r/foodscience

Hello, looking to start up a cafe but more then just a regular shop. Instead of trying to creating a bunch recipes etc… would this be something a food scientist be able to help with?

Have you noticed the proliferation of prepared foods and beverages that include supplements—and their implied benefits? Sodas, coffee, cookies, chocolate, snack foods, candy—even ice cream—are showing up on shelves sporting stealth biohacking ingredients like lion's mane, ashwagandha, L-theanine, probiotics, creatine . . . it's a long list.

When I was a kid, breakfast cereals already had added vitamins. Milk, flour, and orange juice were often fortified, too. And Gatorade, anyone? Even before my time, there was iodized salt. But today's trend seems different. The goal isn't just to correct nutritional deficiencies, but to optimize—to lower stress, improve sleep, increase athletic performance. To, ahem, become (or at least sell the idea of) a better version of yourself.

Are we witnessing the supplementation of foods or the "foodification" of supplements? Maybe it's simply easier to habit-stack—we're already eating these foods, so why not add a supplement to them?

It feels like we've moved from fortifying foods to prevent deficiencies to fortifying foods to optimize ourselves. Is this a meaningful evolution in nutrition—or mostly a brilliant (or questionable) marketing strategy?

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone working in food manufacturing in PA, NJ, or NY would be willing to share typical starting salaries for entry level roles or recent graduates (with little to no experience).

I'm interested in hearing about any manufacturing related position, such as QA/QC, R&D, Production, Maintenance, Packaging or other roles.

For small to medium sized companies, what starting salary range do you usually see?

• Is it mostly around $35k-50k?
• Or is $50k+ common for entry level positions?

If you don't mind sharing, it would be helpful to include:

• State (PA, NJ, or NY)
• Company size (small, medium, or large)
• Position
• Starting salary or salary range
• Whether you had internships or prior experience

I'm just trying to get a realistic idea of the current job market for new graduates. Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,
Lately, I’ve been trying to build a stronger scientific foundation in cleaning and disinfection for the food industry. While I have hands-on experience in this field, I realized there’s always more to learn from research and the people who have been studying these topics for years.
If you could recommend just one book, scientific paper, review, guideline, or technical standard, what would it be?
I’m interested in topics like disinfectant efficacy, biofilms, sanitation validation, food microbiology, hygienic design, and food safety—but I’m open to anything you think every professional in this field should read.
I’d also love to know why that particular publication stood out to you.
Thanks in advance! I’m looking forward to learning from your recommendations.

I hope this is a correct subreddit for this.

As a kid, I learned about 4 tastes of food: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. Then, around 5th grade, I read about umami: supposedly this savoury, rich flavour, different from the previous ones. I was intrigued, and wondered how it could taste like: I mean, sweet sugar, salty salt, sour acids and bitter chemicals were logical, but this umami flavour sounded weird to me. I heard that it's deep, and stuff like meat and beer have that taste, but for me they were always salty or sweetish, with flavour and smell profile of themselves.

Now I'm 19, and I bought some MSG to try to add to my cooking, and I picked some to try this mythical flavour. All I tasted was saltiness with a faint hint of sweetness. It wasn't an off brand package, and it was all correctly stored etc, but I just couldn't taste the supposed rich flavour. Maybe I don't have taste buds receptors for umami especially? Or the neurological pathways weirdly diverge?

Now I'm wondering - how much am I missing out? Everything umami-like, it turns out, is just salty or a combination of other flavours to me.

Especially for maybe a family for group of people who don't eat out barely at all and eat healthy most of the time with would it truly be that adverse and if so what harm could it do

Does anyone have any opportunities for high schoolers interested in food science? I am a rising junior (about to turn 17 yo), and I'm looking for any opportunities available. Would appreciate any recommendations too. I am happy with unpaid work and internships, and I am willing to work hard!

Hi guys!

Currently 33M in Texas making 110,000 with a 10% bonus.

Was wondering what yalls pay scales are?

For reference - culinary degree, nutrition sciences degree. Successful products in Starbucks, papa John’s, Walmart, Costco, school lunches and military. Total experience as a nutritionist 3 years, experience as a chef 2 years, experience in food science 4 years

Hiii everyone!

Anya here from the Philippines! I work for a company that develops and supplies ice cream for ice cream shops, cafés, HORECA, amusement parks... pretty much anywhere that serves ice cream.

Most of my day is me flirting with food, especially ice cream! I spend my time coming up with new flavors, testing recipes, and finding ways to make them even better. Lately, I've been working on flavors inspired by Filipino desserts, local ingredients, and memories people can relate to, and honestly, it's been one of the most exciting parts of my job.

I wanted to do this AMA because I'm curious too. I want to know what people actually wonder about when it comes to ice cream. Whether it's flavors, ingredients (I'll keep things general though, hehe yk I can't share company secrets ), how new products are developed, what goes on behind the scenes, or even the business side of things.

So... ask me anything! No question is too simple or too random. Fire away!

And if you don't have a question, I'd love to hear this instead:

What's one ice cream flavor you've always wanted to try but have never seen?

Some of the ice cream I made and introduced last year in PH's ICEGEX 2025 : vanilla, matcha banana, blueternate coconut, strawberry chia, bignay and mixed berries, soursop

Hey everybody! I ran into something unexpected while working with daikon radish in a dessert application (specifically a sorbet component).

