Food Engineering

What Can You Tell Me About Food Engineering?

Food engineering is a multidisciplinary program which combines science, microbiology, and engineering education to prepare students for exciting careers in food and related industries. Food engineers are involved in production of value-added food products and in the research and development of new products and processes.

Program Curriculum

OSU’s food engineering program option offers a unique education that blends engineering analysis with knowledge of food material characteristics for the design and development of processes and equipment to produce safe, nutritious, and wholesome foods.

Career Opportunities

There are over 15,000 registered food processing and equipment companies in the U.S. Prospective major employers for food engineering graduates include companies involved in food processing, food machinery, packaging, ingredient manufacturing, instrumentation and control. Firms that design and build food processing plants, consulting firms, government agencies, pharmaceutical, and health-care firms also hire food engineers. Within these same companies, internship and co-op opportunities abound. Undergraduates who participate in these programs gain practical on-the-job experience, ultimately making them highly competitive in the job market. Increasing concerns about food safety and environmental protection are creating a growing demand for food and process engineers. Food engineering graduates with a bachelor’s degree are being offered starting salaries as high as $55,000 a year, very competitive with other high-paying engineering disciplines.

Following are some of the research interests in this area:

• Emerging technologies in sterilization/pasteurization, including ohmic heating, pulsed electric fields, ultra-high pressure processing
• Interaction of electricity with biomaterials
• Aseptic processing and packaging characteristics
• Extrusion
• Physical properties characterization with emphasis on phase transition in food systems
• Eudible films and coating
• Pulsed electric field (PEF) food processing
• Package sealing methods and integrity inspection
• Process automation
• Biological sensors and instrumentation
• Microbiological food safety related to processing and storage
• Food product shelf life and quality

Courses include:

• Math and science (biology, chemistry, physics)
• Food chemistry and microbiology
• Fundamental engineering principles (fluid mechanics, heat transfer, mass transfer)
• Food processing operations
• Engineering design (process and equipment)

Food Engineers Work For Major food companies such as: