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If you have food science questions or need help, contact me! I'm a food scientist, but due to life-stuff, I'm not working in that field (though I've worked in food plants previously) and would LOVE to be able to talk shop. LOVE to.

If you can access it, I would highly recommend watching Alton Brown's "Good Eats" show. Alton covers a lot of the basics, and while he does get stuff wrong from time to time, I think he's still a good resource for getting a broad framework of how food works. Alton's show is what got me into wanting to go into food science. :)

My Intro to Food Science course used this book: https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Food-Science-Technology-InfoTrac/dp/053454486X/ref=sr_1_40?ie=UTF8&qid=1537460151&sr=8-40&keywords=food+science You can buy it used pretty cheaply now. I'd recommend this one.

Chemistry both is and isn't super important when it comes to food science. I had a hell of a time with general chemistry classes, but I liked my carbon compounds class (basically organic chemistry dumbed down for us people not planning on being doctors). I personally think basic organic chemistry is better for food science; knowing how fats and sugars are composed and how they act was more important than knowing about the electronegativity of nitrogen or whatever.

More important than chemistry, at least in my studies, was microbiology. A lot of food science is food safety, and a lot of food safety is about how to control and reduce bacteria populations. That's not even going into fermented foods like cheese (my favorite topic, honestly) or alcohol.

Something to keep in mind, is no matter how much book learning you get a lot of food science is trial and error. And that's part of what's fun about it! Even though I'm not pursuing food stuff as a career right now (damn depression), I still feel like food science benefits my life. I love experimenting in the kitchen, and I actually became friends with one of my BFFs because she had celiac's disease and I liked figuring out how to modify recipes so she could also enjoy them.

What I'm saying is, even if you don't become a food scientist and Change the World (tm), learning more about it will likely be a benefit to your life and to the lives of the people around you. Plus, it's fun!

I'm going to have to see what food science stuff I still have on my computer when I get home; some of it might be beneficial to you.

Something I would recommend, if you're able: see if you can get work in a food manufacturing plant, especially if you can get into the quality department. This will give you more visibility as to what life would be like as a food scientist (probably working largely in food plants). I recommend QA because it has the most to do with food safety, generally, and seeing if you actually like repetitive lab work will help you figure out if being a scientist is what you want to do.

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What kinds of foodstuffs do you like playing with? That might be a good place to start figuring out what to read and what to research. For me, I love cheese (I worked in the university creamery and a huge mozzarella plant after college); cheese is honestly kind of magical to me. Seeing milk be transformed from a liquid to solid curds and yellow whey is just so cool, no matter how many times I see it-- and cheese tastes amazing anyway.

I also really like old-fashioned fudge (none of that marshmallow-fluff nonsense). The trick (and fun part) of fudge is controlling when and how big your sugar crystals are. It's half art, half science, and that's my favorite when it comes to experimenting in the kitchen.

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Like I said, PLEASE contact me if you want to talk about food science! I love talking shop! It drives my husband crazy! XD

Hi!

Thank you so much for all your thoughtful responses!! =D

At the moment I'm focusing on trying out to see if I would like to/would be able to work in the field of food science developing food products..I'm unable to move at the moment & live in a country where English isn't the main language,with very little money,so going to college is not an option right now & if I could somehow get the funds then I could only manage half time or less (as things are now) . So that has left EdX & textbooks as my only free options (that I'm aware of)

Thanks for the book suggestion.My uni library used to have it & then they threw it out because not many people borrowed it =( .What websites do you recommend (I live in the EU so shipping from Amazon can be an issue)

It would be great if you could list the other foundational courses.

I'm going to look into a foundation degree, does anybody have experience doing a food science one?

How can I work towards taking those collegiate courses? (I thought almost all college courses needed a high school graduation certificate,which I don't have,I only have a GCSE equivalent which is similar to Year 11y taken at 16 year olds)

Thanks for the PDF!

I borrowed :

Food Science and Technology 1st Edition https://www.amazon.com/Food-Science-Technology-Geoffrey-Campbell-Platt/dp/0632064218/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1537130232&sr=1-1&keywords=food+science+and+technology+campbell-platt from the library but it was extremely complicated & put me off a bit & made me realize I really need the basics.I'm unsure what level the book is for.