Raw daikon tasted relatively mild and slightly peppery. But after blending it into a purée, the flavor changed a lot, becoming much more pungent with a sharp mustard/horseradish-like flavor. At the same time, the purée became noticeably foamy and I couldn’t fully eliminate it even after passing it through a chinois.

My assumption is that this is related to some kind of enzymatic breakdown after cell rupture, but I’d like to understand what’s actually driving the intensity change and the foaming.

A few things I’m trying to clarify:

• Does high-shear blending significantly affect this?
• What is the primary cause of the persistent foaming in this kind of purée—protein release, trapped air from shear, or other compounds?
• Would a cold infusion or gentler extraction method reduce this effect, or does the reaction still occur as long as cells are ruptured?

Curious if anyone has run into this behavior before!

I was wondering. Using xanthan gum with just plain water would allow the gum to completely hydrate and after you could make an emulsion with it. How about adding the xanthan gum after making the emulsion. Since there is less readily available water, would the hydration of the xanthan gum be incomplete? Wouldn't that make it also less viscous ? Now, if we were to use a different branch of xanthan gum that has stronger polymeric interaction. Would that difference in effect be even greater? Would using NaOH (and later neutralize it) be able to reduce the hydration/polymeric interaction to have it normalized between the 4 different scenarios (before/after emulsion, xanthan gum/alternative)? If you have any ressources that could guide me, I'm all ears.

Hi all! I am a rising senior in high school starting to apply to undergraduate programs, with the hopes of one day working in the food industry, perhaps as a product developer or a flavorist. One thing that's been on my mind this whole time is what would be the best thing to major in; while majoring in food science initially seemed like the best option for me, I've been heavily considering majoring in chemistry or chemical engineering to have more options in terms of careers once I graduate. Moreover, I've heard on this subreddit that chemE majors tend to have higher salaries in the food industry. However, I struggle to see myself really enjoying the very physics-based curriculum of a chemE major; I'm more of a chemistry guy. Thoughts?

I joined ITC as an intern expecting to learn from one of India’s biggest FMCG companies. I was honestly excited because I thought I’d get exposure to world-class manufacturing practices and experienced mentors.
Instead, my experience has been disappointing.
From what I’ve seen, the work culture in my plant feels extremely toxic. Most employees don’t seem happy, and there isn’t much enthusiasm or collaboration. As an intern, I expected to shadow managers and learn how decisions are made, but a lot of the time it feels like interns are handling responsibilities that should belong to managers, while the guidance and mentorship are minimal.
Another thing that surprised me was how manual many processes still are. I expected a much higher level of automation and digitalization for a company of this scale.
The manufacturing environment also involves extensive use of cleaning and processing chemicals, which was eye-opening for me. I understand that chemicals are a normal part of food manufacturing, but seeing the scale firsthand was very different from what I had imagined.
Maybe my experience is specific to this plant or department, but it has been very different from the expectations I had before joining.
Has anyone else interned at ITC or another large FMCG company? Was your experience similar, or did I just get unlucky?

Everyone's heard the claim: archaeologists found honey in Egyptian tombs that's still edible thousands of years later. It gets repeated so often it's become a kind of trivia-night cliché, but the actual chemistry behind it rarely gets explained. So here's the real mechanism.

Water activity is the main one. Honey is roughly 17–18% water, but almost none of it is "available" water in the way microorganisms need. Sugar molecules bind to water molecules so tightly that bacteria and fungi can't access enough of it to survive, they essentially dehydrate on contact. This is measured as water activity (aw), and honey sits around 0.5–0.6, well below the 0.91 threshold most bacteria need to grow.

It's also intensely acidic. Honey has a pH between 3.2 and 4.5, largely from gluconic acid produced when bees add the enzyme glucose oxidase to nectar. Most pathogens can't tolerate that level of acidity for long.

And it produces its own antiseptic. That same glucose oxidase reaction generates small, steady amounts of hydrogen peroxide as the honey sits. It's a slow drip rather than a flood, but it's continuous, and it's part of why honey has been used as a wound dressing for most of recorded history.

Crystallisation isn't spoilage. This trips a lot of people up - if your honey turns cloudy or grainy, that's just glucose crystallising out of solution. It's a sign the honey is raw and minimally processed, not a sign it's gone bad. A gentle warm water bath (never the microwave, you'll destroy the enzymes) brings it back to liquid.

The catch: all of this only holds if water doesn't get introduced from outside: a wet spoon, an open jar in a humid kitchen, anything that pushes the water activity up. That's actually the only way honey spoils. Left properly sealed, the chemistry does the rest.

Can't find a straight answer to this here or elsewhere, so …. Time to ask the question myself 🤔

I'm looking to transition from R&D in cosmetics, to R&D in the food & beverage / ingredients industry. I have a B.A. in chemistry, and close to 10 years of experience in cosmetic labs. But I realize more and more, my true passion is food. I'm accumulating knowledge on the side but nothing that I can actually speak to on my resume.

So, I came across the ACF which offers a specialized certificate in Food Science. https://www.acfchefs.org/ACF/Education/Specialized_Certificates/SpecializedCertificateFoodScience/ACF/Education/ProDev/Specialized_Certificates/FoodScience/

Has anyone taken this course? Thoughts/opinions? Does it help with employment opportunities in Food & Beverage R&D?