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What does a food chemist do?

Updated January 8, 2025
8 min read
Quoted expert
Dr. Betsy Smith
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Food chemist responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real food chemist resumes:

  • 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.

Food chemist skills and personality traits

We calculated that 18% of Food Chemists are proficient in Laboratory Equipment, FDA, and Sops. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Communication skills, and Interpersonal skills.

We break down the percentage of Food Chemists that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Laboratory Equipment, 18%

    Interacted with chemical suppliers and vendors for materials and laboratory equipment.

  • FDA, 17%

    Performed assigned studies in accordance with FDA, Good Laboratory Practice Regulations and Standard Operating Procedures with minimal supervision/instruction.

  • Sops, 13%

    Authored/co-authored administrative, quality, technical, and safety SOPs to streamline company and laboratory operations.

  • R, 9%

    Used R, SSL, and SQL programming to identify and fix multiple processing and GUI problems with StarLIMS v9.

  • HPLC, 9%

    Managed food chemistry testing laboratory and measured clenbuterol levels in beef samples by HPLC

  • Food Products, 8%

    Assisted with the development of small laboratory pilots for fresh food products and beverages.

"laboratory equipment," "fda," and "sops" are among the most common skills that food chemists use at work. You can find even more food chemist responsibilities below, including:

Analytical skills. The most essential soft skill for a food chemist to carry out their responsibilities is analytical skills. This skill is important for the role because "chemists and materials scientists need to evaluate the results of experiments to ensure accuracy in their research." Additionally, a food chemist resume shows how their duties depend on analytical skills: "analyze consumer complaints for contamination. "

Communication skills. Another essential skill to perform food chemist duties is communication skills. Food chemists responsibilities require that "chemists and materials scientists must be able to convey information clearly in reports and presentations for both technical and nontechnical audiences." Food chemists also use communication skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "utilized on a daily basis for data analysis, recording, and timely communication with other departments. "

Interpersonal skills. food chemists are also known for interpersonal skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to food chemist responsibilities, because "chemists and materials scientists typically work on teams and need to be cooperative." A food chemist resume example shows how interpersonal skills is used in the workplace: "demonstrated interpersonal skills by working with medicinal chemists to solve chemistry problems inherent in scale-up of organic reactions. "

Math skills. A big part of what food chemists do relies on "math skills." You can see how essential it is to food chemist responsibilities because "chemists and materials scientists regularly use calculus, algebra, statistics, and other math for calculations." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical food chemist tasks: "performed extractions on plasma samples from clinical studies in order to determine quantitative release rates of controlled delivery product. "

Organizational skills. Another common skill required for food chemist responsibilities is "organizational skills." This skill comes up in the duties of food chemists all the time, as "chemists and materials scientists must document processes carefully when conducting experiments, tracking outcomes, and analyzing results." An excerpt from a real food chemist resume shows how this skill is central to what a food chemist does: "well versed in implementing standard operating procedures, organizational policies, and analytical methodologies accurately and consistently. "

Problem-solving skills. While "problem-solving skills" is last on this skills list, don't underestimate its importance to food chemist responsibilities. Much of what a food chemist does relies on this skill, seeing as "chemists’ and materials scientists’ work involves posing questions during research and finding answers through results." Here is a resume example of how this skill is used in the everyday duties of food chemists: "calibrated and used toc, kf, uv, ftir, dissolution, conductivity, and force-stress tester trained new analysts. "

See the full list of food chemist skills

The three companies that hire the most food chemists are:

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Compare different food chemists

Food chemist vs. Research and development chemist

A research and development chemist primarily works at laboratories to conduct extensive tests and experiments aiming to develop new products and technologies. Although the extent of their duties may vary, it typically revolves around conducting research and studies, observing chemical reactions, maintaining records and databases, collaborating with fellow experts, and identifying the strengths and weaknesses of existing components or mixtures. They can find employment in different areas, such as manufacturing companies, private laboratories, government agencies, and even education.

We looked at the average food chemist salary and compared it with the wages of a research and development chemist. Generally speaking, research and development chemists are paid $14,506 higher than food chemists per year.Even though food chemists and research and development chemists are distinct careers, a few of the skills required for both jobs are similar. For example, both careers require laboratory equipment, fda, and r in the day-to-day roles and responsibilities.

