The Challenges of the Food Profession

 

Food Profession

The Challenges of the Food Profession

Welcome dear reader, to this weekend’s episode of Food, Nutrients and Health. My last article was written to the aid of food and agricultural entrepreneurs with the topic “Food Business Lesson”. Should in case you miss it, kindly visit our blog today. You will find the link at the bottom of the article. Thanks.

To start with, I’ll like to state that the propositions and conclusion drawn in this article are to some extent out of presumable generalizations based on the experience of quite a number of students and even nobles in the food profession.  I’ll also like to state that these challenges aren’t listed to actually condemn the food sector of our dear country Nigeria and even the continent of Africa at large. I wouldn’t do that, as I am a part of the big family of the profession. But rather, these things are listed so that we would all consider it as a part of our responsibility to do something towards solving these problems.

May I also state that this article is not necessarily targeted to the government as many might presume; it is rather targeted to every person who desire to make a change in the field of the food profession. And lastly before heading into the body of the article, may I state that these listed challenges and my manner of presentation might be limited by my personal views or perception, and I seek that you read with a mind willing to criticize and willing to correct, if you find any of my assumptions to be wrong.

Having laid down the above introduction, may I go ahead to my listings

1.       Job Opportunities

2.       Academic Institution, Government Agencies and Food Industries

3.       Amendments in syllabus

4.       Student’s attitude

5.       Food Technology council

6.       Land availability for agricultural usage

7.       Emergence of new pathogens as well as reemergence of known pathogens

8.       Recruitment of professionals

There I was after the long waiting right in front of the receptionist , “How may I help you?” She asked. I told her I would love to submit my IT letter to the company. So she collected it and asked me to drop my contact. “We will get back to you, we promise to give you a call.” She assured me. “Okay ma, thanks” I replied. Till today she hasn’t called me yet, and its’ close to two year now. Maybe I should still expect her call. That was my experience with one of the biggest food plant in Ibadan, Nigeria. I visited some other where I couldn’t even see beyond the security guards. Some others in Ilorin, Nigeria told me in simple correct English “We don’t take IT students here.” And my reply also will be “It’s alright, thanks a lot!”

I’m very sure and certain this experience just shared isn’t in any way strange to quite a number of us. We consider it the norm. We see it as the fate of this part of the world. I wouldn’t tag those food industries as bad, not necessarily. I wouldn’t say they are wrong either, why should I? The question really is “Why should they accept me?” “What value have I got at my disposal at the time to help the firms with?” I would reply my hands, my mind and my spirit. Smiles. But really, nothing more! Very little knowledge, you know just that which we’ve been taught in the classroom. No experience of the practical industrial field, that couldn’t have been possible, Why? Of course, my dad doesn’t own a food industry. “So, why should they accept me?” However, if this trend continues we have a long way to go in making the food profession in our part of the world the best of its potentials.

This experience of mine seems to repeat itself in so many graduate of the food profession and we have only a few brainstorming and thinking of how best they still can solve this big challenge. But amidst many other things, this is a challenge that I am passionate about solving. And I’ll give my best to it. I just hope many others will likewise take it personal. Academic institutions have a big role to play in solving these problem, likewise government agencies and down to the board of directors of food industries.

Food Science and Technology isn’t a course to be studied independently of the food industry, I’m of the opinion that students are supposed to be made very familiar with the industrial setting even before going for internship which we know as IT (Industrial Training). Hence, the need for amendment in syllabus.

I would be insincere if I go on listing all the challenges I see, without addressing the attitude of students likewise. Seriously, students of the food profession barely have a good learning attitude. Doctors always picture themselves as kings and a people of high caliber. But it isn’t so with the students of my field. A lot of them don’t even know the potency of the course they are studying. Many spend 4-5 year for a B.Sc. or B.Tech. in Food Science just for the name of it. Quite absurd! The matter to me is those who have this laissez-faire attitude constitute the majority. Attitude to classes, to lectures, to industrial excursions, to even their final year project research tells it all. The attitude you carry as a student, is the attitude you will carry to your career/profession. We need problem solvers in this field and not just more liabilities. Please be an asset!

Land availability for agricultural usage is another challenge. Many of the raw material used in some industries still have to be imported. Few decades age Nigeria was the largest producer of Palm Oil, now in the past few years, we have imported more than 3billion naira worth of palm oil. Agriculture is not so much of my field; however I know that the food industry cannot thrive without the agricultural sector. Please this is a challenge that quite a number of us will be empowered to solve. Let us note put it all on the government alone. Do you quota and I do mine, we would cover a bit of ground.

And lastly, I’ll say a big thanks to researchers in the food sector, and that we would still need more of what you do. Coranavirus came from ‘nowhere’, there are some things which are quite hard to predict. My question is, “If a virus like this springs out against the food sector in form of a food borne illness, do we have what it takes to combat it?”

My conclusion; let us all take these as our challenge and do the best we can towards solving it. The better the mindset of the people in the food profession, the better the profession becomes itself. Better days lies ahead of the food profession in Nigeria, in Ghana, in Kenya, in South Africa and in the whole of Africa at large. Let’s just take things, one step at a time and it will be so amazing the things we would achieve in a lifetime. Very soon Africa’s Food Technology will be like Netherlands.

Article by: Oluwadurotimi Okediji

Food, Nutrients and Health