FOOD TECHNOLOGIST
Jessica Chambers
Hi, I'm Jess and I'm a trainee Food Technologist at Sainsbury's. I always knew I wanted to do something with science in my career and there's a lot of flexibility in studying science. Amongst other things I love discovering how things work and why the world is the way it is I love discovering how things work and why the world is the way it is.
My job allows me to work in loads of different food areas. I'm currently working in the Dairy category, where my job is to manage the quality and safety of cheese, yoghurt, chilled desserts, milk, eggs and juices. I try to perfect the flavour, aroma, texture and appearance of all our products and I do a lot of taste testing and comparisons with our competitors. I also monitor the welfare of workers and animals as well as other issues and opportunities such as the environmental impact of our packaging and how we can go about reducing it. I've worked all over the world, from a vineyard in New Zealand to inspecting nectarines in the south of France.
Follow Jess's adventures & discover how food & science can work together.
Did you know?- Food Technologists can earn between £20,000- £50,000.
- You could have the opportunity to travel all over the world, from chocolate factories in Belgium to orchards in Australia.
- You get to see the products you have worked on reach the shop shelves all over the world!
- A Food Technologist's job is extremely varied- plus you get to do loads of taste tests!
- Food Technologists get to see new ideas for foods before anybody else.
- You can take part in graduate placements such as Sainsbury's 'Taste the World' scheme, which sends two graduates around the world to work for six different suppliers in different countries over the course of a year
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:Hello, I'm Jessica, and I work here at Sainbury's Store Support Centre.
I'm a food technologist and what that basically means is we're looking after the quality and the safety of our own brand food.
This is our food centre, this is where we cook up loads of different products. We look at how the food is produced, making sure that it's healthy, but it's also safe for our customers, and also that it tastes really good as well.
This is one of our sampling rooms where we assess the quality of our product. This morning, Ben's going to be sampling chocolate. This is one of the perks of the job.
So once we've perfected our food and drink here behind the scenes, we launch the products in the store. This is one of mine.
It really helps to have a good understanding of science in my work. For example, chemistry really helps us to understand cheesemaking, biology helps us ensure that our food is safe for our customers. We wouldn't want any bugs growing on our food.
When I first started working for Sainsbury's I was really lucky to travel around the world for a year. I was working at a flavour house in Australia, I was picking apples in New Zealand and also inspecting produce in France.
It's a great place to work because there's so many young vibrant people that work here and you all work within teams, so it's quite friendly.
The best part of this job is how varied it is. It's always exciting, I never get bored. If you're worried about having a boring job take science because, trust me, all the best jobs involve science and you'll never look back.
Interested in becoming a Food Technologist? Find out more about it here, check out our Useful Links section or talk to a careers advisor at school.