These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a food chemist are more likely to require skills like "sops," "food products," "trend identification," and "analytical instrumentation." On the other hand, a job as a research and development chemist requires skills like "product development," "analytical methods," "synthesis," and "d chemist." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.

The education levels that research and development chemists earn slightly differ from food chemists. In particular, research and development chemists are 3.4% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a food chemist. Additionally, they're 1.4% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Food chemist vs. Analytical research chemist

An Analytical Research Chemist works on analyzing and interpreting data generated from experiments to aid other research. They organize and produce reports and findings, which scientists will use to create principles, ideas, and strategies in the scientific field. Included in a research chemist's primary responsibilities are the maintenance of the laboratory, organizing documents, and inventory of supplies and equipment.

A career as a analytical research chemist brings a higher average salary when compared to the average annual salary of a food chemist. In fact, analytical research chemists salary is $19,036 higher than the salary of food chemists per year.While the salary may differ for these jobs, they share a few skills needed to perform their duties. Based on resume data, both food chemists and analytical research chemists have skills such as "laboratory equipment," "fda," and "r."

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that food chemist responsibilities requires skills like "sops," "food products," "product quality," and "trend identification." But an analytical research chemist might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "analytical techniques," "analytical laboratory," "product development," and "lc-ms."

Average education levels between the two professions vary. Analytical research chemists tend to reach higher levels of education than food chemists. In fact, they're 5.2% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 1.4% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for food chemists in the next 3-5 years?

Dr. Betsy SmithDr. Betsy Smith LinkedIn profile

Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Elmira College

Honestly, I think anytime a scientist tries to predict what will be "big" in a few years, they're likely to fail. That said, I think there's a growing interest among consumers for more "green" products, so research into those areas will likely grow. For instance, we might see attempts to develop new plastics that are safer for the environment and humans, perhaps biodegradable. Organic chemistry traditionally uses harsh solvents and chemicals that are difficult to dispose of safely, so there is an effort to find alternatives to these. Analytical chemistry techniques for separating and identifying compounds, like GC-MS (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry), will likely continue to be necessary. CRISPR, the relatively new gene-editing technology, is likely to become even more widely used on the biochemistry side of things.

Food chemist vs. Quality assurance chemist

Quality Assurance Chemists generally offer pay of around $54K per year and require strong skills in analysis and instrumentation and general knowledge of chemistry, attention to detail, and various organizational skills. Also, they must be able to investigate and analyze problems whenever they crop up. This career choice requires a bachelor's or advanced degree in chemistry, depending on the industry, and will often be offered in pharmaceutical fields, where standard duties consist of the measurement and testing of lab materials and products according to industry standards.

On average, quality assurance chemists earn lower salaries than food chemists, with a $3,485 difference per year.By looking over several food chemists and quality assurance chemists resumes, we found that both roles require similar skills in their day-to-day duties, such as "fda," "r," and "hplc." But beyond that, the careers look very different.

The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, food chemists are more likely to have skills like "laboratory equipment," "sops," "food products," and "trend identification." But a quality assurance chemist is more likely to have skills like "lab equipment," "analytical methods," "icp," and "food safety."

Quality assurance chemists typically earn similar educational levels compared to food chemists. Specifically, they're 0.7% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 1.7% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Food chemist vs. Chemist, development

A development chemist is responsible for delivering products that are specially created for a customer. You will be responsible for conducting qualitative and quantitative chemical analyses for process or quality control. Other tasks that you will perform include researching chemical substances, conducting laboratory experiments, and evaluating the effects of chemical compounds in different situations. Additionally, you will be responsible for determining chemical properties by analyzing compounds and helping resolve quality issues. As a development chemist, you are also responsible for evaluating safety procedures in laboratories and maintaining laboratory equipment.

Chemists, development typically earn higher pay than food chemists. On average, chemists, development earn a $8,844 higher salary per year.While both food chemists and chemists, development complete day-to-day tasks using similar skills like laboratory equipment, fda, and r, the two careers vary in some skills.

Even though a few skill sets overlap between food chemists and chemists, development, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a food chemist might have more use for skills like "sops," "food products," "trend identification," and "gc." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of chemists, development require skills like "product development," "technical support," "analytical procedures," and "gc-ms."

The average resume of chemists, development showed that they earn similar levels of education compared to food chemists. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 1.4% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.4%.

Types of food chemist

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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