Food Scientists & Technologists

food safety investigative process problem information quality of materials waste management nutritional value chemistry

Food Scientist, Food Technologist, Research Food Technologist, Research Scientist

What they do:
Use chemistry, microbiology, engineering, and other sciences to study the principles underlying the processing and deterioration of foods; analyze food content to determine levels of vitamins, fat, sugar, and protein; discover new food sources; research ways to make processed foods safe, palatable, and healthful; and apply food science knowledge to determine best ways to process, package, preserve, store, and distribute food.
On the job, you would:
  • Inspect food processing areas to ensure compliance with government regulations and standards for sanitation, safety, quality, and waste management.
  • Check raw ingredients for maturity or stability for processing, and finished products for safety, quality, and nutritional value.
  • Develop new or improved ways of preserving, processing, packaging, storing, and delivering foods, using knowledge of chemistry, microbiology, and other sciences.

Knowledge

Manufactured or Agricultural Goods

  • food production
  • manufacture and distribution of products

Math and Science

  • biology
  • chemistry

Arts and Humanities

  • English language

Engineering and Technology

  • product and service development

Skills

Basic Skills

  • listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions
  • reading work related information

Problem Solving

  • noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it

People and Technology Systems

  • thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one
  • figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it

Abilities

Verbal

  • listen and understand what people say
  • read and understand what is written

Ideas and Logic

  • notice when problems happen
  • make general rules or come up with answers from lots of detailed information

Math

  • add, subtract, multiply, or divide
  • choose the right type of math to solve a problem

Visual Understanding

  • see hidden patterns

Personality

People interested in this work like activities that include ideas, thinking, and figuring things out.

They do well at jobs that need:

  • Analytical Thinking
  • Integrity
  • Attention to Detail
  • Cooperation
  • Achievement/Effort
  • Dependability

Technology

You might use software like this on the job:

Data base user interface and query software

  • Microsoft Access Hot Technology
  • Structured query language SQL Hot Technology

Presentation software

  • Microsoft PowerPoint Hot Technology In Demand

Analytical or scientific software

  • Insightful S-PLUS
  • MDS Analytical Technologies GenePix Pro

Education

Education: (rated 4 of 5)
bachelor's degree or
doctoral degree
usually needed

Get started on your career:

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Job Outlook

Bright
New job opportunities are very likely in the future.
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See more details at O*NET OnLine about food scientists and technologists.