Food Processing

Types of Degrees Food Processing Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many food processing graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Basic Certificate	80
Bachelor’s Degree	48
Associate Degree	36
Undergraduate Certificate	30
Graduate Certificate	4

What Food Processing Majors Need to Know

People with careers related to food processing were asked what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. They weighted these areas on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest.

Knowledge Areas for Food Processing Majors

Food Processing majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
• Biology - Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.

Skills for Food Processing Majors

When studying food processing, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.

Abilities for Food Processing Majors

As you progress with your food processing degree, there are several abilities you should pick up that will help you in whatever related career you choose. These abilities include:

• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).

What Can You Do With a Food Processing Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with food processing:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Agricultural Inspectors	4.5%	$44,140
Agricultural Sciences Professors	7.9%	$84,640
First-Line Supervisors of Agricultural Crop and Horticultural Workers	2.1%	$46,960

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Food Processing?

This is a less frequently chosen undergraduate major. Only 80 students graduated with a bachelor’s degree in food processing in 2021, making it rank #294 in popularity. Roughly 46% of the graduates are women, and 54% are men.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of food processing majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	1
Black or African American	1
Hispanic or Latino	4
White	36
International Students	4
Other Races/Ethnicities	2

Geographic Diversity

Students from other countries are interested in Food Processing, too. About 8.3% of those with this major are international students.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Food Processing

Some degrees associated with food processing may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to food processing have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	3.5%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	34.0%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	6.5%
Some College Courses	11.4%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	8.9%
Bachelor’s Degree	8.8%
Master’s Degree	3.9%
Post-Master’s Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Master’s degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees at the doctoral level.	0.2%
First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.	0.7%
Doctoral Degree	15.0%
Post-Doctoral Training	7.3%

Online Food Processing Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	6	1
Certificate (2-4 Years)	0	0
Associate’s Degree	15	0
Bachelor’s Degree	1	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	0	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to Food Processing

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to food processing.

Major	Number of Grads
Animal Science	8,396
Veterinary/Animal Health Technologies/Technicians	8,257
Agricultural Economics & Business	8,085
Horticulture	3,932
Veterinary Medicine	3,555
Agricultural Production	3,522
Plant Sciences	3,307
General Agriculture	3,256
Food Science Technology	2,181
Agricultural Mechanization	1,402
Animal Services	1,217
Veterinary Biomedical and Clinical Sciences	954
Agricultural Public Services	866
Other Agriculture	700
Agriculture/Veterinary Preparatory Programs	486
Soil Sciences	439
International Agriculture	215
Veterinary Administrative Services	113

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By {} under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.