Our department has student practice laboratories and R&D laboratories. The laboratories and their equipment are continuously available for our undergraduate and graduate students to use in their coursework, projects, theses and internship studies. In the laboratories, students work in groups during undergraduate courses and individually in graduate courses and in research activities carried out within the scope of projects. Laboratory practicals for undergraduate courses are conducted under the supervision of the instructor responsible for the course and at least one Research Assistant.
1. Food and R&D Laboratory
The Food and R&D laboratories, whose infrastructure was established through the University administration and the projects of our department's faculty members, make it possible to conduct a wide range of research, including numerous qualitative and quantitative food analyses, the design of new food formulations, in vitro digestion studies, and the identification, extraction and purification of macro and micro food components.
2. Chemistry Laboratory
Our department's Chemistry Laboratory is a research laboratory where nanotechnology studies are carried out alongside chemical analyses. In this context, our laboratory is equipped with electrospinning apparatus, a spectrophotometer and a spectrofluorometer.
3. Instrumental Analysis Laboratory
Practicals for the Cereal Processing Technology and Instrumental Analysis courses are conducted for students in the Instrumental Analysis Laboratory. The laboratory practicals for these courses are determined according to laboratory capacity and are carried out with 20 students working in groups of a maximum of 4-5. The Instrumental Analysis Laboratory is also used for research activities. The laboratory further contains one laboratory-type mill used in experiments, one grinder, one powder flow measurement device, one plasma unit, one centrifuge, one ash furnace, one rapid moisture analyser, one fume hood, two mechanical stirrers and one precision balance.
4. Unit Operations Laboratory
In the Unit Operations Laboratory, students are taught some of the processes applied in food engineering. Students evaluate the data they collect during experiments, perform the related calculations and present their results and comments in a report. In this laboratory, experiments specific to each course are carried out during the semester in order to put the theoretical knowledge given in class into practice. The laboratory practical for each course is determined according to laboratory capacity and is carried out with 20 students working in groups of a maximum of 4-5. In these analyses, each student performs the experiments individually. Practicals for the Chemistry, Fundamentals of Engineering Operations, Meat Technology, Dairy Technology and Vegetable Oil Technology courses are held in these laboratories.
5. Pilot Plant
Our department's Pilot Plant is currently under construction. The facility is intended to host national and international research and product development studies focused on specialised product groups. Within this scope, the laboratory is equipped with one spray dryer. With the equipment to be acquired, the Pilot Plant is planned to host the practicals of our department's technology courses such as Meat Technology, Dairy Technology, Cereal Processing Technology and Vegetable Oil Technology in the coming years. Studies such as new product development, improvement of product formulations, testing of different process conditions and process optimisation are also among the objectives.
6. Microbiology
These are the laboratories where the theoretical knowledge acquired in the General Microbiology and Food Microbiology courses is put into practice. In these laboratories, numerous analyses are carried out, including culture medium preparation, microbial inoculation and incubation as well as cell staining experiments.