FOOD SCIENCE Information Gathered by CC Folks

College Majors Science Majors
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Hello, All! Food Science is a relatively small but growing major, and a few College Confidential people have been touring universities, facilities, and gathering information to help each other out. We thought it might be helpful to start a thread where we can post results and information in one consolidated place. I will copy the two posts from University of Delaware’s forum that I posted and a food science friend responded and post in a second discussion (due to character limits). If anyone has any updates, tour and program info, thoughts, etc., please post here for future food scientists. Feel free to update my info. I’ll post a bit of info below about food science as well. Hope it helps!!!

What is a Food Scientist (a simple definition): a food scientist is a person who studies the chemistry of food. It is different than nutrition/nutritionist in that FS are not trying to make a product more healthy (but that can be a goal), but make a product that works for families, industries, and sustainability. For example, a researcher can work on Jello pudding and try to make it taste good and also be affordable enough for the company to sell it. They research flavors, colors, chemical makeup of food, how different ingredients interact. They can study how to make the roots of corn stalks grow deeper to have longer production cycles. They study subjects like fermentation, pasteurization, and cheese mold. They work as researchers, in business, and some universities have a culinary option.

Where to find information: I found a lot of information at the IFT dot org website. They also have an “approved undergraduate programs” link which shows their approved universities. I have found out that all the universities on the list have to follow their curriculum guidelines and standards, so it is uniform all over the country. This helps because it becomes simply a “fit” for your son/daughter as to which college they feel most comfortable. There are other colleges/u’s that are not on this list, which you can explore. FS seem to take classes with other agricultural students in plant science, vet doctors, farm stuff, etc. Government websites also have great information about the projection of the major and what a food scientist is and does.

We found it super helpful to attend the college “special school” tours, usually the agricultural school. We have found so far that it shrinks large universities into smaller more intimate classes. Most programs that we have looked into graduate between 15-200 students per year. It is very important (my food science industry friend says) to have an internship as large companies hire interns. Some universities require internships.

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Here is the second post with the information we started in the UD forum. I’ll label it with a college reference and a line in between as well. I will add our Rutgers tour at a later time.

UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE VISIT
Posted in UD forum on 4/8/15 from @cakeisgreat
Hello everyone! I thought it might be helpful to post a few thoughts about my tour at UD at the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) for Food Science because it is a small major, and it is hard to find people within the program to gain perspective. Hopefully it helps people looking into this major. Notes will only be on the Food Science tour which is a separate, personal tour apart from the main tour at UD. If you want one of these tours, just go to CANR page and request a tour by filling out a form. They will email you and work with your availability.

First–overall score: We loved it, and UD is a top contender for food science for our family! The CANR school felt very laid back, go at your own pace, have no worries. This felt different than Rutgers, for example, which does have the fast-paced feel that tri-state area people are used to. My D loved this laid-back feel, which is the main reason why it is a contender, since (as you’ll read), the curriculum for IFT certified programs are the same at every school. She did love Rutgers also, though!

For perspective:
-We looked at the following schools’ regular tours: Rutgers, Purdue U, Penn State U.
-We did go to Rutgers additional Food Science tour. Loved it and encourage anyone interested in Food Science to attend any extra tours schools have to offer.
-Will be applying but have not yet visited: Vtech, UMass, UMaryland College Park (most likely). D does not have stats for Cornell but saving for graduate work.
-There are many other great schools for Food Science such as UFlorida, UCDavis, Oregon U, Clemson, etc. to look into, but D wanted to focus in the general NE area.

UD specifics:

AREA
-CANR classes are located near the ice rink, stadium, etc. There is a shuttle bus that takes you to this campus, so no problem getting to class…although I believe buses stop at 6 pm (not positive).
-CANR area is nice, although academic buildings seemed a bit old. However, they were very clean and maintained. Quiet (when games are not played I am sure), and the people were VERY NICE. Staff member stopped us in parking lot to help us get to where we need to go, students all talk to you. Check-in person was very nice. Students seem very happy to be there.

