Environmental Health Science Department

Assignment Report of Dr Rudolf Schmitt
Professor of Food Microbiology & Food Safety at the Haute Ecole Valaisanne (HES-So Valais)
Institute of Life Technologies
Polytechnic of Namibia, Windhoek
August 1 – 19, 2011

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Looking back on my second B360 assignment, it again was a pleasure to work with the Namibian students and to be part of the Environmental Health Science Department (EHS). Having been at the Polytechnic of Namibia before, getting started was easy and the support of Dioné Izaks of International Relations and Planning was very good.

The focus of my second assignment at the Polytechnic of Namibia was on giving a course in Food Microbiology for thirty 2nd year students. The subjects of my module were:

• Theory including contamination routes of microorganisms into foods, growth and destruction of microbes, bacterial and non-bacterial foodborne diseases, food spoilage and preservation.
• Lab practicals including hygiene control in the kitchen of the student’s hostels and determination of the microbiological quality of foods with selective media.
• Excursions to a SME incubation centre (catering and mahangu mill), the Oshetu community mar-ket and the dairy farm in Mariental. 

In some parts the theory was a repetition but I brought the processes of spoilage and foodborne diseases in relation to the real practical life of processing of foods and the control of hygienic behaviour. In particular the lab practicals and the excursions were very useful and much appreciated by the students. In the last week, the students had to write a test about the different theoretical and practical subjects. I was happy that nobody failed, the average was 65%!

My recommendations to the Polytechnic are that the lab practicals should be a permanent element of the education of the EHS Food practitioners. For this purpose, the lab needs some equipment such as funnel, membranes, pump for microbiological water analysis, a handhold hygrometer (also useful to measure the water activity) and selective media for the analysis of foods. Also, the lab technician has a good knowledge in microbiology, but not enough experience yet in food analyses. Training in this field would be most helpful, either in Switzerland or at the Polytechnic.

EHS has many plans for the future. A new building for Health Science is under construction and should be finished within the next 18 months. Based on a market analysis EHS has foreseen laboratories for practi-cals of the students as well as for a business unit where testing of food, water and environmental pollution will be offered. These are ambitious plans and I look forward to remaining involved and returning to Polytechnic in the future.

Sion, August 21, 2011