College Life

Private Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• Cornell University
• Pennsylvania State University
• Clemson University
• Texas A&M University
• Brigham Young University

State Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• University of Florida
• University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign
• University of Minnesota—Twin Cities
• University of Wisconsin—Madison
• University of Georgia

Classes in the Major

Biochemistry. People are made of chemicals. Food is made of chemicals. Everything is made of chemicals. Well, not quite everything, but pretty close. When you get right down to it, eating and digestion are chemical reactions. Elements on the periodic table can be essential nutrients or poisons, and it's good to know which is which. You don't want to be the food scientist who insists on adding lead to everything just because it brings out such a pretty glow in people.

Food Systems Management. This one just sounds like you're running the cafeteria in some terrifying dystopia. In reality, you're learning about some of the most basic parts of food. Got food? Got people? How can you most efficiently get that food into those people? Well, assuming that some sort of food cannon, while awesome, is off the table. In this class, you're learning how to manage the food, the people, and the personnel necessary to do just that.

Dietetics. No, this has nothing to do with Scientology. Sure looks like it though, doesn't it? Dietetics is the professional end of food science. This includes stuff like ethics, advocation, legislation, and so on. Basically, you shouldn't give people bad food (knowingly). Everyone is on the same page about that. The question becomes: how do we make that a legal framework? Without it, that chunky milk might actually be sold to you.

Food Safety and Sanitation. This is going to get a little gross, so bear with us. Food starts out literally covered in dirt. Doesn't matter if it's vegetable or meat. People don't like eating food with dirt on it. There's more to it than that, of course—the worst of which being microscopic living things that want to mess with your digestion. There's a reason relatively few people die of dysentery these days. 

Food Analysis. What's in all this food? You can't look at a carrot and think, "Yeah, that has a thousand milligrams of niacin in it." Or maybe you can, due to being bitten by some radioactive vegetarian granting you veggie superpowers. Are you fighting crime with those? Is that even possible? In any case…food is all about chemistry. Scientists use chemical processes on food to figure out what's in it. Nutrients, ingredients, acceptable levels of insect matter, anything.