Ask a guy who is defending his PhD thesis in Food Science next month anything
My research deals with functional food ingredients. I can try and answer any questions you have regarding the food industry/manufacturing etc.
I am not a nutritionist btw..
How do you eat your oatmeal?
Why are GMOs good for you?
>>7428550
Do beans belong in chilli?
>>7428550
Is Mercola right about artificial sweeteners?
>>7428552
just nuke it with milk
>>7428553
They are not good for you nor are they bad. Anybody who tells you either of these things doesn't know jack shit. They are necessary to feed the growing population. The evil in them is the shitty business ethics practiced by biotech companies who sell these seeds to farmers (see: Monsanto, Syngenta, 'terminator seeds' etc). The technology, R&D and science behind GMOs however is fascinating however.
>>7428557
Yes. I like red kidney beans
>>7428560
Dr. Mercola is not a doctor at all. Hell, I don't even know if he has any credentials. Which artificial sweetener are you concerned with? I can try and shed some light on them.
Also, please do not listen to Mercola or FoodBabe. These people are raging imbeciles
>>7428550
What's your most hated food or ingredient? Personally I hate onions.
>>7428550
Fantastic!
I've been a chef for 7 years and this year am wanting to go back to uni to study to get into your field.
What are the job oppotunities like?
I'm thinking of doing a chemistry degree because local uni's offer it then moving into food science, good idea or no?
What is you PhD on?
How does your role in industry work? Does some guy come to you with a buiscute that his chef made and say "hey can you make this flavor/texture/look en mass and also survive being on a shelf for 5 months?" or is that just how I imagine it?
Shouldn't you be writing a thesis or something right now?
>>7428568
I hate and cannot stand the taste and aroma of cumin.
Onions are good though.
>>7428550
What are functional food ingredients? Of what benefit is your research?
>>7428550
What does it mean to activate ones almonds?
>>7428571
So, because of my stupid choice to pursue a PhD, I am likely dooming myself to academia and research work. If I'm lucky, maybe a position as a professor somewhere after I do a post-doc.
Large companies with equally large budgets, do tend to hire PhDs for product development, basic research, and team lead positions (see: Kellogg, General Mills, Kraft etc)
May I ask where you are from? So I can recommend you a school. Seeing as to how you have extensive experience as a chef, you might want to look into a Food Sci degree with an emphasis in Culinology. My past peers from undergrad who did foodsci/culinology bachelors went onto make comfortable livings as product developers working in R&D for many small companies.
I would say, oddly enough, that you are VERY employable with B.S. in food sci. An M.S. demands higher pay, and you would have to be specializing in something, a niche field, to get hired relatively quick. Work experience is more highly valued.
>>7428571
>>7428583
cont.
I did a BS in food sci with a minor in chemistry, with my true passion being chemistry.
Overall, I would suggest you stick with Food Sci for B.S. only, as the curriculum will prepare you rather well. You definitely need a year of general chem, I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND doing a year of organic chem, and you are required biochem and food chem classes. Other courses include HACCP, Unit Ops, Food Engineering, Micro, Law and stuff. Really enjoyable.
Doing a minor in culinology will definitely make you more marketable - that is if you're not planning on going to grad school.
My PhD - so, during wine production, they press grapes to extract the juice. The remaining mass of crushed grapes used to be discarded or sold as feed. This mass, or pomace, is rich in several antioxidants and beneficial flavonols and other chemicals. I dont want to go too into detail, but I extracted those, complexed with proteins and microencapsulated them...
>>7428583
Near Sydney Australia. Closest uni's are Wollongong and Western sydney. Wouldn't study overseas because I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be covered by the australian HECS system (what we use instead of student lones, kinda like a interest free loan from the gov)
>>7428589
Blah blah blah...made a sort of ingredient that can help stabilize the texture of baked goods, while delivering a potent dose of excellent natural beneficial chemicals (see Resveratrol in wine).
I havent worked in industry much, as I have spent the last 6 years in labs at school. But yes you get the gist of it. What you described would be the role of an product developer, R&D or food packaging engineer.