  • Study areas in building were not overcrowded and were quiet; good for carving out a space to study.
  • There is the ice cream shop there which had amazing flavors, and pleasant students running it; willing to talk and answer questions. The Food Science/Animal Science/Plant Science, etc. students can acquire internships to work there and develop flavors. And their flavors were amazing and innovative. They use their own dairy cows to make the ice cream.
  • As a Food Science interest, we mainly went through only food science buildings of study. There was a lot of area with farm, plant growing area, etc. that tour guide was willing to show us if we wanted, but we declined as he said food science students dont spend a lot of time there.

PROGRAM

  • We met with a head professor that gave us general info and asked us if we had questions. We learned that all the IFT certified schools follow the same curriculum, so it really comes down to your child’s fit and feel…where you see yourself attending.
  • Program is about 40 students total and growing. (This is about right for most of the schools offering Food Science that we looked at…program is usually between 30-60 students. UFlorida has a larger group of about 200.) Tour guide said that they are a close knit group and watch out for each other. He said your junior/senior classes will be nice and small…some are 10 people. Some classes overlap with animal/plant science, so it wont only be just food science people.
  • The program is general food science, but there is another program that focuses on management. You can also minor in business or other options if you would like to round out your education.
  • Our tour guide is the pres of the Food Science Club. There are a lot of opportunities to get involved in stuff. They compete with other schools at IFT events and also attend IFT stuff. They have network events
  • They do a senior project which requires them to develop a food start to finish, including labeling,etc. We really liked this.
  • INTERNSHIPS - They encourage internships and they seem to be available, however, they do not require them to do an internship as part of the curriculum (With Rutgers, it is built into the program…they have to do an internship to graduate.)
  • Study Abroad - The Food Science group goes to New Zealand (cool!). Not sure if this is something they have done in the past or are working on to implement within this year/future. It was unclear in our tour. However, they do have opportunities to go to Germany and Japan, which is what my D was interested in. I am sure they have lots of other places to go if want.

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY VISIT
Posted in UD forum on 5/2/15 from @themommymommy
Hi Cakeisgreat. My daughter is also interested in Food Science. It is nice to find someone else on CC who is looking into the major. We have been looking into possibilities for universities for food science majors too. We also concluded Cornell was too expensive for undergrad. She is looking at UMN, Ohio State, Purdue, possibly U Georgia, UW Madison, possibly Penn State.

Thanks for the information on UD. We did a similar visit at Ohio State in Columbus and came away very impressed too. It is a huge university but the agricultural campus and the food science major is small so you sort of get the best of both worlds. We were told that typically the starting class in Food Science is small but grows over the years so that the graduating class is about 70 (if I recall correctly). The visit was very well run by the school. We met with a guidance counselor with our daughter and she explained the application process and how merit aid and financial aid is handled, how credits for ap etc work and answered general questions about the programs available (such as honors and scholars). From there we split up and our daughter went off with a student and sat in on a class, toured her dorm, and ate lunch with the student. We went on a tour with a differnt student then had lunch with one of the people running the travel abroad program. (Of note, they have a program where you can go to Antartica.) Then we met back up with our daughter and the professor whose class our daughter sat in on took us around the food science labs and showed us where the grad students worked and answered questions we had as we went along. She also would just stop people along the way and introduce them to us and have them tell us what they were working on, where they were from etc. From there we went to the Honors/Scholars house and met with a student there who told us about those programs and answered questions. We then were invited back to the Ag campus the next day for a reception because the Ag school was opening a new student study center (really a nice space - well thought out) Oh I should add that we stayed at the Blackwell hotel which is right on campus so it was really easy to get around. They have a free town car service that will take you around with in about a 3-5 mile radius of the hotel, which was a nice service that we made good use of.

Have you given any consideration or heard any pro/cons of not going to a school that specifically offers Food science as a major (in terms of getting into grad schools /getting a job in the field) ?

