Food Scientists and Technologists Salary in Washington, DC

Common tasks

• Check raw ingredients for maturity or stability for processing, and finished products for safety, quality, and nutritional value.
• Inspect food processing areas to ensure compliance with government regulations and standards for sanitation, safety, quality, and waste management.
• Study methods to improve aspects of foods, such as chemical composition, flavor, color, texture, nutritional value, and convenience.
• Develop food standards and production specifications, safety and sanitary regulations, and waste management and water supply specifications.
• Stay up to date on new regulations and current events regarding food science by reviewing scientific literature.
• Study the structure and composition of food or the changes foods undergo in storage and processing.
• Confer with process engineers, plant operators, flavor experts, and packaging and marketing specialists to resolve problems in product development.
• Test new products for flavor, texture, color, nutritional content, and adherence to government and industry standards.
• Develop new food items for production, based on consumer feedback.
• Develop new or improved ways of preserving, processing, packaging, storing, and delivering foods, using knowledge of chemistry, microbiology, and other sciences.