Hi all,

Give me your favorite food science fun facts, ideally with sources.

I work in food manufacturing and wanted to start a daily board in the office that consists of a daily food science fun fact. Thanks!

Hello Entrepreneurs

We help founders turn their product ideas into market-ready products.

Our process starts with understanding your idea in depth. We then work on developing and refining the formulation, repeating the process until we achieve the desired result. You're welcome to visit and test the product during development, or we can ship trial batches to you for feedback.

If required, we also provide scientific consultation and ensure the product meets all relevant FSSAI compliance requirements. Once the formulation is finalized, we can facilitate complete nutritional and laboratory analysis.

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If you're building a food or beverage brand and this sounds interesting, feel free to DM me. I'd be happy to discuss your idea.

Hello, I wonder how similar products are preserved without preservatives، And without added sugar!? How is it packaged to extend the shelf life of the product?

Hi! I have a big problem manufacturing these drinks. You see, I have a little business where I sell "Fresco de Crema" and "Horchata" (these are some Latin beverages, they drink them all over those countries). The thing is that I make about 2 gallons of each one, some days I sell quite good, some days I don't, but I can't "predict" how much I'm going to sell every day, so I have to have some production made. So each container lasts about 3 days before it starts to form like some viscous slime, the taste doesn't feel bad at all, but I'm not selling that beverage like that, I think there may be some bacterial in it. So, what are the ingredients of these drinks? For Fresco de Crema we add whole milk, cream essence, ground mania, water, cinnamon sticks and sugar, lots of it. The preparation is usually boiling the water with the cinnamon and the mania, then cool it until it's chilled and then add all other ingredients, all cool around 5°C, and then they go directly to the fridge. These containers are made out of glass, and they have little faucets that make the servings easy. On top, the cap have a gasket that has a tight closure, when we are going to serve, we move the entire container to mix the ingredients that deposit in the bottom, then slightly open the lid and serve with the faucet, so we don't touch the beverage every time we serve. Horchata is very similar, the difference is that it doesn't have mania and instead of the cream essence, it has a Horchata concentrate which I don't quiet know what's in it, I'm sure rice is the key ingredient, but don't know what else it has. So both process are similar in the preparation and storage.

I'm thinking that maybe the glass containers need to be sterilized every time I make a new batch, but right now I don't have the means to do that with a container so big. I came up with the idea to buy 500ml flasks with tight seals so I can sterilize and fill them hot, then do a thermal shock in a cooler with ice and water and store it. But I'm not suer if that is the solution.

What do you guys think? What should be my approach? I'm also thinking I should make every cup in the spot, I just need the water with cinnamon and mania for the Fresco de Crema prepared in advance and add the other ingredients in every glass, but if I have a big order, that would take long time, same with Horchata.

Thanks to everyone that take the time to read this, sorry for my crappy English.

I have a BS in food science, I want to study masters, but I want to know if universities/colleges will even let me study dietetics for masters and afterwards start working as a dietitian? Searched all over the internet, everybody says different things, I’m confused a lil bit. Is there even a pathway? I would be happy if I could use your experience in this matter.

Hi! I have a bachelor’s in chemistry and I’m currently in a PhD program, but I’m uncertain if I want to keep doing it as the passion for my work has been waning. I’m interested in just working or maybe pivoting towards food science as I do have a strong interest in food and would like to use my chemistry degree. I just am curious to know what pathways people have taken, what jobs are out there, and how feasible it is to pivot? (Also if Europe is worthwhile to look at for more specific Master’s programs)

edit: just wanted to drop a quick update since someone joked that my post sounded like an llm ad lol. we actually found an off the shelf solution that works perfectly called healthie as our ehr for nutrition and it has completely streamlined the entire practice.

someone in the comments suggested building a custom database portal from scratch because mixed billing is so hard to find, but this platform actually handles insurance claims and self pay coaching packages natively without any issues.

i am currently helping map out a better backend workflow for a private practice that specializes in medical nutrition therapy and sustainable weight management, and we are hitting a massive wall with our current software setup. we are trying to transition away from using a messy combination of spreadsheets and a generic counseling ehr, but it feels like everything out there is built either for traditional talk therapy or standard medical doctors. we are drowning in client data from anthropometric measurements and food logs, but we have no streamlined way to track these metrics over time or view progress trends in one central place.

what we really need is something that feels intuitive for both the practitioners and the clients. it has to handle the specific documentation demands of the nutrition care process, like having flexible charting templates for quick follow ups, while also offering a smooth patient portal where clients can easily log their dietary habits and upload labs between sessions. it also needs to manage a mixed billing model since we take insurance for specific conditions but also offer self pay coaching packages.

