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.

Other names for Food Scientists and Technologists: Compliance Coordinator, Confectionery Laboratory Manager, Dairy Bacteriologist, Enologist, Food Chemist, Food Safety Director, Food Scientist, Food Technologist, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point Coordinator (HACCP Coordinator), Hybrid Corn Breeder, Laboratory Manager (Lab Manager), Laboratory Technician (Lab Technician), Microbiologist, Process Engineer, Product Development Manager, Product Development Scientist, Quality Assurance Director (QA Director), Quality Assurance Manager (QA Manager), Quality Control Inspector (QC Inspector), Research and Development Director (R & D Director), Research and Development Manager (R & D Manager), Research Chef, Research Scientist, Swine Nutritionist, Technical Director,

• Test new products for flavor, texture, color, nutritional content, and adherence to government and industry standards.
• Check raw ingredients for maturity or stability for processing, and finished products for safety, quality and nutritional value.
• Confer with process engineers, plant operators, flavor experts, and packaging and marketing specialists in order to resolve problems in product development.
• Evaluate food processing and storage operations, and assist in the development of quality assurance programs for such operations.
• Study methods to improve aspects of foods such as chemical composition, flavor, color, texture, nutritional value, and convenience.
• Study the structure and composition of food, or the changes foods undergo in storage and processing.
• Develop new or improved ways of preserving, processing, packaging, storing, and delivering foods, using knowledge of chemistry, microbiology, and other sciences.
• Develop food standards and production specifications, safety and sanitary regulations, and waste management and water supply specifications.
• Demonstrate products to clients.
• Inspect food processing areas in order to ensure compliance with government regulations and standards for sanitation, safety, quality, and waste management standards.
• Search for substitutes for harmful or undesirable additives, such as nitrites.

• Air samplers or collectors
• Amino acid analyzers
• Viscosimeters
• Anaerobic chamber
• Analytical balances
• Atomic absorption AA spectrometers
• Laboratory diluters
• Autosamplers
• Microbiology analyzers
• Commercial use deep fryers
• Nephelometers
• Sterilization cabinets
• Tissue culture incubators
• Blast freezers
• Dry wall single chamber carbon dioxide incubators
• Color sensors
• Colorimeters
• Calorimeters
• Conductivity meters
• Manual or electronic hematology differential cell counters
• Darkfield microscopes
• Dehydrators
• Juicing machinery
• Desktop computers
• Bench refractometers or polarimeters
• Oscilloscopes
• Dehydrating machinery
• Light scattering equipment
• Dynamometers
• Laboratory balances
• Laboratory blenders or emulsifiers
• Fluorescent microscopes
• Extracting equipment for laboratories
• Standard fermentation units
• Commercial use food choppers or cubers or dicers
• Crushing machinery
• Dehydrating machinery
• Commercial use mixers
• Commercial use food slicers
• Infrared spectrometers
• Electrophoresis system accessories
• Freeze dryers or lyopholizers
• Crushing machinery
• Gas chromatographs
• Gel documentation systems
• Sugar analyzers
• Commercial use griddles
• Commercial use grills
• Laboratory heat exchange condensers
• High pressure liquid chromatograph chromatography
• Refrigerated benchtop centrifuges
• Homogenizers
• Ice cream machines
• Commercial use ranges
• Infrared spectrometers
• Ion chromatographs
• Cooking machinery
• Lasers
• Laboratory mechanical convection ovens
• Laboratory mills
• Water baths
• Notebook computers
• Electronic counters
• Kjeldahl nitrogen determination apparatus
• Mass spectrometers
• Commercial use food grinders
• Cutting machinery
• Melting point recorders
• Laboratory membrane filters
• Kjeldahl nitrogen determination apparatus
• Microbiological aircontrol equipment
• Microcentrifuges
• Commercial use microwave ovens
• Laboratory box furnaces
• Nitrogen or nitrate or nitrite analyzer
• Orbital shaking water baths
• Laboratory mechanical convection ovens
• Dissolved oxygen meters
• Personal computers
• pH meters
• Darkfield microscopes
• Filling machinery
• Laboratory heat exchange condensers
• Forced air or mechanical convection general purpose incubators
• Crushing machinery
• Laboratory blenders or emulsifiers
• Commercial use ranges
• Spectrometers
• Refrigerated benchtop centrifuges
• Flask or retort units
• Rheometers
• Roasting machinery
• Vacuum or rotary evaporators
• Scanning electron microscopes
• Microplate readers
• Fat extractors
• Spectrofluorimeters or fluorimeters
• Microbiology analyzers
• Steam autoclaves or sterilizers
• Blanching machinery
• Commercial use steamers
• Stomachers
• Strain gauges
• Filling machinery
• Thermo gravimetry analyzers
• Cooking machinery
• Temperature cycling chambers or thermal cyclers
• Solution strength estimation apparatus
• Laboratory heat exchange condensers
• Spectrofluorimeters or fluorimeters
• Packaging vacuum
• Viscosimeters
• Water analysis systems
• X ray diffraction equipment

Office suite software

Word processing software

Spreadsheet software

Data base user interface and query software

Analytical or scientific software