Description
Apply chemistry to characterize food composition, reactions, and deterioration; develop and validate methods to quantify nutrients, additives, and contaminants; design formulations and preservation systems to enhance safety, quality, flavor, and shelf life; and use chemical principles to optimize processing, packaging, and storage in compliance with regulations.
- • Analyze ingredients and finished products for vitamins, fats, sugars, proteins, minerals, and bioactives.
- • Develop and validate analytical methods (e.g., HPLC, GC-MS, ICP, FTIR, titration) for nutrients, additives, and contaminants.
- • Study and control key reactions—oxidation, Maillard browning, and hydrolysis—that affect flavor, color, and nutrition.
- • Formulate and optimize preservatives, antioxidants, emulsifiers, and stabilizers to improve safety, quality, and shelf life.
- • Check raw materials for chemical maturity and stability; verify finished products meet safety and quality specifications.
- • Evaluate processing and storage conditions and build chemical quality assurance programs for operations.
- • Collaborate with process engineers, sensory scientists, and packaging teams to resolve formulation and scale-up issues.
- • Assess packaging–product interactions, migration, and barrier performance to protect product quality and compliance.
- • Establish chemical standards, production specifications, and requirements for sanitation, waste management, and water quality.
- • Identify, quantify, and mitigate residues and hazardous compounds (e.g., allergens, heavy metals, pesticides, acrylamide, mycotoxins).
- • Seek and validate substitutes for harmful or undesirable additives and support clean-label reformulations.
- • Prepare technical reports, labeling inputs, and regulatory dossiers to meet FDA and industry requirements.
- • Stay current on food chemistry research, analytical techniques, and regulations by reviewing scientific literature.
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Agriculture
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Tasks & skills:
O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
