A career in food science, according to Prof Brian McKenna, head of the food science department in UCD, is "continually exciting because the whole food market is changing so rapidly. People nowadays are only prepared to spend a small amount of time preparing food." The consumer, he explains, wants something that is as close to the natural product as possible. They are prepared to spend 25 minutes preparing it, so there has to be a fair amount of pre-processing and it has to be safe, he says. "Twenty years ago it was just the dairy industry and the meat industry. Today the food market is the most rapidly expanding area of food science."
Dr Maria Harrington, of UCC's faculty of food science and technology, says "to meet the exciting challenges of the 21st century, the food industry will require a sophisticated workforce with a high level of professional education and training and with the capability to respond to rapid social and technological change".
"Students today can make a choice and choose a food company which suits them. The market is very, very buoyant in food compared to some years ago. It's an exciting and dynamic time for food students. The industry is changing and looking towards what the consumer wants and how to delight the consumer. Graduates today have a great choice. There are a lot of national and international companies looking for Irish graduates." It is a graduates' market, she adds.
Pat Dempsey, senior lecturer in food microbiology at Letterkenny Institute of Technology in Co Donegal, echoes these views. "The area is continually expanding. With the increased emphasis on convenience foods there's an expansion in food processing, and food safety has increased also in light of all the EU directives coming on board."
Letterkenny began its food science diploma ab-initio course in 1991. It introduced an add-on degree course in 1998, with 16 graduating the first year and 15 graduating earlier this year. Today the college has strong links with industry in the north-west, with students doing industry placements between second and third years. It is currently establishing links with some European colleges.
Reports during the summer that Letterkenny Institute of Technology's degree course has a high drop-out rate caused anger and annoyance in the college, Dempsey says. He rejects the allegation. "We have a very good retention rate on the food degree," he says. Suggestions to the contrary are "misleading and damaging", he says. Food science undergraduates are placed in companies to work in a range of areas. Some students even get work in the Department of Agriculture's dairy products laboratories.
