In its business manager jobs, the food processing industry is constantly changing and adapting its products to the tastes and needs of its consumers. Such work involves the research and development of new processing techniques, market studies to determine what customers want, package design, and actual food processing. Many people are employed in this enormous and important industry, from the farmer or livestock owner to the checker in a supermarket. As a fundamental human need, food has always played a central part in our life. Our ancestors lived or died according to their ability to grow food, to hunt for food, or to fight for food. The first colonists in America aided their survival by discoveries of such food products such as corn and turkeys.
Years ago there were relatively few food products and even fewer of them were processed and packaged. People bought their foods mostly in bulk out of barrels, bins, sacks, and jugs. These bulk products were sold in small stores, the self-service supermarket did not exist. Food manufacturers observed that consumers wanted tasty foods and insisted on clean products. They saw that consumers wanted foods of dependable, high, and of uniform quality. Consumers also wanted seasonal items year round, and a wider variety of products which were easier to prepare and easier to store. With this knowledge to guide them, food manufacturers began the processing and packaging revolution that transformed the food industry from a ‘bulk’ to a ‘packaged’ goods industry. With its sales business development jobs, they fulfilled consumer desires by developing new and improved processing methods and varieties of new products. They also developed the containers and packages for suitable and safe handling of these products.
Furthermore, Americans are eating the benefits of a revolution in new foods. The supermarket - a world symbol of the age of plenty - was made possible by the implementation of improved methods of processing and packaging food. Today’s supermarket is filled with products that were unavailable not long ago. Through jobs in business development, the development of new processed foods has not only broadened the eating horizons of millions of Americans but also has increased the sale of raw farm commodities. Food products today are, in many instances, far superior in nutritional value, tastiness, safety, variety, and reliability than they were thirty years ago. All of this has helped make the industry grow. The food processing industry has moved ahead because of a forward-looking management, new scientific devices, new foods, and new packages. Indeed, it is an ever changing dynamic industry.
In the United States, food manufacturers stand in the middle of the food industry production line. They work with the farmers who supply the raw crops, with the research laboratories, with the wholesalers and retailers who distribute their finished products, and with the consumers who buy them. For that reason, there is a great variety of jobs in food manufacturing companies.
The industry tries to provide consumers with a flow of new and improved products. These products come out of the research laboratories of manufacturers who invest millions of dollars annually in research on new products and in new uses and improvements of old ones. They employ thousands of scientists and other specially trained people for this purpose. Food research has become so complex that a battery of scientists does constant work in many areas. Organic chemists, biochemists, analytical chemists, food technologists, and chemical engineers each have their special roles. Before a new product is introduced, its potential market is carefully surveyed by market researchers who must be consistently alert to changes in consumer’s attitudes, needs, and shopping habits as part of their business development careers. Market researchers plan and conduct studies and surveys to get the facts on the performance and acceptance of existing products or to define the potential market for a new product. Prices, brand image, distribution, size and appearance of packages, and advertising and promotion are some of the areas in which market researcher’s work. Market researchers provide information used in major food production decisions. Food processing is a modern technological breakthrough and is a highly complex business. Likewise, new food processes are continually developed that will continue to meet the ever-broadening revolution in the food industry, as well as to satisfy the food-consuming public.
To look for more business development job listings, you can visit us at BusinessDevelopmentCrossing.com and see a number of opportunities that you can choose from for your future career. Sign up now for free!
