Distinguishing between margarine and butter may not be as difficult as the old advertisements used to claim. But can you tell marge from ice-cream?

For scientists working in the food industry, this may be a more apposite question. Margarine and ice-cream, as it happens are both emulsions and chemists who specialize in this area may not distinguish much between them in their research. Their findings about one of them in the laboratory can be applied also to the other – the pure science is the same. And when they are looking at productions methods for such foodstuffs, they will cooperate with engineers jus like their opposite numbers in the petroleum or plastics industries.

In other words, scientists in the food industry remain basically chemists, or biochemists, or microbiologists or whatever, Today, they are working on tinned spaghetti, but tomorrow, it could be soapflakes.

From the careers angle, the important feature of this is that young scientists who are thinking about entering the food industry have no need to fear that they are bossing themselves into a narrow occupational area. On the contrary, with most “food” employers there is an open door into a diverse range of research and other opportunities.

As a generalization, it is fair to say that scientists in this field are employed in five main areas: devising new products and improving existing products; devising new processes and improving existing processes; and finally, in dealing with “external” constraints and controls such as meeting requirements of new EEC regulations.

In undertaking this work, a wide range of disciplines is required. However, by far the most popular subject with employers and recruiters is chemistry, particularly where physical chemistry has been the main subject studied. Biochemists are also well received, and chemical engineers are needed to marry up the cork of the scientists to the large-scale production processes.

Students who have taken degrees in subjects like food science and technology obviously enter the industry as well, but, relatively speaking, their numbers are not large. In short, it is by no means necessary to have specialised in the subject while at college in order to enter the industry on graduation.