Spring 2027

Fermented Foods and Beverages

Covers chemistry, microbiology, and technology of fermented foods like cheese, bread, pickles, and beer, including instrumentation and mechanization.

offering recorded2 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Victor Ujor3.8/5Nicholas Smith

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Victor Ujor

A student described the workload as having no busy work and noted that in-person attendance previously earned extra credit.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Identify important biochemical pathways in the production of fermented foods and beverages

  • Identify factors contributing to sensory qualities of fermented foods and beverages

  • Evaluate the importance of chemical constituents for fermentation substrates and ingredients in fermentation

  • Explain how starting ingredients are processed and how processing impacts fermentation and the final product

  • Describe the production process of fermented vegetables, cheese, beer and wine

  • Demonstrate knowledge about microbial species, biochemical pathways, and fermentation factors in the production of fermented foods and beverages by reviewing current research

  • Discuss and explain how a wide variety of fermented foods and beverages are produced from a few basic ingredients

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

FOOD SCI 150

FOODSCI 550

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 5.00/5 from 2 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Victor Ujor

Victor Ujor taught with passion for food fermentation, and students reported he provided extra credit for in-person attendance and explicitly indicated exam content. Reviewers characterized the workload as lacking busy work and highly recommended the course.

Victor Ujor demonstrated strong interest in the material, and students described open-note quizzes as difficult. However, reviewers found the exams very easy, making a good grade very doable despite the challenging quizzes.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.67 GPA, 76.7% A/AB (n=30 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.81 GPA, 85.7% A/AB (n=21 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.79 GPA, 89.7% A/AB (n=39 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.67 GPA, 76.7% A/AB (n=30 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.81 GPA, 85.7% A/AB (n=21 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.79 GPA, 89.7% A/AB (n=39 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

NICHOLAS SMITH is recorded teaching in Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

VICTOR UJOR is recorded teaching in Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LAB 001Classroom Instruction0 / 390

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Victor Ujor

Victor Ujor taught with high energy and passion for food fermentation, making the course engaging for students.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.67 GPA, 76.7% A/AB (n=30 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.81 GPA, 85.7% A/AB (n=21 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.79 GPA, 89.7% A/AB (n=39 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Victor Ujor

A student described the workload as having no busy work and noted that in-person attendance previously earned extra credit.

Past student reviews · Victor Ujor

One student found the open-note quizzes difficult but the exams easy, making good grades achievable.

Topics

  • Chemistry, microbiology, and technology of fermented foods and beverages
  • Fermentation techniques for new foods and additives
  • Instrumentation and mechanization of food fermentations
  • Chemical constituents of fermentation substrates

Skills

  • Identify biochemical pathways in fermented food production
  • Identify factors affecting sensory qualities of fermented products
  • Explain ingredient processing impacts on fermentation
  • Describe production processes for fermented vegetables, cheese, beer, and wine

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
FOODSCI 550 · Spring 2027

Fermented Foods and Beverages

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:390:007607",
    "course_id": "FOODSCI 550",
    "course_uid": "course_abf31e6e80a1936d51d19da6",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "007607",
    "source_subject_id": "390",
    "title": "Fermented Foods and Beverages",
    "credits_min": 2,
    "credits_max": 2,
    "typically_offered": "Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "9dcf743cde8fc0067cc73fcf32178f9841537a46af0d33776fb3f67680c30a46",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}