32263-RETsyllabus08-05-2014.pdf
Home Page : http://www.niftem.ac.in/

SYLLABUS FOR RESEARCH ENTRANCE TEST (RET-2014)

Ph. D. in Agriculture and Environmental Sciences :
Unit-1: Crop production techniques for cereals, millets, legumes, oilseeds, fiber crops; Commercial varieties of fruits and vegetables – regional, national and international importance, physiological disorders- causes and remedies; Quality improvement by management practices-maturity indices, harvesting, grading, packing, storage and ripening techniques; Industrial and export potential; Agri. Export Zones (AEZ) and industrial supports.

Unit-2: Vitamins- biochemical functions and deficiency diseases; Fats and lipids-types of fatty acids and their significance in health; Biochemical composition and food value of various food grains (including cereals, pulses, oil seeds), fruits and vegetables; Antioxidants; Nutraceticals; Food toxins and anti-metabolites; food additives; storage proteins.

Unit-3: Importance and scope of post harvest management of fruits and vegetables; Maturity indices and standards for different fruits and vegetables; methods of maturity determinations; physiology and biochemistry of maturity and ripening, enzymatic and textural changes, ethylene evolution and ethylene management, respiration, transpiration, regulation methods; Harvesting tools, harvesting practices for specific market requirements; post-harvest physiological and biochemical changes, disorders-chilling injury in fruits and vegetables, influence of pre-harvest practices and other factors affecting post harvest losses, packaging house operations, commodity pre-treatments- chemicals, wax coating, pre-packaging and irradiation; packaging of vegetables, post harvest, diseases and prevention from infestation, principles of transport; Methods and practices of storage- ventilated, refrigerated, MA, CA storage, hypobaric storage, pre-cooling and cold storage, zero energy cool chamber; storage disorders. Physical, physiological and chemical control of post – harvest deterioration of fruits, vegetables and its significance during storage and transport, Molecular approach in regulation of fruit ripening, Transgenic technology for improvement of shelf-life. post harvest technology of food grains (cereals, millets, legumes, oilseeds, fiber crops)

Unit-4: Ecosystem concept; Structure and functions of biotic and abiotic components; Energy in ecosystems and environment; Energy exchange and productivity-food chains and food webs-ecological pyramids, nutrient cycles and recycle pathways; Composition of air; Air pollution: sources, Effects of air pollutants on crops, vegetation, animals and human health; mitigation measures for combating air pollution; Global warming and greenhouse effect, sources and sinks of green house gases, major GHGs, analytical techniques of monitoring greenhouse gases in atmosphere; Stratospheric ozone layer depletion-effect of UV radiation on plants and human health; Soil and water pollution: sources and types of soil and water pollutants; Effects of pollutants on soil health and productivity; Point and non-point sources of water pollution, major types of water pollutants, their impacts on environment and agro-ecosystems; Resource, product recovery, recycling and value addition to wastes.

Unit-5: Isolation and purification of nucleic acids; Nucleic acids hybridization: Southern, northern and western blotting hybridization; Molecular biology of various stresses, viz. abiotic stresses like drought, salt, heavy metals and temperature; and biotic stresses like bacterial, fungal and viral diseases; Signal transduction and its molecular basis, molecular mechanism of plant hormone action mitochondrial control of fertility, structure, organization and regulation of nuclear gene concerning storage proteins and starch synthesis; Basic techniques in cell culture and somatic cell genetics, Regulation of cell cycle and cell division, Clonal propagation, Concept of cellular totipotency, anther culture, somaclonal and gametoclonal variations.

Ph. D. in Basic and Applied Sciences :
Unit- 1 Macromolecules structure & Chemical properties of: Carbohydrates- Monosaccharide, Oligosaccharides, Polysaccharides. Lipids-Saturated fatty acids. Unsaturated fatty acids, Composition of fat, Phospholipids, Sphingolipid, Chemical deterioration of lipids, Amino acids, Peptide, Proteins-Primary, Secondary, Tertiary & Quaternary structure, Chemical modification of proteins.

Unit- 2 Definition scope and general principles of food toxicology, Manifestation of toxic effects, Safe food, Safety and Quality of food, Contaminant and adulterants in Food, Classification of contaminants: Physical, Chemical and Biological, Source of various contaminants, Food Safety issues from food processing and food packaging, Food additives: preservatives, antioxidants, artificial sweeteners, colouring agents, flavouring agents and flavour enhancers: Toxic effects and regulations. Dose response, LC50, LD50, ADI, TDO, MRL values.

Unit- 3 Micro-organisms in natural food products and their control. Microbial contamination in different categories of food products: vegetables, cereals, pulses, oilseeds, milk and meat during handling and processing. Newer and rapid methods for qualitative and quantitative assay demonstrating the presence and characterization of microbes.

Unit- 4 Use of analytical techniques for food analysis: Chromatography, Spectroscopy, Polarimetry, thermal methods, Rheology of food products, Moisture analysis.

Unit- 5 Status of food industry in India. Sources of food and their classification- plant foods, animal foods, sea foods. Mechanism and Techniques: Types of preservatives, Advantages of preservation, mechanism of food preservations. Techniques of food preservations- thermal/heat processing(microwave, dielectric), chilling, freezing, chemical, fermentation, irradiation.

Unit- 6 Fermentation technology, Fermented food products. Application of genetic engineering to food production, Basics principles, methods and Application of Recombinant DNA technology to foods. GM foods, Cell Culture for foods, Basics in Food Bioinformatics.

Ph. D. in Food Science and Technology :
Food Science: Carbohydrates, Proteins, Lipids, Pigments, Food flavours, Enzymatic and non-enzymatic browning; Nutrition: Balanced diet, Essential amino acids and fatty acids, PER, Water soluble and fat soluble vitamins, Role of minerals in nutrition, Antinutrients, Nutrition deficiency diseases, General Characteristics of microorganisms, Microbial growth in food: Intrinsic and extrinsic factors, Growth and death kinetics, serial dilution method for quantification; Microbial Food spoilage, Food borne illness Food Fermentation.

Food Products Technology: Processing principles: Canning, chilling, freezing, dehydration, control of water activity, CA and MA storage, fermentation, hurdle technology, addition of preservatives and food additives, Food packaging, cleaning in place and food laws.; Grain products processing: Milling of rice, wheat, and maize, parboiling of paddy, production of bread, biscuits, extruded products and breakfast cereals, Solvent extraction, refining and hydrogenation of oil; Fruits, vegetables and plantation products processing: Extraction, clarification concentration and packaging of fruit juice, Production of jam, jelly, marmalade, squash, candies, and pickles, pectin from fruit waste, tea, coffee, chocolate and essential oils from spices; Milk and milk products processing: Pasteurized and sterilized milk, cream, butter, ghee, ice-cream, cheese and milk powder; Animal products processing: Drying and canning of fish, post mortem changes, tenderization and freezing of meat, egg powder. Basic food engineering – Heat transfer: Heat transfer by conduction, convection, radiation, boiling and condensation, Unsteady state heat transfer in simple geometry, NTU- effectiveness relationship of co-current and counter current double pipe heat exchanger; Thermal operations: Energy requirement and rate of operations involved in process time evaluation in batch and continuous sterilization, evaporation of liquid foods, hot air drying of solids, spray and freeze-drying, freezing and crystallization; Mass transfer operations: Properties of air-water vapour mixture; Humidification and dehumidification operations.