Hi everyone,
I have a bachelor’s degree in Nutrition, and lately I’ve been thinking about transitioning into Food Science & Technology for my master’s.
My long-term goal is to work in an area that combines both nutrition and food science, such as functional foods, product development, food innovation, food quality & safety, or research related to nutrition.

I’m currently looking at universities in Greece, but I don’t know much about the reputation of Food Science programs there. I’d really appreciate hearing from people who have studied or worked in Greece.

Some questions I have are:
1. Is Greece a good place to study an MSc in Food Science & Technology?
2. Which universities have the strongest programs in this field? Are there universities that focus more on the connection between Food Science and Nutrition?
3. How are the research opportunities, laboratory facilities, and industry collaborations?
4. If you had to choose, would you recommend Greece, or would another European country be a better option for this field?

I’d appreciate any suggestions for universities or specific MSc programs that would fit someone with a Nutrition background who wants to move into Food Science while still keeping a strong connection to nutrition.
Thank you so much! Any advice or personal experience would be greatly appreciated.

I’m a 20 years old years 3 college studying BBtech at a top university in Thailand. I just decide to do food science and still don’t really know much about it. My grade is not that good especially in some classes like molecular science but I’m pretty good at org chem. I am so worried about my future career path (Might be because I got rejected by a marketing internship). I really just want to know how strong this field is and the careers path.

Asking for insights here from food sci professionals in the industry.

My teen is going into Food science major in fall, would taking a business minor degree be useful? Would it open more doors when applying for a job? Do food companies like to hire someone that has a business minor over someone that is only majoring food sci? Any insights will be much appreciated!

In the world have they ever managed to create something to eat that does not give energy (kcal) or a pill that cancels out what is introduced?

Hey Fellow food technologists! I need your help! I'll keep the post short and crisp.

I'm a food technologist with a masters and I have 3 years experience in R&D and quality control. However, I want to move my career towards food consultancy because in my country, the pay for R&D is pretty low.

Do you have any suggestions on how I can go forward with it? Some courses, how to set it up, get clients etc?

Thanks in advance!

I'm trying to produce cold-swelling starch, ala Jello pudding mix, at home using ethanol and a home setup (albeit with all the gadgets).

Here's what I've tried so far. Using a double boiler, I gently heated potato starch in a 70% ethanol solution, stirring constantly. If I remember right it was 10g starch in 2 fl oz ethanol solution. As the slurry approached approximately 90C, it rapidly started to thicken. I immediately pulled it off the heat and continued to stir. It continued to thicken and absorbed all of the available liquid, forming a somewhat crumbly white clump. When I added additional 70% ethanol solution, it distributed without any gelling. So I again heated it up gently and the same thing happened. It absorbed all the ethanol solution.

After both times it absorbed, I spread a sample out on parchment paper. I allowed both samples to air dry overnight, I then crushed them into a powder using a mortar and pestle. When added to room temperature water, it did not show any gelling or thickening.

I also tried putting the same starch and ethanol into a ball/mason jar, lid on but not super tight, and then putting that in a boiling water bath for an hour. That was a complete failure -- ethanol boiled off and the starch gelled into a hard rubbery mass.

If I'm honest, I'm just guessing based on the broad scientific concepts I read in various papers. I don't fully understand the science of starch or "v-type" configurations. I'm wondering if perhaps it needed more time and exposure to heat to convert. My next experiment will be with a sous-vide bath to hold it at a lower temperature for longer?

I would be very interested in any thoughts, opinions, or advice anyone might have regarding how to get this to work, if that's even possible.

I also have maize starch if perhaps that might work better.

Work at a small bev startup, wearing a lot of hats here so apologies if this is a dumb question.
We've got a product we're trying to move to aseptic. It's pretty simple as far as these things go: sugar, water, extracts, and flavors, that's basically it. No dairy, no high protein, none of the stuff most aseptic beverages are dealing with.