A study buddy/other would be helpful for motivation & for when I get stuck & Google is of no help & to get an idea of what its actually like to work in the field.

I hope I made my situation clearer,so you can understand what I'm looking for/what could work for me.I'm trying to find out my options so that I can decide what is the best way forward without wasting time learning things that won't be useful.. (& any basic relevant Food Science information from textbooks I learn now would be helpful to get through any food science course more easily)

If I find that I love food science & want to pursue a career in it then I hope to find a way to get a Bachelor's degree.How did you know that food science was the area of studies/job for you ? What events made you sure/unsure that food science suited you ?

Thanks!

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PS: Is there a chat for Food Science on Reddit,searched but didn't find any?

Ethics aside, it's an interesting question. There's a great book that covers this topic called "Why Humans Like Junk Food" written by a food scientist.

It covers a variety of junk food e.g. corn chips, pizza, and non junk food e.g. butter, garlic, artichokes and explains why we enjoy them so much. Taking those concepts and applying them in a NPD context would surely help in creating addictive products. For a sweet item, sucrose seems to be top dog, at least according to this book.

However, as unethical as these practices are, it's clear to see that existing, successful products on the market are engineered specifically to be addictive. I mean even Pringles jingle is "once you pop, you can't stop."

Where is the line drawn between using food science to make a sensorially desirable product vs. one that is made to be addictive?

I finished with a bachelor's degree in food science at Oregon State University in the U.S. It was fantastic. There are so many directions you can go with food science. OSU's program focuses on the food chemistry side as opposed to the nutrition side of things. There are students specializing in beer, wine, cheese, meat and food in general. Each specialty means different classes. If you're into wine, you study varying degrees of viticulture. If you're studying meat, you get into farming. Students and professors have a vast array of cross-disciplinary experiences. Another great thing about food science is industry involvement. Before you even leave college you can meet industry members through your local IFT chapter. That really provides another dimension to your education if you can take advantage of. I love asking people about their jobs and what they're doing. The thing that pulled me in initially was the high rate of employment after school. I've been out two years and am working as a research technician at a manufacturing plant. I love it.
Edit: Oof, guess I went off on a tangent there. The thing I find most motivating are books like this The kitchen as a laboratory and this Molecular Gastronomy

I've found the most useful resource on sauces to be James Peterson's Sauces. It covers classical and contemporary sauces, and for classical sauces, contemporary methods of production. It's very useful.

Forgot another resource: If you're going to be in the industrial or modernist world, then Martin Lersch's Textures is a pretty great (and free) resource for working with hydrocolloids. Lersch's blog is also a good resource by itself.

Good luck!

Your basic toolbox is going to be salt (assuming you don't have a sodium restriction), stevia/sucralose and lemon juice/vinegar. Any of the flavor profiles you might want to apply to the food you can eat will need them and thankfully, they will fit into your diet.

Saltiness, sweetness and acidity perpetuate flavor so having them as a basis for your work will be necessary. As an example, some acidity will help lift fruit flavors, while not necessarily making the food acidic.

If you want to exaggerate the profiles of the foods you can eat, there are consumer level offerings of food flavors, like ones sold here:

https://www.diy-ejuice.com/Real-Flavors-s/1915.htm

These are cut from industry offerings, so they will be easier for you to work with. I would also look at spices and spice oils as well. I would invest in a vacuum tumbler and a Jaccard for getting that flavor into your meat and seafood most effectively:

https://www.amazon.com/STX-International-STX-1000-CE-Vegetable-Tenderizer/dp/B0115CGX4I

https://www.amazon.com/Jaccard-200348-Supertendermatic-48-Blade-Tenderizer/dp/B001347JK6/

These work amazingly well. Jaccard the meat first, make a brine of flavor, seasonings and other ingredients and tumble them with your protein.

Here's the bottles I've used:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003OBYY04/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Give it a 10 min spin and then peak and see what it looks like and maybe 1 or 2 more spins if necessary. I've done this for things like strawberry broth (has a soft "pellet" which tends to fall off side of bottle, but centrifuging out most of the particulate matter it makes subsequently filtering go much faster) and lemongrass juice (much easier to decant with out contamination from the pellet). Traditionally, you orient the bottle so that the pellet is on the face up side of the bottle when you decant (the opposite of what you do when decanting a wine bottle).

