Food Scientists work to give us all the delicious processed food we have today, from noodles to chips. They ensure that the processing centers meet health guidelines. Food scientists may also conduct experiments to improve food properties like taste and texture.
Associate Food Scientists assist in all these tasks and more. As an Associate Food Scientist, you may help determine the nutritional value of food or measure deterioration. You may work in a food production facility, laboratory, or factory.
A day in life may include researching different food storage techniques, developing new recipes, or exploring ways to improve current food products. You may also assist in management tasks like maintaining a schedule, creating reports, and taking phone calls.
You'll need a bachelor's degree in food science, agricultural science, or a similar field. It's also helpful to get internship experiences for more job opportunities.
What is an Associate Food Scientist?
What Does an Associate Food Scientist Do
There are certain skills that many associate food scientists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, customer-service skills and physical strength.
How To Become an Associate Food Scientist
If you're interested in becoming an associate food scientist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 38.1% of associate food scientists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.3% of associate food scientists have master's degrees. Even though some associate food scientists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Associate Food Scientist Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, an associate food scientist can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as crew member, progress to a title such as technician and then eventually end up with the title operations manager.
Average Salary for an Associate Food Scientist
What Am I Worth?
Roles and Types of Associate Food Scientist
There are several types of associate food scientist, including:
Crew Member
Role:
Crew members are important pieces to the operations of a certain establishment. Most generally, crew members work in the food industry, but they are known to work in other industries as well. Because there are so many opportunities attached to this position, education requirements can also vary.
The best part of being a crew member is that you're part of a team. You work together as a team and fail as a team. That's the same people who are going to have your back at work, so you might want to spend some time getting to know them as best as you can.
- Average Salary: $28,946
- Degree: High School Diploma
Food Service Worker
Role:
Food service workers are employed in restaurants, cafeterias, grocery stores, and any other institution that offers dining services, such as schools, hospitals, or prisons. If you want to learn everything about food preparation and what it takes to be a restaurant manager or a top-notch chef, taking on a job as a food service worker is a great place to start.
Your job will be to assist kitchen staff in preparing meals. Your responsibilities include helping to keep the kitchen spotless, prepping ingredients, slicing, dicing, rinsing, and peeling while making sure all safety regulations are respected.
No experience is needed to be hired as a food service worker; you just have to be attentive and organized and respect the authority of your superiors, which in this case is basically everyone in the kitchen.
- Average Salary: $28,753
- Degree: High School Diploma
Food Server
Role:
The sky is the limit for food servers. In this career, there are so many opportunities that your head will be spinning from which job you decide to take. Maybe you're a high-school student looking for a reliable paycheck. You might decide to go work for a fast-food restaurant.
Or maybe you're a professional in the food industry. In this case, you might become a food server for a high-end sit-down restaurant. Whichever direction you choose to take, the tips you'll earn will be more than enough to pay the bills.
Food servers can even find work at sports arenas or through catering services. There's always a spot for a food server wherever food can be served. The best part of this job is that you'll be able to choose your hours. Whenever you want to work, you'll be able to.
- Average Salary: $25,209
- Degree: High School Diploma
States With The Most Associate Food Scientist Jobs
Mouse over a state to see the number of active associate food scientist jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where associate food scientists earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Number Of Associate Food Scientist Jobs By State
| Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | 4,613 | $38,147 |
| 2 | California | 3,756 | $38,662 |
| 3 | Florida | 3,313 | $37,763 |
| 4 | New York | 2,911 | $48,554 |
| 5 | Pennsylvania | 2,782 | $36,113 |
| 6 | Illinois | 2,525 | $35,090 |
| 7 | Virginia | 2,435 | $35,384 |
| 8 | North Carolina | 2,287 | $34,438 |
