Appetite for food science grads growing, say experts
Skilled labour shortage in Canada means students with these unique skills are in high demand
Chefs might extol cooking arts, but they owe their finest ingredients to food science.
Advancements in biotechnology have led to improved crop yields, flavours, nutritional content and shelf life. With Ontario’s food and beverage processing sector on track to become a $40-billion industry by the end of the year, Canada is hungry for food scientists.
“The fact is there aren’t enough people graduating from these programs,” says Belinda Elysée-Collen, president-elect of the Canadian Institute of Food Science Technologists (CIFST). “What’s growing in the industry is the food safety and quality assurance side, and that’s creating a lot of jobs. If people have a food science-specific degree, they’d be able to get a job for sure.”
Elysée-Collen notes the wait for a qualified auditor at some food-processing plants can sometimes take months because of a shortage of skilled labour.
Most provinces have colleges or universities with food science departments to address that need. In Ontario, the University of Guelph, Carleton University and Mohawk College offer food science and technology courses.
One of the newest programs is the food science technology program at Centennial College. Among the first cohort to receive diplomas this spring will be 24-year-old Ruchita Gidwani. The foreign student from India grew up reading food labels and wondering why supermarket apples glinted so much under the lights. She learned later the sheen came from a food-grade wax coating sprayed on to protect the fruit’s exterior during shipping. “These days, there are many artificial foodstuffs in the markets,” she says. “I wanted to know basics of organic food. What’s natural? What am I eating? Awareness is so important.” Gidwani, one of the top students at the Centennial program, hopes to find employment as a quality assurance manager, possibly with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Amid news of European burgers containing horse meat, U.S. petitions against Kraft’s use of yellow dye in its Macaroni & Cheese and a tainted beef scare from Alberta’s XL Foods plant, applicants such as Gid- wani are in high demand. Centennial’s six-semester program debuted in 2011to help sate an appetite for inspectors, says Steve Boloudakis, a professor with the college’s food science program.
“I wanted to know basics of organic food. What’s natural? What am I eating? Awareness is so important.” RUCHITA GIDWANI FOOD SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY STUDENT
His students get experience with lab technology such as a $60,000 HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography) instrument that can analyze, for instance, the amount of caffeine in a new energy drink.
Food science is a multi-disciplinary field, Boloudakis says, with employees needed in quality assurance, quality control, product development, packaging, processing and microbiological and chemical analysis.
A final project in the Centennial program requires groups to develop a new food product and demonstrate how they would sell it in the market place.
“They obtain the ingredients, make the actual product and, once they make a prototype of the product, start doing a composition analysis — fat analysis, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals — testing it in the lab,” Boloudakis says.
Gidwani’s group created an allnatural juice it called “Berry-verage,” with a blend of strawberries and raspberries.
Acid from the fruit acted as a natural anti-bacterial component that extended the drink’s shelf life.
Panelists then ranked different attributes according to criteria such as texture, sweetness, and “mouthfeel” — a term used to describe the chemical and physical interactions between food and our mouths.
“It tasted really good. That was my favourite part,” says Gidwani. “Whenever we took our product to the lab for tasting, everybody was like, ‘OK, we’re ready for the sensory evaluation.’”
As for what the next generation of food scientists will be working toward developing, Boloudakis says consumer trends are swinging towards organic products, as well as ways to boost nutritional content and eliminate certain allergens. If you’re among the estimated 300,000 Canadians with celiac disease, for example, thank a food scientist for gluten-free pizza dough.
“Lactose-free, gluten-free, peanut-free, we’re thinking a lot about these things and the growing trend of claiming a product is free of certain allergens,” Boloudakis says.
Elysée-Collen says entry-level salaries range between $30,000 and $50,000, noting few jobs are as “recession-proof” as food production.
“Even in an economic downturn, if the economy’s not doing so well, the food companies are doing just fine,” she says. “It’s a very good, stable industry. We all have to eat.”