Preparing Microbiology Professionals for Food Industry.

The importance of microbiology professionals for
the food industry can be assessed from the need to avoid
food spoilage, ensuring the shelf life of raw materials and
food safety and standards, to standardize the microbial
processes for foods (fermented foods), formulate new
products, transport and the like. One of the main hurdles
the Indian food industry may face is the availability of
skilled man power. There is huge requirement of
microbiology professionals to
work in this industry. There
are too many graduates and
post graduates, who are not
knowledgeable adequately to
be able to perform a
microbiologist's job properly.
There is a need for universities
to reformulate the curriculum
according to the experience
and needs of the present day
food. Many developments and
innovations have taken place
in the food industry that
requires well trained
manpower including
microb¡olog¡sts. With the
integrated food laws being promulgated in India under
the Food Safety and Standard Act 2006, Indian food
industry needs to make a note of the importance of
microbiologists and hire them in key positions to ensure
food safety and to meet the requirements of act. The
present paper focuses on various job functions of
microbiologists, developing professional competencies,
knowledge and technology integration in related areas. It
also emphasizes the need for preparing professionals in
microbiology to work effectively in the food industry and
describes the approaches to achieve this objective.