What Is Involved in Food Science Training?

Food science training involves the education of those enrolled in the course of the various aspects of the production and consumption of food items, including the scientific aspect of the subject. For instance, food science training will include the teaching of safe methods for handling food, the diseases that result from tainted food, the manufacturing of processed food, the regulations in place regarding how to handle food, and the other applicable factors related to food. Most of the people who are trained in this field go on to become food scientists, who are essentially professionals engaged in various activities related to food development, food testing and food design.

One of the areas in food science training is food safety, where students are instructed on the science behind the proper ways in which various food items can be handled in order to greatly reduce the occurrence of any infection from food microbes and other forms of food poisoning. This will necessarily include ways in which to safely harvest food, especially perishable food, through the application of proper hygiene during the harvesting process and proper storage methods. Such a course will also encompass training on how to prevent contamination of food from the various pesticides and fertilizer utilized in the cultivation process. Food science training involves a comprehensive training for the food scientists on the different types of microbes that are associated with food as well as how such microbes can be prevented from causing sickness or even death in both human beings and animals. This will necessarily involve detailed instructions on how to handle food items.

An example of this can be seen in the transference of bacteria, such as E. coli from raw meat and infected vegetable to human beings when lack of proper precautions are applied. Another subject studied during food science training is the regulations and laws in place in an area regarding food handling and storage, the labeling of food contents, the establishment of food shelf life, and other factors. For example, in the United States, the agency responsible for such laws regarding food is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Some of the laws that the food scientists will study include the labeling of food items where food manufacturers are legally required to list the content of their products on the label of the food item, including caloric content in some cases.