Food Scientists and Technologists

What Does a Food Scientists and Technologists 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.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities

• 1Inspect food processing areas to ensure compliance with government regulations and standards for sanitation, safety, quality, and waste management.
• 2Check raw ingredients for maturity or stability for processing, and finished products for safety, quality, and nutritional value.
• 3Study methods to improve aspects of foods, such as chemical composition, flavor, color, texture, nutritional value, and convenience.
• 4Develop food standards and production specifications, safety and sanitary regulations, and waste management and water supply specifications.
• 5Stay up to date on new regulations and current events regarding food science by reviewing scientific literature.
• 6Study the structure and composition of food or the changes foods undergo in storage and processing.
• 7Confer with process engineers, plant operators, flavor experts, and packaging and marketing specialists to resolve problems in product development.
• 8Test new products for flavor, texture, color, nutritional content, and adherence to government and industry standards.

Required Skills

• Reading Comprehension
• Critical Thinking
• Active Learning
• Speaking
• Science
• Active Listening
• Writing
• Monitoring
• BioDiscovery ImaGene
• HubSpot software
• Hypertext markup language HTML
• Image analysis software
• Insightful S-PLUS
• Marketo Marketing Automation
• MDS Analytical Technologies GenePix Pro
• Microsoft Access
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Office software

Food Scientists and Technologists Salary