The food science industry helps to feed the U.S. — and the world — by ensuring that food systems are high-quality and run safely. The Food Science and Technology Career Development Event (CDE) gives FFA members exposure to career opportunities in the field.
I caught up with Ray Pieniazek, superintendent of the CDE, to discuss how FFA members can use it to grow their skills.
Q: What is the Food Science and Technology CDE? What do the students do, and what is it all about?
A: The students do a lot of different things during the contest. They have an objective exam anda food safety audit. As a team, they decide what’s going on in a plant. Does it meet the safety standards? Does it meet any of the specifications that there are?
They do triangle tests where they compare a product to see which one’s different, identify aromas and they do some math problem-solving that somebody in the food industry would do.
A big part of the contest is [when they are given a bag with a potential product that a company is bringing to market]. They do the marketing, the nutrition and pricing, and they have to say what the steps are to produce it. It is a very challenging contest across the board for the kids.
Q: For a lot of students, this might be the first exposure they have to a possible career in food science. What is one lesson you hope that they would take away from participating in this contest?
A: One of the things we try to do at our event is have some individuals who are involved in food science. There is a wide range of what they can do for different companies, so we share that so they see all the different opportunities. And, I hear countless teachers tell me that their kids didn’t realize all the opportunities when they started in this contest.
Q: At national convention, there are so many possibilities for students to compete in many different contests. How do you engage with students to keep them coming back or to bring new students on?
A: What we tell people who are here in the end is to go back and tell your friends how much fun it is, because if they’re not smiling when they leave this contest, then we haven’t done our job in making them feel comfortable.
We have a lot of college students who get to interact with the students and keep them happy and free and loose, so they’re not tense, but we want them to go back and tell everybody else. Some of our people even go down and work booths in the exhibit hall sothey can go spread what food science is.
Q: Is there anything else that you’d like to share that you didn’t get a chance to talk about?
A: I think this is the greatest contest FFA has because it not only tests the individual skills, but also teamwork. That’s one of the things about so many of the CDEs that we have here at nationals. Teamwork becomes so important because teams have to work together in the industry, and that’s one of the things we spend an hour of the contest doing with them.
