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Agriculture, forestry, fishery and food engineers

How to become a Food Technologist

Also called: Seafood product development engineer, Soft drink development engineer, Dairy product development engineer, Canning engineer, Food freezing engineer, Sugar refining engineer, Flour milling engineer, Dairy production engineer

Develops processed foods and manages their production processes and quality.

Main tasks

Workers in this job say high school or university is common. From job tag's survey of people in each job, who could give several answers. It shows what workers see as common, not how many workers hold each level.

How to become one

No particular education or qualification is required to start. People usually join a food manufacturer or similar after finishing their studies. High school graduates often come from agricultural or fisheries courses, and university and postgraduate graduates often have specialist food knowledge from subjects such as food chemistry, nutrition, applied microbiology, agriculture and animal science, or fisheries science. People who studied related fields such as pharmacy, chemistry or biology are also hired. After joining, there is usually a few months of training, during which you tour the factory's production lines and learn how everything works, from production and product development to sales. After training, you are placed in a department. As well as knowledge of your specialist field, such as food chemistry, nutrition, fermentation, biochemistry, agriculture, animal science or fisheries science, you need the ability to understand, analyse and evaluate the whole food production process. Engineers in product development also need a sharp sense of taste and smell and fresh ideas. You often work with and give technical guidance to production line workers, so leadership and explaining skills are also needed.

Ways in

Pay · Job openings · AI and this job

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Questions people ask

How do I become a Food Technologist?

No particular education or qualification is required to start. People usually join a food manufacturer or similar after finishing their studies. High school graduates often come from agricultural or fisheries courses, and university and postgraduate graduates often have specialist food knowledge from subjects such as food chemistry, nutrition, applied microbiology, agriculture and animal science, or fisheries science. People who studied related fields such as pharmacy, chemistry or biology are also hired. After joining, there is usually a few months of training, during which you tour the factory's production lines and learn how everything works, from production and product development to sales. After training, you are placed in a department. As well as knowledge of your specialist field, such as food chemistry, nutrition, fermentation, biochemistry, agriculture, animal science or fisheries science, you need the ability to understand, analyse and evaluate the whole food production process. Engineers in product development also need a sharp sense of taste and smell and fresh ideas. You often work with and give technical guidance to production line workers, so leadership and explaining skills are also needed.

How much does a Food Technologist earn in Japan?

Average annual income in the private sector, bonus included, is ¥6,119,400 (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare). The figure is for the wage survey group Engineers not elsewhere classified, which covers several jobs.

Do you need a degree to become a Food Technologist?

Usually. In this job's census occupation group, 63% of workers are university graduates.

Will AI change the work of a Food Technologist?

Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.

Sources

独立行政法人労働政策研究・研修機構（JILPT）作成 職業情報データベース 解説系ダウンロードデータ（IPD_DL_description_7_01.xlsx）ver.7.01 職業情報提供サイト（job tag）より2026年10月4日にダウンロード（https://shigoto.mhlw.go.jp/User/download）を加工して作成

独立行政法人労働政策研究・研修機構（JILPT）作成 職業情報データベース 簡易版数値系ダウンロードデータ（IPD_DL_numeric_7_00.xlsx）ver.7.00 職業情報提供サイト（job tag）より2026年10月4日にダウンロード（https://shigoto.mhlw.go.jp/User/download）を加工して作成

Sources: JILPT Occupational Information Database download data via job tag (解説系 ver.7.01 and 簡易版数値系 ver.7.00, downloaded 4 October 2026), processed by Peernovo; MHLW, Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2025; Statistics Bureau of Japan, 2020 Population Census; MEXT, School Basic Survey 2025; MHLW, Employment Referrals for General Workers (Hello Work statistics). Figures processed by Peernovo. English job names, translations and the matching of jobs to statistical groups, schools and degree fields by Peernovo.

Updated 4 October 2026