What skills should a Food Scientists and Technologist put on a resume?

O*NET rates Active Listening, Reading Comprehension, Writing, Complex Problem Solving, and Critical Thinking among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.

What software should a Food Scientists and Technologist list?

Software recorded for this occupation includes BioDiscovery ImaGene, HubSpot software, Hypertext markup language HTML, Image analysis software, and Insightful S-PLUS. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.

What other job titles cover Food Scientists and Technologist work?

O*NET records 24 titles for this occupation, including Food Scientist, Food Technologist, Research Food Technologist, and Research Scientist. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

What qualifications does a Food Scientists and Technologist need?

In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 57% reported their level of education as "Bachelor's Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

Will this resume pass an ATS for a Food Scientists and Technologist role?

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Food Scientists and Technologist resume example

A resume for a Food Scientists and Technologist needs to show the work itself: use chemistry, microbiology, engineering, and other sciences to study the principles underlying the processing and deterioration of foods; analyze food content to determine levels of vitamins, fat, sugar, and protein; discover new food sources; research ways to make processed foods safe, palatable, and healthful; and apply food science knowledge to determine best ways to process, package, preserve, store, and distribute food. Day to day that means work like this: inspect food processing areas to ensure compliance with government regulations and standards for sanitation, safety, quality, and waste management; check raw ingredients for maturity or stability for processing, and finished products for safety, quality, and nutritional value. Recruiters and applicant tracking systems both read for the tasks and tools this role actually involves, so the strongest resume names them in your own experience rather than describing the job in the abstract. Below are the tasks O*NET records for this occupation, the software and tools it uses, the titles it is advertised under, and the skills worth naming if they are genuinely yours.

Also advertised as

The same job is posted under many titles. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

Food Scientist
Food Technologist
Research Food Technologist
Research Scientist
Food and Drug Research Scientist
Food Chemist
Food Engineer
Formulator
Product Development Scientist
Research Chef
QC Scientist
Dairy Bacteriologist
Enologist
Flavorist
Food Preservation Scientist
Food Processing Scientist
Food Safety Auditor
Food Safety Scientist

O*NET records 24 titles for this occupation in total.

What this work actually involves

Tasks recorded for this occupation, in O*NET's words. If your experience covers one of these, it belongs on your resume in your own words.

Inspect food processing areas to ensure compliance with government regulations and standards for sanitation, safety, quality, and waste management.
Check raw ingredients for maturity or stability for processing, and finished products for safety, quality, and nutritional value.
Develop new or improved ways of preserving, processing, packaging, storing, and delivering foods, using knowledge of chemistry, microbiology, and other sciences.
Test new products for flavor, texture, color, nutritional content, and adherence to government and industry standards.
Stay up to date on new regulations and current events regarding food science by reviewing scientific literature.
Evaluate food processing and storage operations and assist in the development of quality assurance programs for such operations.
Confer with process engineers, plant operators, flavor experts, and packaging and marketing specialists to resolve problems in product development.
Study the structure and composition of food or the changes foods undergo in storage and processing.
Seek substitutes for harmful or undesirable additives, such as nitrites.
Study methods to improve aspects of foods, such as chemical composition, flavor, color, texture, nutritional value, and convenience.
Develop food standards and production specifications, safety and sanitary regulations, and waste management and water supply specifications.
Develop new food items for production, based on consumer feedback.

13 tasks are recorded in total; these are the most central.

Example bullets for this role

Built from this occupation's own tasks. The brackets stay empty on purpose: we will not invent a number for you, and a fabricated metric is the fastest way to lose an interview you had already won.

Inspect food processing areas to ensure compliance with government regulations and standards for sanitation, safety, quality, and waste management, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Check raw ingredients for maturity or stability for processing, and finished products for safety, quality, and nutritional value, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Develop new or improved ways of preserving, processing, packaging, storing, and delivering foods, using knowledge of chemistry, microbiology, and other sciences, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Test new products for flavor, texture, color, nutritional content, and adherence to government and industry standards, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].

Software used in this role

Recorded for this occupation by O*NET. An applicant tracking system matches the exact product name, so write the tool the way the posting writes it.

BioDiscovery ImaGene
HubSpot software
Hypertext markup language HTML
Image analysis software
Insightful S-PLUS
Marketo Marketing Automation
MDS Analytical Technologies GenePix Pro
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Office software
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Word
Oracle Eloqua

23 software entries are recorded in total.

Tools and equipment

The physical equipment this occupation is recorded as using. Worth naming when a posting asks for it by name.

Air sampling systems
Amino acid analyzers
Amylographs
Anaerobic growth chambers
Analytical balances
Atomic absorption AA spectrometers
Automatic diluters
Autosamplers
Bacterial identification systems
Batch fryers
Benchtop nephelometers
Biological safety cabinets

Skills an ATS reads for

Worth naming only if they are genuinely yours. Keyword overlap is one input to a resume's score, not a verdict.

BioDiscovery ImaGene
Image analysis
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Excel

What this job rates as most important

O*NET rates every skill for importance to this occupation. These are the highest rated, in order.

01Active Listening
02Reading Comprehension
03Writing
04Complex Problem Solving
05Critical Thinking
06Monitoring
07Speaking
08Active Learning
09Judgment and Decision Making
10Science

Knowledge areas

The subject knowledge this occupation draws on, rated by importance.

Food Production
Biology
Chemistry
Production and Processing
English Language
Mathematics
Engineering and Technology
Education and Training

What qualifications people in this job have

From O*NET's survey of people doing this work. This is what postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

57%Bachelor's Degree
13%Doctoral Degree
13%Post-Doctoral Training

What level this role is pitched at

O*NET places this occupation in “Considerable Preparation Needed”. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Common questions

What does a Food Scientists and Technologist do?: Use chemistry, microbiology, engineering, and other sciences to study the principles underlying the processing and deterioration of foods; analyze food content to determine levels of vitamins, fat, sugar, and protein; discover new food sources; research ways to make processed foods safe, palatable, and healthful; and apply food science knowledge to determine best ways to process, package, preserve, store, and distribute food. Day to day that includes work like inspect food processing areas to ensure compliance with government regulations and standards for sanitation, safety, quality, and waste management and Check raw ingredients for maturity or stability for processing, and finished products for safety, quality, and nutritional value.
What skills should a Food Scientists and Technologist put on a resume?: O*NET rates Active Listening, Reading Comprehension, Writing, Complex Problem Solving, and Critical Thinking among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.
What software should a Food Scientists and Technologist list?: Software recorded for this occupation includes BioDiscovery ImaGene, HubSpot software, Hypertext markup language HTML, Image analysis software, and Insightful S-PLUS. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.
What other job titles cover Food Scientists and Technologist work?: O*NET records 24 titles for this occupation, including Food Scientist, Food Technologist, Research Food Technologist, and Research Scientist. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.
What qualifications does a Food Scientists and Technologist need?: In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 57% reported their level of education as "Bachelor's Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.
Will this resume pass an ATS for a Food Scientists and Technologist role?: No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Related roles

Occupations O*NET records as closest to this one, and worth looking at if this search is not moving.

What this page cannot tell you

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer’s ATS is configured, including ours.
This page makes no claim about pay, demand or how many people hold this job. O*NET does not publish that here and we will not estimate it.
Keyword overlap is one input to a resume’s score, not a verdict on you. A resume that names skills you do not have is worse than one that names fewer.

If this is the job you are aiming at, the guide to tailoring a resume covers how to aim one posting properly, and building and exporting a resume here is free.

Occupation data from the O*NET 29.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under CC BY 4.0. O*NET is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. SpartanResume is not endorsed by USDOL/ETA.