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Hey Mom! What's For Dinner?

Do the Math!

8 Top Secrets for Making A's

Do you like to eat? Do you like to have fun? Do you like to make money? Are you sick of all these questions?

Well, don’t stop reading to grab a snack quite yet. The next few minutes may help you decide that one of your favorite pastimes can also bring you an exciting and tasty (pretty bad, we know) career.

When you think of a job in the food industry probably the first image that pops into your head is someone wearing a white hat that looks like a big muffin. You know, a chef, a baker, a cook ­— someone who mixes a lot of colorful spices and savory ingredients to create delicious salads, entrees, and desserts. Like many artistic careers (and good cooking is indeed an art form) your job and salary are based on the amount of time you are willing to spend in both formal and real world training. Top chefs typically study at cooking schools, culinary institutes, or two and four year colleges while also gaining on-the-job experiences through an apprenticeship, internship, or other out-placement programs.

Of course there are many unique fields in the food industry that should appeal to nearly every interest or skill set. If you like math and science you might consider becoming a food scientist or food science technician. These professionals, whose median annual earnings are around $50,000, typically work for food processing companies, universities, or the Federal government. They apply their training in chemistry, engineering, microbiology, and other related sciences to study and develop foods that are safe, healthful, and good to eat. These are the creators of the next new ice cream flavor or snack product ­— pretty fun job! Of course all the tasting of the rejects may be a problem.

If you have a keen mind for organization, a career as a food service manager could be an excellent option. Although this profession requires long hours (they’re usually the first to arrive and the last to leave), food service managers have the satisfaction of performing a wide array of duties­— from hiring and coordinating the activities of each employee to maintaining inventory levels to making sure that all the equipment is running smoothly.

Or if you enjoy communicating, you may be a good candidate for a career in food marketing. Like most consumer trades, food companies use publicists for major announcements like the release of new products. They also need designers to create colorful packaging and copywriters to devise clever advertising campaigns or memorable product names. And there are even photographers that specialize in­ ­—you guessed it— food photography. They work days on making the food you see in ads and cookbooks look appetizing and yummy using tricks like glycerin water spray and others.

Then again, your interests may be closer to the real thing — growing the food we eat. Large farms produce most of the food we consume, but with more people interested in healthy living the field of organic farming offers new opportunities for those wanting to be involved in agriculture.

Actually, your options are nearly unlimited. So the next time you go out to eat or are enjoying your favorite snack, think about all the people involved in bringing food to your table. You just may join their ranks one day.

Sidebar: Nick Graham: Not Your Typical Neighborhood Grocer

What if you were a high school kid and the only grocery in your small town suddenly closed? "Go somewhere else," you might say. Not if you’re Nick Graham. At the age of 17 he took the money he had been saving for years by raising and selling turkeys to buy Main Street Market in Truman, Minnesota after learning that it was going out of business.

Nick was aware of how important the store was to his tiny community of 1,400. The next closest grocery required a roundtrip of almost 25 miles and for many residents this was an expensive inconvenience — especially for the elderly and those on a fixed income. Since Nick had "saved every dime" he’d ever made, he decided to make an investment in the town he loved. Soon he was successfully juggling schoolwork, extracurricular activities like sports, and a thriving business. It’s little wonder that one newspaper called him "a hometown hero."

Sidebar: Q & A with an Ice Cream Man

Daryl Gaw is a Food Scientist — aka Ice Cream Man — at Purity Dairies in Nashville, TN. Purity, a family-run dairy business since 1925, produces some of the yummiest ice cream treats. On Track asked Daryl about his work as a Food Scientist.

1. What does a food scientist do at Purity Dairies?
A food scientist wears many hats at Purity. Everyone here plays a role in Quality Control and Food Science–from the sales and marketing team to research and development, lab technicians, line managers, quality managers, and senior management. All must understand the science of the product to produce and protect the integrity of top quality dairy products.

2. How did you decide to go into this career field?
I began by working on the loading dock and eventually moving into a packaging machine operators position while still in school. As I learned more about the production process I became interested in Quality Control.

3. How do you create new flavors of ice cream?
In creating new flavors, math and science are very important. Flavor chemists develop the formulas, which require very specific ratios of ingredients. The formulas must be chemically compatible with our processing equipment to create pleasing products. New product ideas are shared with the entire team as well as ingredient suppliers that play a large role in research and development of new flavors or products.

4. What other jobs involving math and science are available at Purity Dairies?
Nearly every job at Purity involves math and science to some degree. Computer and process engineers, production planning and inventory control, and cleaning personnel all use math and science daily in their careers.

5. Which high school courses will prepare students for college and a career as a food scientist or flavor chemist?
High school courses that will help prepare a student for a career in this field would include math, chemistry, biology, phy-sics and any computer classes offered.

Sidebar: So exactly how do they get the center inside a Twinkie!?

More than 1.5 million people in the United States work for one of nearly 29,000 companies that process or manufacture some type of food. Many use their educational background in food science, engineering, marketing, or management to ensure a company’s efficient operation, food quality, employee safety, and successful product marketing.

So, now that you know the important career stuff, here is the answer to our original question and one of life´s little food mysteries. The Twinkie is baked for 10 minutes before the cream filling is injected into three holes on the flat, brown side (or so one newspaper reporter claimed— the manufacturer has never publicly revealed its secrets). Whatever—they are so delicioso!!!

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