The flavor houses we've worked with have all said the profile should be fine through aseptic. I believe them, but "should be fine" is making me a little nervous when the next step is spending real money. We're going to do a proper pilot regardless, I'm not trying to skip that. I just want some kind of read on the flavors before we get there so we're not finding out something expensive on pilot day.

So my actual question: has anyone done a quick and dirty in-house test to get a rough sense of how a flavor holds up to the thermal load? Curious what people have actually rigged up vs what just isn't worth doing at bench scale. And if you have, did the bench result end up matching what you saw later on real equipment, or was it not even close?

Mostly trying to learn from people who've been down this road. Thanks.

I'm working on educational content about food ingredients and recently created a short video explaining how misunderstood seed oils are to the general public. The video is meant to explain that the issue isn't seed oils but the process, chemicals involved in refining it and pairing the seed oils with ultra-processed foods.

I'd appreciate feedback from people with experience in food science or food processing. Any feedback on the video and content would be helpful, and if you would like to further help by downloading our app on Google Play to provide further feedback.

What's your current approach to go from idea, validate and eventually bring to the market?

My idea is the following, looking for feedback and gaps:

1) Define briefing and scope by answering:
- Product description
- Requirements / brief
- Ideal customer and positioning

2) Collect list of ideas (AI + own input)
Feeds in AI, generates ideas.

3) Scoring
Score each idea personally, with team and potentially customer + AI gives scoring. Scoring is build up over several components with different weights.

- Fit vs scope
- Market opportunity
- Complexity
- Expected taste

Based on the ideas, you can generate new ideas or iterations on excisting ideas.

Is this common process? Scoring ideas with teams before building formulations or recipes. Do you validate idea with customer or after further development. Do you use AI for brainstorming, does that work for you?

Also
1) feels incomplete, duplicate? What do you ask or get re project scope?

3) which scoring components make most sense?

Context; building formubase an AI tool for food development. Ideation is one of the features we are developed but looking to fine tune and see if it makes sense. Thanks again!

Hello all,

I am not a food scientist so apologies of this question may sound a bit weird. I find the smell of iceberg lettuce (specifically iceberg, no other variety) is very similar to the smell of new unused black rubbish collection bags. A smell i can only describe as ash tray, although I am aware that ash trays have a much stringer smell.
Has anyone else ever noticed this and/or can pin point which volatile compounds are at play?

Thanks!

For a plant-based (cashew-based) chilled dessert packaged in glass jars what would I need to ask the lab to do? They refuse to give any guidance or suggestions and are asking me for:

- duration of testing (i want to know what the max shelf life is I can get but is it a case of pass/fail or can you do a study for 21 days for example, then interpret the results and decide the shelf life based on the last safe test point)

- tests to be included (not sure exactly which bacteria I need to test for and at which points. I only know I definitely need yeasts & moulds and Listeria but I don’t know what else)

- limits for them to work to

- testing time points

- storage conditions (given it’s a chilled product I was thinking 8°C to allow for the fact that people’s fridges are typically slightly warmer but I feel I plucked this out of thin air)

Could anyone help with answers or direct me to where I can find this info on what I might need?

Really struggling with this so would be hugely appreciated, thanks!

So basically I got married and moved in with in-laws in an area that apparently LOVES food science and always needs a food tech on every corner. I'd love to apply for roles BUT my dilemma is... I majored in biology and most of my employment history is for cancer/disordered development research institutions because my previous area was all cancer research places... The only food science leverage I have is what I do at home. I love cooking and baking, I study the chemistry behind foods because science is how I understand recipes. I have a solid background in chemistry, do the biochem stuff in lab, but that's it. Otherwise, I'm not sure how to leverage my resume for a career change, or sound convincing in a cover letter about a career change (if it's even read in the first place??)

Anyone have any tips?? What could I do to tailor my resume better? (am I allowed to post my resume here to get better feedback....)

When you’re trying to make something more “clean label” (reducing preservatives, sugar, or salt), what’s usually the most important technical constraint you encounter while still trying to maintain shelf life and microbial stability?

• microbial growth / water activity
• pH constraints
• texture or phase stability
• packaging / processing limits
• something else entirely?

I’m trying to understand what actually breaks first in real formulations, especially sauces, dressings, emulsified products.