What is Food Science & Technology? What are its Career Prospects and which Colleges are offering this Course?
Answer:
Food Technology involves the application of food science to the selection, preservation, processing and packaging of raw produce or the value added, safe, nutritious and wholesome food fit for distribution and consumption. Food science is a discipline concerned with all the technical aspects of food, beginning with harvesting or slaughtering or milking or catching and ending with its processing and consumption.
At present the food processing industry is highly fragmented and is dominated by the unorganized sector which is around 75 per cent. It is fervently hoped that the share of organized sector in food processing industry will increase from around 32 per cent currently to 40 per cent by 2015. The role of food processing becomes all the more crucial because food production is estimated to double in the next 10-15 years.
Career prospects
Food technology professionals, after graduation are qualified to man various positions of responsibility in food processing industries as supervisors, assistant managers, production managers, food packaging manager, R & D personnel, food scientist, food development manager, quality control officers, sensory scientist, food safety auditors, food stylists, marketing/ sales, to name a few.
The Central Food Technological Research Institute, (CFTRI) Mysore, functioning under the umbrella of CSIR has been enjoying the pioneering status in Food Science & Technology Education & Research in the country. This institute awards M.Sc. (Food Tech.) and Ph.D degrees, and is well known for its standing, all over Asia.
Other institutes include:
Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Punjab University, Chandigarh
Amity Institute of Food Technology, Noida
Guru Jambheshwar University, Hisar
Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Uttarakhand
Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar
Jadhavpur University, Kolkata
Harcourt Butlar Technology Institute (HBTI) Kanpur