April 2, 2003
A: FROM MENTOR MOLLY WILLIAMS IN MI
Many kinds of engineers and scientists are involved in the food
industry. The first that comes to mind is chemical engineers,
because they are good at mixing, separating, and transferring
materials. They would be responsible for design of the big
equipment used to prepare foods. The processes used in the food
industry are the same as you'd use in a kitchen at home (wash,
drain, mix, cook, refrigerate), but the equipment is much bigger.
Electrical engineers would be involved in selecting motors, and
electrical power distribution systems. Industrial engineers know how
to lay out a manufacturing facility and manage the transportation
system among suppliers and customers, so that materials flow
efficiently. Mechanical engineers are designers of the machinery
used in preparing or transfering the prepared foods. They'd have to
decide what kinds of drive mechanisms would be needed for a mixer or
conveyer system, and perhaps design packaging equipment. And
speaking of packaging... There are some very interesting advances
being made in how to package food so it can be safely stored. Those
simple appearing paper, plastic, and foil packages used for
beverages and snack foods are very complex, multilayer materials
designed to be both mechanically strong and impervious to air and
any other contaminants. Look closely and see how many layers you can
identify.
********************
A: FROM MENTOR JOAN LUSK IN RI
There's a whole broad field of "food science" and you can find out more about it at this web site:
http://www.ifst.org/ifsthp3.htm
a lot of branches of science, engineering and technology are involved in getting massive quantities of food in various state of processing to millions of consumers. Handling the messy stuff in bulk, keeping it fresh, testing that it is not contaminated with bacteria or foreign matter in general - all become big problems on a nation-wide scale.