Ask & Answer: India's Largest Education Community

Food Technology draws from disciplines like Biology, Biochemistry and Chemical Engineering to understand various food processes and to improve the quality of food and to package it innovative so that its nutrition remains preserved till the time it does not reach the end customers hand. Most of the courses in Food technology are post graduate Diploma courses which can be pursued only after graduation. If you are interested in pursuing Food Technology, you can choose Physics, Chemistry and Biology as your subjects and then continue with an undergraduate course in Zoology, Botany or Chemistry. There are a wide variety of job opportunities open to food technologists. They can work in food manufacturing and processing plants, research and quality control laboratories, hotels, packaging units, distilleries, soft drink factories, spice, cereal and rice mills, etc. The areas of work can range from production and quality control to marketing and management, research and development. The National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM) is a newly established public institution for research, education and catering the need of various stakeholders, e. g. entrepreneurs, food processing industry, exporters, policy makers and government policy. The NIFTEM is being set up by Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), Government of India at HSIIDC Industrial Estate, Kundli in Sonipat district of Haryana which comes under Delhi NCR.

Engineering is more valuable than science
First, I will clarify the difference between Science' and engineering' through a simple example. The study of optics of materials will fall under Science. Scientists (physicists, in this case) will try to explain the optical properties which different materials possess. If someone tries to use the optical properties to make a microscope or a camera, he will be an engineer. Scientists establish facts which engineers exploit to make things useful to society. History would tell you that scientists did a lot of engineering work in the earlier days (between 1700 and 1900 when a lot of development really happened in Science and engineering). Today, with the vastness of the different fields, Science and engineering have separated. Now, scientists rarely take up engineering work. Nevertheless, I would say scientists play a greater role as they have to establish the basic facts for engineers to build upon. Unfortunately, since the result of engineering is the one that fetches money, people have a craze for engineering. It is disheartening to see a Ph.D. student in Science getting a lesser stipend than a Ph.D. student in engineering. It should have been the other way round. Any nation that ignores the role of Science cannot survive in the long run. Management studies goes with engineering
A degree in engineering followed by a degree in Management is the much sought-after combination. Again, a myth' that engineering and management are related is at work. Engineering (with Science as the basis) has nothing to do with management (which does not involve Science). A lucrative salary is what attracts people to management studies. Furthermore, most institutes do not introduce engineering in a proper way, leaving students without confidence to pursue higher education.