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One last thing a fellow CC-er mentioned to add here:

Google the World Food Prize organization. It has a lot to offer in terms of introductions to people in the fields, internships, practice in interviewing and presenting to and being questioned by experts in the field etc. Best of all it is free. You just have to be willing to do the hard work of researching and writing the paper and prepping for the presentations.

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Here is the link to the youth programs for the world food prize.
http://www.worldfoodprize.org/en/youth_programs/

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This may be helpful source too:
http://phds.org/rankings/food-science

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Thanks for all the info! S, a rising sophomore, may be interested in pursuing this major, so I am looking into it. He will be attending a week long food science program at Auburn in a couple of weeks so I’ll research it more when he gets back. I saw on the USDA site:

http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/professional-and-career-resources/academic-programs-and-other-educational-opportunities/college-an-0?page=1
that there is a list of undergrad programs, by state.

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What are job prospects like for food science majors, or biochem majors who choose to get into that field?

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Just came across this program for gaining experience in or exposure to food science.

http://foodscience.cals.cornell.edu/undergraduate/summer-scholar-research-program

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^^looks good!! Thanks for posting.

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…My son just got back from the Auburn program and really liked it. They did everything from making candy and ice cream to growing bacteria and touring a bottling plant. I like that it’s such a small group that majors in FS, so even at a huge school you get a smaller school experience.

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Hello @s16s18s21s25 ! I also love the fact that the food science programs are smaller. My first D looked at a huge school for another major and we hated it because it was so big, but went back with my food science D and absolutely loved it because of the small food science major. They seem like after gen ed classes they will be in small classes together a lot in one of the campuses (agriculture), and that appealed to all of us.

I’m going to check out auburn, thanks!!

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Here is another interesting sounding opportunity for college age students who are interested in food related issues. It is a fellowship program offered through Land O’Lakes called the Global Food Challenge. The web page indicated it provides an opportunity for 10 students at five universities to identify innovative and practical ways to meet the world’s need for a 70 percent increase in global food production. These students are matched with professors who will help guide their research. It names partner schools as : the University of Minnesota, Purdue University, Iowa State University, Northwestern University, and George Washington University. I have no experience with the program so am not able to provide any specific feedback about it. Here is the website address.

http://foodchallenge.landolakesinc.com/leaders/about/

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Hi! I’ve already been accepted into the food science program at Kansas State and Purdue! I’ve actually known about food science for quite some time because my dad is in food quality and safety whereas I want to go into R&D. I attended IFT with my dad last year since he is of the food quality committee and was a judge for the poster competitions so I’ve seen a bit and I can tell you that there are so many different things under “food science” and each college specializes in something different. I have found Purdue to cover a wide variety of topics in its curriculum where Cornell is very very dairy based. I have a friend who graduated with a BS not too long ago and she went to work for a grain based company and found that even though she loved the school, the heavy dairy background did not help. Colleges like Kansas state and Ohio state are broad as well for undergraduate but k-state leans a bit toward grain science and Ohio to meat science. You can even see that they offer those as different majors. The undergraduate program leans toward what the graduate program is strong in. It’s not a big decision maker since it is undergraduate but it is something to consider. I hope this helps somewhat to those who are just discovering the field.

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Oh and additionally, if you want to be a student member of IFT you must attended an IFT approved school. IFT approved schools are all top in food science so it should be an issue. Chances are the schools with FS that you are looking at are on the list.

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Hi @foodscience2016. Thank you so much for the added info. My d is accepted at Purdue, Rutgers, umass, and u Delaware so far. Waiting on vtech and a few other schools. I wonder what each if these schools lean toward?

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I know that purdue’s undergrad isn’t specific which is why I chose that school so I could learn a little of everything and decide later but I know their graduate program is more geared towards food quality which is something you might want to look into if you are planning on doing the 4+ 1 program. I’m not too sure about the others though. I didn’t hear much about them at IFT.