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Food chemist vs chemical engineer

The differences between food chemists and chemical engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a chemical engineer has an average salary of $89,449, which is higher than the $62,727 average annual salary of a food chemist.

The top three skills for a food chemist include laboratory equipment, FDA and sops. The most important skills for a chemical engineer are chemistry, technical support, and co-op.

Food chemist vs chemical engineer overview

Food ChemistChemical Engineer
Yearly salary$62,727$89,449
Hourly rate$30.16$43.00
Growth rate6%14%
Number of jobs61,02842,176
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 79%Bachelor's Degree, 78%
Average age4241
Years of experience--

Food chemist vs chemical engineer salary

Food chemists and chemical engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Food ChemistChemical Engineer
Average salary$62,727$89,449
Salary rangeBetween $44,000 And $87,000Between $67,000 And $119,000
Highest paying CityVancouver, WASugar Land, TX
Highest paying stateDelawareTexas
Best paying companyCargillBP America Inc
Best paying industry-Energy

Differences between food chemist and chemical engineer education

There are a few differences between a food chemist and a chemical engineer in terms of educational background:

Food ChemistChemical Engineer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 79%Bachelor's Degree, 78%
Most common majorChemistryChemical Engineering
Most common collegeUniversity of Southern CaliforniaGeorgia Institute of Technology

Food chemist vs chemical engineer demographics

Here are the differences between food chemists' and chemical engineers' demographics:

Food ChemistChemical Engineer
Average age4241
Gender ratioMale, 57.3% Female, 42.7%Male, 74.1% Female, 25.9%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 7.8% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.4% Asian, 18.2% White, 59.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%Black or African American, 3.6% Unknown, 5.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.2% Asian, 21.3% White, 60.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage5%9%

Differences between food chemist and chemical engineer duties and responsibilities

Food chemist example responsibilities.

  • Manage food chemistry testing laboratory and measure clenbuterol levels in beef samples by HPLC
  • Position are focused around ensuring that the different products being test pass the specifications put in place by the FDA.
  • Provide calculated electronic absorption (UV/Vis) spectra for molecular candidates suspect to be impurity chromophores in a commercial nylon process.
  • Establish extraction profiles and develop appropriate QC methods for product certification and annual qualification.

Chemical engineer example responsibilities.

  • Manage and supervise projects on the production floor and QC department.
  • Lead small project teams of co-op students and interface effectively with plant operators.
  • Manage various cross functional teams to do the IQ, OQ, & PQ validation.
  • Accomplish extraction of heat and material balance data from HYSYS simulation and generating the relevant process flow diagram.
  • Work on windows server 2012 and SQL server 2008.
  • Modify FTIR optics for study of combusting flame.
  • Show more

Food chemist vs chemical engineer skills

Common food chemist skills
  • Laboratory Equipment, 18%
  • FDA, 17%
  • Sops, 13%
  • R, 9%
  • HPLC, 9%
  • Food Products, 8%
Common chemical engineer skills
  • Chemistry, 10%
  • Technical Support, 5%
  • Co-Op, 4%
  • Chemical Process, 4%
  • Troubleshoot, 3%
  • Project Management, 3%

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