# Food Scientists and Technologists

> Use chemistry, microbiology, engineering, and other sciences to study the principles underlying the processing and deterioration of foods; analyze food content to determine levels of vitamins, fat, sugar, and protein; discover new food sources; research ways to make processed foods safe, palatable, and healthful; and apply food science knowledge to determine best ways to process, package, preserve, store, and distribute food.

- **SOC code:** 19-1012.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-19-1012-00
- **Also known as:** Food Scientist, Food Technologist, Food and Drug Research Scientist, Research Chef, Corporate Food Scientist, Food Engineer, Food Safety Regulatory Manager, Formulator
- **Frame:** "AI exposure" means task overlap (how codifiable the work is), not jobs lost or a forecast. Every figure below is traced to a named public dataset.

## What this work is

**Core tasks** (O*NET):
- Inspect food processing areas to ensure compliance with government regulations and standards for sanitation, safety, quality, and waste management.
- Check raw ingredients for maturity or stability for processing, and finished products for safety, quality, and nutritional value.
- Study methods to improve aspects of foods, such as chemical composition, flavor, color, texture, nutritional value, and convenience.
- Develop food standards and production specifications, safety and sanitary regulations, and waste management and water supply specifications.
- Stay up to date on new regulations and current events regarding food science by reviewing scientific literature.
- Confer with process engineers, plant operators, flavor experts, and packaging and marketing specialists to resolve problems in product development.
- Study the structure and composition of food or the changes foods undergo in storage and processing.
- Test new products for flavor, texture, color, nutritional content, and adherence to government and industry standards.
- Develop new food items for production, based on consumer feedback.
- Develop new or improved ways of preserving, processing, packaging, storing, and delivering foods, using knowledge of chemistry, microbiology, and other sciences.
- Evaluate food processing and storage operations and assist in the development of quality assurance programs for such operations.
- Demonstrate products to clients.

**Emerging tasks** (O*NET):
- Test processing equipment to ensure products are produced according to specifications.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- Production and Processing _(knowledge)_
- Food Production _(knowledge)_
- Problem Sensitivity _(ability)_
- Chemistry _(knowledge)_
- Reading Comprehension _(essential_skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(essential_skill)_
- Active Learning _(essential_skill)_
- Oral Comprehension _(ability)_
- Written Comprehension _(ability)_
- Oral Expression _(ability)_
- Written Expression _(ability)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(ability)_

**Skills in demand:**
- Chemistry _(Specialized Skill)_
- Reading Comprehension _(Common Skill)_
- Information Ordering _(Specialized Skill)_
- Inductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(Common Skill)_
- Active Learning _(Common Skill)_
- English Language _(Common Skill)_
- Writing _(Common Skill)_
- Complex Problem Solving _(Common Skill)_
- Active Listening _(Common Skill)_
- Mathematics _(Common Skill)_

**Tools & technology:**
- Microsoft Excel _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft Office software _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft Outlook _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft PowerPoint _(hot technology, in demand)_
- HubSpot software _(hot technology)_
- Hypertext markup language HTML _(hot technology)_
- Marketo Marketing Automation _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Access _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Word _(hot technology)_
- R _(hot technology)_
- SAP software _(hot technology)_
- Structured query language SQL _(hot technology)_

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 68th percentile (High) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.):** 67th percentile (High) — source: felten_aioe.
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 55th percentile (Moderate) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 83rd percentile (High) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Frey–Osborne (2013, historical computerization estimate):** 26th percentile — kept separate from current-era studies.
- **Remote-capable (Dingel–Neiman):** no — task structure, not who actually works remote.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** 6.5% growth (About average); 1.2k annual openings; 15.2k → 16.2k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median $85,310; 14,370 employed.

## How people actually use AI here

Anthropic Economic Index — measured AI conversations mapped to this occupation's tasks:

- **Automation vs augmentation:** 33% automation, 50% augmentation (usage-weighted).
- **Autonomy median:** 3.5 (higher = AI acts more independently).
- **Dominant collaboration mode:** learning.

**Tasks most handed to AI here:**
- Study the structure and composition of food or the changes foods undergo in storage and processing. _(2.8% of measured AI use; learning)_
- Stay up-to-date on new regulations and current events regarding food science by reviewing scientific literature. _(0.8% of measured AI use; directive)_
- Study methods to improve aspects of foods, such as chemical composition, flavor, color, texture, nutritional value, and convenience. _(0.6% of measured AI use; learning)_
- Develop new or improved ways of preserving, processing, packaging, storing, and delivering foods, using knowledge of chemistry, microbiology, and other sciences. _(0.3% of measured AI use)_

**Example prompts (honest phrasings of the tasks above — starting points, not endorsed instructions):**
- Help me study the structure and composition of food or the changes foods undergo in storage and processing.
- Help me stay up-to-date on new regulations and current events regarding food science by reviewing scientific literature.
- Help me study methods to improve aspects of foods, such as chemical composition, flavor, color, texture, nutritional value, and convenience.
- Help me develop new or improved ways of preserving, processing, packaging, storing, and delivering foods, using knowledge of chemistry, microbiology, and other sciences.

## Sources

- **O*NET** (30.3) — U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)** (May 2024) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS Employment Projections** (2024–2034) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **Anthropic Economic Index** (v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27)) — Anthropic. https://www.anthropic.com/economic-index
- **Microsoft “Working with AI”** (working-with-ai) — Microsoft Research. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/
- **“GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.)** (arXiv 2303.10130) — OpenAI / academic. https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130
- **AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE)** (Felten, Raj & Seamans) — academic. https://github.com/AIOE-Data/AIOE
- **Frey & Osborne (2013)** (frey-osborne-automation) — academic. https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/publications/the-future-of-employment/
- **Dingel & Neiman (2020)** (dingel-neiman-workathome) — academic. https://github.com/jdingel/DingelNeiman-workathome

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_Generated from Singulariki's joined dataset; data snapshot 2026-06-02T21:00:32.945303+00:00. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-19-1012-00_