Master in Design for Food

The Specializing Master Design for Food aims to train professionals, entrepreneurs, independent innovators, civil servants with competencies in the design and management of systems, processes, and products-services in the food sector. Professional Profiles characterized by a profile combining the design and experimental approach of the design with the thematic knowledge of the logics of the food sector in all its extension “from field to table”, including the traditional and more advanced production and distribution systems and with specific attention to sustainability.

The sector already expresses forms, experimentations, experiences, innovation, and project-oriented cases require transversal expertise able to integrate in a strategic way the different design factors. For this reason, the Specializing Master completes the design (in the disciplinary extension of systems, strategies, services, products-services, communication) and food engineering skills, brought by Politecnico di Milano, with the thematic and specific ones in the food area related to humanities, food technology, and gastronomic sciences, brought by the University of Gastronomic Sciences.

Participants will be able to:

• understand the socio-economic and environmental transformations of the sector
• outline innovative models and strategic orientations for the specific sector
• design for sustainability;
• understand and design the territorial impacts of food supply chains;
• use theoretical and critical skills to define design opportunities;
• understand and use the potential of the sector’s technologies, as well as the main elements of the production processes of the different supply chains;
• design complex solutions and their articulation in terms of product, service, communication, and space;
• manage the main elements of food safety and planning;
• manage all phases of the process of conception, design, development, and implementation of an innovative solution in an advanced perspective that includes participatory approaches;
• use specific design tools for design.

The job opportunities for graduates are manifold. These will be practitioners whose profiles combine the design and experimental approach with specific knowledge of the underlying logic of the food sector in its extension “from field to table”, considering traditional and innovative production and distribution systems, with specific attention to sustainability.

For example, we can list:

• R&D FOOD Project Manager: R&D managers for the improvement and implementation of food processing and production processes;
• FOOD Service & Product Designer: professionals specialized in the conception and design development of sustainable food products and services;
• FOOD Brand Manager: marketing managers for the development and implementation of innovative food product-service lines;
• FOOD startupper/entrepreneur: inventors and self-employed entrepreneurs capable of transforming innovative ideas into sustainable new businesses in the agri-food sector;
• FOOD Innovation Specialist: professionals and consultants of innovative food strategies and policies within companies, public institutions, research centers and third-sector organizations.

Didactic Plan

The teaching approach combines theory and practice, by alternating lectures and hands-on activities (group works, exercises and projects).

The didactic path is characterized by:

• Lessons: aimed to introduce the main topics of the programme and provide students with a general framework;
• Design classes: aimed to the acquisition of tools and methodologies for analysis and design development;
• Workshop: “hands-on” activities developed in collaboration with external companies and realities aimed at the application of tools and methodologies for the development of product-service ideas;
• Study Trip* in Piedmont organized in collaboration with Università degli studi di Scienze Gatronomiche di Pollenzo: 10 days spent in Piedmont with teaching modules on the UNISG campus and visits to interesting food companies in the surrounding areas.
• Study Trip* in Emilia Romagna: a complete immersion to delve into the specific food topics of a typical Italian area.

At the end of the didactic activities, the programme includes a final training experience, which can be:

• Internship: 500 hours of training experience in a partner reality of the Master or suggested directly by the participants in agreement with the Master Board
• Professionalizing Project: a scientific research activity that involves the in-depth study of issues shared between the Student and the Master Board.

* The costs of the study trips (travel, room and board) are included in the registration fee.

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