The Regulation of Food Science and Technology Professions in Europe

Abstract

The regulation of a profession is justified when it improves consumer protection and public health. Higher education food science and technology (FST) degrees, widely offered in many universities in Europe open to a wide range of jobs in the food sectors where the employees could cover different positions, roles and carry out diverse activities dealing with the food production and the quality and safety of the food products.

This work reviews the state of the art of the FST regulated professions requiring higher education qualifications in the European countries. The research was carried out by collecting specific information on regulated professions by contacting unions, professional associations, public servant categories/professions, and by visiting national and EU websites.  The data collected for each regulated profession were: country, training/education required, date of implementation of regulation, professional training (if required), capability test (if required) and acts required by law to be signed by a regulated professional. Only professions that required a higher education diploma were included in this search.

Few countries were found to have a regulated profession in FST, in particular: Food Engineering (Turkey), Food Technologist (Greece, Iceland, Italy and Slovenia), and Oenologist (Italy, Portugal and Spain). FST regulated professions in Europe are thus scarce and have a rather limited history. The Food Technologist in Italy and the Food Engineer in Turkey were found to be the only completely regulated professions found in Europe. Food and professional regulation have been evolved over the years and raised the debate on the regulation of FST professions. Academia as well as other policymakers has to further contribute to this discussion to keep high the standards for quality of education and training of the qualified workforce and professionals in the food sector.