Hi, Consumers seldom think of the mammoth effort in research and development that has enabled the tasty, nutritious, safe, and convenient food that they are consuming. This is where the science of Food Technology and Processing comes into action. Food technology is the application of food science to the selection, preservation, processing, packaging, distribution, and use of safe, nutritious, and wholesome food.
Food scientists and food technologists study the physical, microbiological, and chemical makeup of food. Depending on their area of specialization, food scientists may develop ways to process, preserve, package, or store food, according to industry and government specifications and regulations.

The Food Processing industry in India is gaining large momentum as the consumer food industry, which includes breads, cakes, corn flakes, alcoholic beverages, mineral & packaged water and various other ready to eat and ready to cook products is seeing an upward trend in demand and sales.
FIELDS
A food technologist can chiefly work in following industries/functionalities:

• Hotels
• Food Courts
• Hospitals
• Packaging, industries
• Distilleries
• Soft drink factories
• Rice mills
• Agro-based industries
• Vineyards
• Tea Estates

Food technology is associated with the manufacture , preservation , canning and packaging of food products. It is concerned with all types of food-vegetables, meet, fish , eggs, milk, cereals, spices, tea , coffee etc. Food scientists and technologistsuse chemistry, microbiology, engineering and other sciences to study the principles underlying the processing and deterioration of foods, they analyze food content to determine level of vitamins, fat, sugar and protein, discover new food sources, research ways to make processed food safe, palatable and healthful and apply food science knowledge to process, preserve, store and distribute food.

The nature of work is essentially technical and scientific. They work in variety of settings-hotels, hospitals and other institutions which have catering establishments,and in the food industry. They are involved in quality control and testing. These specialists carry out adulteration tests on fresh as well as preserved food items and advise on matters such as personal hygiene, and the right temperature for food refrigeration and thawing. In poultry/ dairy farms, food technologists check on the quality of the products. In slaughter houses, they ensure that diseased and dead animals are not used for meat. In rice mills they oversee polishing of rice; in sugarcane mills they keep a check on the processing, fermentation, hygiene and storage of sugar. In the consumer service role, food technologists are involved in jobs such as developing newer varieties of nutritional natural foods and cheap protein supplements, preventingfood poisoningand introducing new flavors.
Various job titles could be food technologist, food scientist, quality assurance executive, product development specialist, research and development specialist, food quality control manager, plant manager, food analyst, food consultant, food & drug inspector etc.

The food technology is study of science related to processing of food stuffs. This processing involves preservation of fruits, sea food, meat, cooked food, vegetables, juices and beverages and the manufacturing of confectionery, snacks, food stuffs as well as packaging of these articles for marketing. Processed and preserved food stuffs have been one of the most remarkable catalyst for bringing about change in food habits of a substantially large urban population in the past few decades.

Main work and responsibilities of food technologist:

1. The food technologist is trained to apply scientific knowledge of Chemistry, Physics, Biology and Engineering to the processing of food stuffs, quality control, storage and research etc.

2. Food technologists, also called food scientists, study the physical, chemical and biological composition of food. They are engaged of processing of foods, preserving packaging and search ways for enhancing flavors and the nutritional values of food stuffs. Quality control of fresh and processed foods is their responsibility.







3. Food technologists are concerned with food processing, i.e. preservation of fruits, sea food, meat, cooked foods, vegetables, fruit juices and beverages and packaging for marketing purpose.

4. The other jobs are also; research for devising new and improved food processing techniques, guiding the processing, conservation and preservation of food stuffs.

5. Creating new food stuffs generated from plants and animal life.

6. Improving existing techniques for economizing processing, adding values, creating new tastes fro providing impetus to marketing and consumption of processed food stuffs.

7. Evolving measures such as infestation control, fungicidal treatment and insecticidal storage to protect foods from spoilage and damage.

8. Examining food stuffs for contamination, adulteration, food values etc. by biochemical, microbiological and chemical means and also to measure the nutritional values of food stuffs.

9. The other branches where food technologist is also involved are ; to study the cereals, grains, meat and poultry, fats and oils, seafood, animal foods, beverages, dairy products, flavors, sugar starches, stabilizers, preservatives, colors and nutritional additives.

Good Luck...