The degree programme is designed to offer graduates the advanced knowledge and professional skills required to assume roles connected with the correct application of diet, nutrition and the related regulations currently in force.

The degree course presents a holistic and systemic vision of food quality in a training that is based on a thorough knowledge of food, consumers and nutritional problems. It is specifically proposed to provide students with knowledge of the constituent elements of food quality and the ability to link and integrate them into a profile appropriate to meet the needs of the general population, specific groups and individuals, while respecting at the same time needs and constraints of the production system.

This degree programme trains professional nutritionists qualified to operate at all levels of the food system (from the formulation of foods to their distribution, from catering to the development of healthy styles of eating), in order to promote human health through a distinct approach integrated with that of the health system.

By way of example, graduates possess competences in:

• the development, formulation and optimisation of food products with a high nutritional value (functional foods, foods intended for particular diets with special medical uses);
• the management of labelling and information relating to nutritional claim and, more generally, communication aspects;
• research into and the documentation of the health effects of foods (health claims);
• the evaluation of nutritional and sensory quality and control of the safety and suitability of foods for consumption;
• the proposal and testing of correct dietary protocols targeted at the maintenance of optimal standards of health;
• the preparation and management of food education programmes for the general population or for specific groups; - assistance with food consumption surveys and nutritional monitoring programmes;
• market research and related activities in connection with food production;
• research and development in the human diet sector; - quality and safety-related training for operators in the food and agriculture sector;
• teaching technical and scientific subjects in schools in relation to food and nutrition.

Application and admission: limited enrolment with access test.

English language

Students must have level B2 proficiency in English. Proficiency may be certified at the time of matriculation by submitting a certificate of level B2 language proficiency or better, or by sitting the SLAM (University Language Centre) Placement test during the first year of studies only, between September and December.

Students who do not pass the test must follow the SLAM language courses and obtain appropriate certification within the year the plan of study calls for a language exam.

ERASMUS+ opportunities, access procedures and selection criteria are described in a specific call for applications for the Food area. We have selected 40 partner universities throughout Europe based on their affinity with this programme of study. The activities that can be developed abroad mainly concern the preparation of experimental degree theses and include nutritional assessment, eating behaviour detection, nutrition applied to various population targets, nutritional profiling of food products, in vitro and in vivo food-effect studies, mechanisms of action of dietary compounds, role of diet in shaping the gut microbiota, production technologies and food microbiology.

The learning agreement is defined in cooperation with the study programme's Erasmus manager, both for the choice of exams and the organization of the internship at the partner university. Before completing the learning agreement, you must obtain the formal approval of the exams to be taken at the host university by teachers holding equivalent or similar courses at the University of Milan. The conduct of an experimental activity abroad, as part of or the entire internship activity, requires a letter of consent from a teacher of the partner university and the formal approval of the objectives, the project and the internship period by a teacher of the study programme acting as supervisor.

At the end of the study period abroad, you will deliver the transcript of records issued by the host university and obtain credit and grade recognition by resolution of the Academic Board. We actively participate in the Erasmus+ Placement Programme, providing student mobility opportunities for thesis work in highly qualified facilities (universities, public and private research centres) that are selected also based on individual study programmes.

Highly recommended, not mandatory.