>>7428576
Functional ingredients are ingredients that...uh...have a function. So for example, in your starbucks coffee latter in a glass bottle you'll see: Xanthan gum, carrageenan, etc...
These are two saccharide polymers (sugars) that are undigestable by you, but have the function of stabilizing, thickening, emulsifying, solubulizing, etc the coffee beverage since it contains a number of different things in it i.e. milk, fat, water, sugars, caffeine.
The benefit of my research is to chemically tweak existing natural products, like soy proteins, lecithin, maltodextrin...
>>7428598
>>7428576
cont.
so that may serve their purpose better and avoid having to add other ingredients...thus reducing costs etc etc. Some of these tweaked products also have added health benefits, such as better digestibility, antioxidant activity, etc etc which is beneficial for the consumer, and the company since they can now market a newer, "healthier" product.
>>7428577
To activate almonds means to soak them in water in order to hydrolyze phytates. Phytates are the salts of phytic acid. Because of its molecular structure, phytic acid is a well known antinutrient. See all those negatively charged oxygens? They will bind to Ca, Zn, Fe, Mg, Mn, other minerals as well as proteins and will limit their absorption in the GI tract. In the end you just pee it out, along with bound minerals which your body could have used. Simply soaking almonds in water will break those bonds and make those minerals available to you.
>>7428604
wouldn't they get soaked in my stomach?
Why does pussy taste of metal?
>>7428589
Coming from working in industry and going back to get a Masters in FS, a BS definitely is not enough unless you want to be a lab monkey. Any sort of scientific career has a ceiling that you really do need a degree to get past. Without an advanced science degree, you can only hope to go up the regular ladder (management).
>>7428648
Blood nigga
I have GERD and a garlic and onion allergy (the whole allium family). Is there an ingredient or combination of ingredients I can use to mimic the flavor of garlic and onion in most dishes.
I know a guy who used to work for Mondelez to make junk food taste more appealing.
He couldn't live with himself and became a nurse. Also, he won't eat junk food.
inb4 water is a chemical therefore funyuns are good for you
>>7428692
you tried "bear garlic"?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allium_ursinum
it tastes like garlic basically but better digestible
>>7428739
I'm allergic to the whole allium family
>>7428550
Can poop be recycled into edible food for the poors?
Should beans be soaked before boiling? Discuss this question from both a culinary and nutritional point of view.
Do you actually apply your education into your cooking? Any examples?
>>7428692
You could try the Indian spice asafoetida (hing powder).
>>7428550
>claims to be a PhD candidate
>can't tell that this isn't reddit
>>7429167
This. Jainism doesn't allow the consumption of alliums and asafetida is the substitute they use.
Does celery really make my sperm pearly white? I am unable to experiment due to a severe hatred of celery.
>>7429170
cooking subreddit is better anyways
im just here for ja/ck/ memes
>>7428598
So you make bullshit food.
>>7428550
What do you think of Alton Brown?
>>7428565
What about the lack of asymmetry in GMOs? Doesn't that make them possibly more susceptible to a future pandemic or blight?
Liquid Snake taught me nature prefers asymmetry.
how come no one has applied the technology used to make instant noodles and curry blocks to western food? instant spaghetti or a beef stew brick seems like they would be popular.
>>7428598
wtf is dextrose?
>>7428550
Are Japanese food scientists part of your curriculum? Because if they are I fucked the most famous one's granddaughter.
>>7428550
does adding oil to pasta water actually do anything
>>7431573
glucose
>>7431622
Sure.
1) it creates a fire hazard if the pot boils over
2) it coats the pasta with oil when you remove it from the pot.
You could achieve the same thing with less risk of a fire by simply adding a little oil to the pasta after you've drained it.
>>7428565
What about golden rice? Golden Rice is transgenic, and wouldn't a rice genetically engineered to produce high levels of beta carotene be healthy for millions of children worldwide suffering from vitamin a deficiency, the worlds leading cause of pediatric blindness?
Can poop be recycled into edible food for the poors?
>>7433018
It's called India
Rather the loo they just squat over the curry pot