| 9 | New Jersey | 1,934 | $41,541 |
| 10 | Georgia | 1,871 | $37,282 |
| 11 | Ohio | 1,795 | $42,252 |
| 12 | Maryland | 1,607 | $39,063 |
| 13 | Michigan | 1,535 | $46,034 |
| 14 | Wisconsin | 1,468 | $38,281 |
| 15 | Indiana | 1,355 | $38,128 |
| 16 | Massachusetts | 1,188 | $45,248 |
| 17 | Arizona | 1,162 | $43,608 |
| 18 | Colorado | 1,152 | $43,039 |
| 19 | Minnesota | 1,110 | $39,972 |
| 20 | Tennessee | 1,085 | $40,244 |
| 21 | Washington | 1,058 | $42,182 |
| 22 | Missouri | 1,000 | $41,206 |
| 23 | Connecticut | 840 | $43,212 |
| 24 | Iowa | 804 | $44,228 |
| 25 | South Carolina | 797 | $37,695 |
| 26 | Oregon | 708 | $45,203 |
| 27 | Alabama | 701 | $37,434 |
| 28 | Kentucky | 693 | $35,492 |
| 29 | Kansas | 611 | $34,178 |
| 30 | Utah | 608 | $34,523 |
| 31 | Louisiana | 509 | $34,569 |
| 32 | Oklahoma | 442 | $35,345 |
| 33 | New Mexico | 407 | $40,479 |
| 34 | Nevada | 374 | $37,862 |
| 35 | Arkansas | 371 | $38,312 |
| 36 | Nebraska | 345 | $35,208 |
| 37 | New Hampshire | 343 | $48,991 |
| 38 | Mississippi | 342 | $36,599 |
| 39 | Delaware | 329 | $43,446 |
| 40 | Maine | 268 | $38,895 |
| 41 | Montana | 267 | $38,077 |
| 42 | Idaho | 260 | $42,217 |
| 43 | South Dakota | 253 | $37,148 |
| 44 | West Virginia | 252 | $35,466 |
| 45 | Rhode Island | 210 | $42,232 |
| 46 | Alaska | 185 | $35,825 |
| 47 | North Dakota | 184 | $39,110 |
| 48 | Wyoming | 177 | $36,541 |
| 49 | Hawaii | 174 | $38,696 |
| 50 | Vermont | 146 | $39,965 |
Top Skills For an Associate Food Scientist
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 36.2% of associate food scientists listed quality food on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and customer-service skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Associate Food Scientist Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Associate Food Scientist templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Associate Food Scientist resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Associate Food Scientist diversity
Associate Food Scientist Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among associate food scientists, 51.3% of them are women, while 48.7% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among associate food scientists is White, which makes up 57.5% of all associate food scientists.
- The most common foreign language among associate food scientists is Spanish at 50.6%.
Online Courses For Associate Food Scientist That You May Like
1. Rebuilding Our Relationship with Food
Have you ever made a conscious effort to change the way you eat (for health or other reasons) and then felt frustrated when your plans were derailed? You’re not alone. The best laid plans are often sabotaged by a food environment that makes it increasingly hard to make healthier food choices. This can leave many people feeling mistrustful of food or feeling that our relationship with food is somehow broken. In this course, we’ll explore the history of our changing food environment, the science...
2. Introduction to Food and Our Environment
This course is designed to help learners around the world become more sustainable eaters. Course videos can be watched in any order. Feel free to explore special areas of interest by skipping ahead and coming back to less familiar topics at a later stage. Together, we’ll explore key topics, like how food production impacts the environment and why meat production and protein consumption are often at the center of the debate around sustainability. We’ll introduce the pros and cons of different...
3. Fun food safety and sanitation course
The food safety course will help prepare you for safely working in a kitchen and food handler tests like Servesafe...
Best States For an Associate Food Scientist
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an associate food scientist. The best states for people in this position are New Hampshire, New York, Michigan, and Massachusetts. Associate food scientists make the most in New Hampshire with an average salary of $48,991. Whereas in New York and Michigan, they would average $48,554 and $46,034, respectively. While associate food scientists would only make an average of $45,248 in Massachusetts, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. New York
$48,554
Avg. Salary
2. Iowa
$44,228
Avg. Salary
3. New Hampshire
$48,991
Avg. Salary
How Do Associate Food Scientists Rate Their Jobs?
Top Associate Food Scientist Employers
Most Common Employers For Associate Food Scientist
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hartford Hospital | $63,572 | $30.56 | 13 |
| 2 | Cedar Point Comm | $44,364 | $21.33 | 15 |
| 3 | Kum & Go | $43,731 | $21.02 | 39 |
| 4 | California's Great America | $40,954 | $19.69 | 19 |
| 5 | Worlds of Fun | $40,107 | $19.28 | 13 |
| 6 | Walmart | $39,758 | $19.11 | 181 |
| 7 | Panera Bread | $38,030 | $18.28 | 26 |
| 8 | Kroger | $37,674 | $18.11 | 14 |
| 9 | Macy's | $36,956 | $17.77 | 12 |
| 10 | Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Park | $35,837 | $17.23 | 14 |