Manufacturing journalist, Thomas R. Cutler recently profiled, The Role of Women in Food Quality in the current issue of IFSQN (International Food Safety and Quality Network.) The full article can be read at http://ifsqn.com/articles_detail.php?newsdesk_id=465&t=The+Increasing+Role+of+Women+in+Food+Quality.
According to Cutler, “Industrial manufacturing is not the only industry that is experiencing changes from the influx of women; the food science field is actually seeing a complete turnaround in the ratio of men to women. “Food science has as its cornerstone chemistry, microbiology, engineering, and nutrition,†explained Dr. Stephanie Doores, Ph.D., undergraduate program and placement coordinator for Penn State University’s Department of Food Science. “About thirty years ago, the student population was mostly male and now we are predominantly female.â€
According to Doores, women bring certain skill sets to food science that makes them successful employees. She lists “better attention to detail, good at time management, and the ability to work well in a team setting†among the beneficial qualities that women bring to the workforce. In the food industry, a lot of the development work is done in team settings. “You might have a chemist, a microbiologist, an engineer and a sensory person (someone who tastes food products) working together on a project,†said Doores. “Women work very well in these team settings and are especially good at ‘juggling’ a lot of different projects.â€The increase of women in the field of food science is also being seen at Chapman University in Orange, California, where Professor of Food Science, Dr. Anuradha Prakash, Ph.D., noted that the ratio of men to women is 80/20; “About ten years ago it was sixty percent women, and another ten years before that it was just the opposite.†The innovative nature of food science is also more attractive to women. It can be a very creative field, where new foods and food ingredients are developed. Prakash insisted, “It’s not just chefs who exercise their creativity; food scientists do that as well.†As seen in the industrial manufacturing world, women’s ability to pay attention to detail is also touted as a reason why more women are being employed in the quality control and quality assurance (QA/QC) areas of food science. “When we walk through food factories and plants, you see a lot more women employed in QA/QC,†and she believes it is a woman’s ability to be very careful about details that makes them so good at these jobs. “I’ve noticed that it is always the women on the QA floor that are the ‘pickiest’ in terms of making sure a food product meets quality standards,†argued Prakash. Women are bringing to the food industry an increased emphasis on health and food safety. With more women in the food science field, the direct connection between food and health will come to the forefront.
About TR Cutler, Inc.:
TR Cutler, Inc. (www.trcutlerinc.com) was founded by Thomas R. Cutler almost a decade ago. Cutler maintains extraordinary relationships with clients, journalists, editors, trendsetters, and key business leaders worldwide and has become a key resource for those writing about the manufacturing sector. Thomas R. Cutler is the most frequently published manufacturing journalist and serves as contributed contributing editor more than three hundred publications annual. The scope of publications ranges from Automation.com to Quality Digest. A sample of Cutler’s feature articles can be located on the TR Cutler, Inc. website.
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