A World in Need of Food Science
Jonathan Rowe, B.S. Food Science
Email: rowe.jp@gmail.com

As I lay shivering in the pitch-black confines of a small concrete room, I wondered what I had gotten myself into. The fever-induced sweat had left both my shirt and pillow soaked, and I was now in the midst of the subsequent chills. I pulled away the mosquito net from my bed and stumbled through the darkness to the latrine – a hole in the ground some 50 meters away.

The location was the village of Nakasongola, a few hours north of Uganda’s capital city Kampala. My professor and I were there on a field study from Brigham Young University aimed at discovering how USAID fortified food-aid commodities were being used by beneficiaries. While we did take home data and samples relating to the storage and preparation of these commodities, we also took home a greater understanding for why food science is crucial in today’s world.

As best we can determine, the symptoms my professor and I experienced in Nakasongola resulted from a food-borne illness contracted several days earlier in another, more southern region of Uganda. Besides the obvious food pathogen problem—a problem which by no means is exclusive to developing countries—this experience opened my eyes to other areas where food science can play a dramatic role in improving the quality of life for the world’s ever growing population. While the illness itself was miserable, the thought of ‘what can I eat?’ was most alarming. Not only had I not eaten anything substantial for a couple days—the outlook for what I considered safe and healthy food was not too bright in this village where electricity was available for only a few hours a day.

During the days that followed the illness, I realized I was not alone in asking this question. As we visited each village, each family, each child, I saw this same question reflected again and again in their eyes—only to a much greater extent than I was capable of understanding. The majority of the homes we visited were homes affected in some way by HIV/AIDS: a family with infected members, a widow raising children, children orphaned by the loss of both parents, and so on. While my poor health was short-lived, their poor health was leading to a shortened life. While I knew that in a few days I would be at a hotel with an abundant all you-can-eat buffet, they knew that in a few days their allotted ration would be exhausted.

In my short few weeks in Africa, I observed many circumstances where advancements in international food science and technology could improve countless lives. How can food engineering and microbiology improve cooking methods and the quality of water? How can food law and regulations improve the safety and quality of food consumed on the global level? How can food packaging improve the shelf life and availability of food to the world? How can food product development improve the nutrient content of foods consumed by at-risk populations?

If the world is to achieve global food security—access by all people at all times to enough nutritious food for an active, healthy life—it will need an abundance of qualified food scientists. As I lay in that pitch-black room in Nakasongola, I wondered what I had gotten myself into. The answer has become a little clearer than it was that dark night: I had gotten myself into food science—and an opportunity to improve the lives of many.