It does get a laugh when I tell my friends I used a washing machine centrifuge.

Most of your topics are admittedly experience based. I think if you are in a procurement role, it's best to read books about negotiating and the commodity markets. If you're in a product management role, my favorite site for the topic is Aha! https://blog.aha.io/ . For quality... you're going to get a lot of crap just because quality is one of those buzzword books.

A friend of mine just launched a book who's been in the Dairy industry for like, 30 years and if you read the comments, he talks a lot about SQF and HACCP. Note I have not read the book, but I think this might help you. https://www.amazon.com/New-Manager-Mindset-Secrets-Leadership/dp/1520507240/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

As a product developer, I focus on improving my creativity and how to convince people my ideas don't suck. So I read those books. You can see the list on a blog I write here: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/books/

Thank you! This sounds like great advice.


My product is a seasoning blend working as a salt substitue without potassium - a requirement for kidney patients.

Table tasty:

https://www.amazon.com/Bensons-Substitute-Potassium-Chloride-Alternative/dp/B006GCMI5Q

So yeast makes sense as the key ingredient like you say.

So I'll start from that and slowly add ingredients down the list and taste.

I'm curious , why won't a GC help ?

Miracle fruit? It's a fun experimental present. When you eat (dissolve on tongue) a miracle fruit tablet all sour food turns to sweet. Gives you a new experience in eating a lot of stuff and is also a bit sciency.

I used this textbook for a college course: https://www.amazon.com/Microbiology-Technology-Fermented-Foods-Press/dp/0813800188

It doesn't go in depth about food safety though. Seemed like it was geared towards R&D. For pathogens, you're probably better off referencing a dense food micro book like this: https://www.amazon.com/James-M-Jay-Microbiology-seventh/dp/B008VS0QYS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549487393&sr=8-1&keywords=modern+food+microbiology+7th+edition

https://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Food-Ingredients-Fourth-Robert/dp/0834219522

This is a pretty good one to have on hand.

I'll recommend McGee's On Food and Cooking. It's a good read, but not quite a textbook. It's complete enough to be, but not quite structured that way. On the other hand, it's also not priced like one.

Be sure to get the latest edition revised and updated in 2004:

http://www.amazon.com/On-Food-Cooking-Science-Kitchen/dp/0684800012/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347904066&sr=8-1&keywords=on+food+and+cooking

I personally think that you’ll be doing your health/self a disservice by removing nutrients such as fat from foods like this, but I can’t help but try to answer your question.

Boiling will cause some problems. You wouldn’t need to let the water get so hot. Something like 120°F-150°F should suffice. Alternatively, you could run the flour through an oil press like this to extract more fat. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01M745W6D/ref=sspa_mw_detail_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1. I’ve never done this, nor used this machine, so I can’t speak to the efficacy of this, but it would be a start.

I've been spoiled by the industry - it seems plain HFCS is a pain to come by for the average person. Some of its fructose-y replacers, aside from invert sugar, tend to have some flavor to them - juice concentrates, honey, etc.

Agave syrup is very high in fructose (could combine with a plain glucose/corn syrup) but has some molasses-y notes. And the combo would still leave you with some more polymerized starches out there.

A potential easy, cheap option would be to buy crystalline fructose at $2-3/lb (Amazon probably) and add to water and a glucose syrup (or both sugars in crystalline form and add to water).

Or this strange item off Amazon that's effectively just HFCS 55 @ $2/lb: https://www.amazon.com/Fong-Leng-Fructose-Drink-Mixes/dp/B00G4DGHMW/ref=sr_1_3_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1537846739&sr=8-3&keywords=fructose

Cabled puncture probe thermometer connected to a display outside of the oven. Test the recipe a few times in the oven (different times and temperature settings) with the probe stuck in the centre of the meat, and observe the temperature dynamic and end temperature. Then record what works and what doesn't. Repeat as necessary until archiving perfection.

Edit: like this http://www.amazon.com/CDN-DTP482-Programmable-Probe-Thermometer/dp/B00046YFHE

https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Food-Science-Technology-InfoTrac/dp/053454486X/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=understanding+food+science+and+technology&qid=1565077187&s=gateway&sr=8-2

This should be a great intro