Food Science Global: India

*Adam Note: Faseeh is a hustler when it comes to improving his career and is one of the most receptive people when it comes to handling some of the candid advice I dish out on messages. Really glad to have him here to discuss college in India. His ability to proactively go to events that will benefit his career is one to take note.

My experience of learning food technology in India.

My name is Faseeh M.A Rahman, currently pursuing my final year in Bachelor of Technology in Food Process Engineering from Lovely Professional University, India.

The reason I choose this field, wasn’t pre-planned. In my place, there is a tradition that after you complete your 12^th standard studies, you are enforced to write the medical entrance or engineering entrance. I had to drop 2 years but still didn’t succeed in clearing the exam. Heartbroken, I was going through the list of private colleges and I found out my university providing this particular degree. The university was 3500+ km away from my home. I felt that I cannot achieve something If I am still bounded by my comfort zone. So finally decided to join the university.

I didn’t have any interest or knowledge about food at the time of joining. But I was mentally prepared that even if it is hard I will do anything to be dedicative towards my degree. After a week passed, I found myself that I am getting interested the topics learned at classes especially the different instruments used for processing of food. The courses that our college offered in my engineering degree were, Food Nutrition, Food Quality Testing and Evaluation, Fruits And Vegetable Processing, Value Addition and Packaging, Crop Processing Technology, Bakery And Confectionary Technology, Dairy Plant Engineering, Food Industry Waste Management Industrial Biotechnology, Downstream Processing. Each of the courses had practicals too.

As years passed, I noticed that the classes were getting boring day by day. So I tried to find the solution that why am I getting bored. The end result was, I wasn’t getting satisfied with the knowledge provided in the class. I was curious to learn more. So I decided to search workshops and special courses provided by different organisations so that I can gain updated knowledge as well as meet people from different food industries.

For finding such events, linkedin was my search tool. I almost connected the people from food industries who were from my country in such a way that when I meet a person from an event they will be my 2^nd degree connection! My feed on linkedin was filled with workshops and events which I will never miss! I attended most of the events, parallelly my linkedin profile got stronger. The number of connections in my Linkedin saw my profile authentic. Through Linkedin, I came to know about Lead Auditor Course – ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System, and last month I completed it from Intertek . This course unlocked more opportunities for me before completing my degree.

The main lesson I learned is, if we need good opportunities, we need to hunt them down like a hunter! I met Adam and his podcast “My Food Job Rocks!” through linkedin. In India, podcasts aren’t widely used. But I started listening to it and each podcast gives vast knowledge related to food science and technology. According to me, every food science student should subscribe to this podcast because classroom knowledge won’t take you anywhere.

Thank you for giving me an opportunity to post this article on your website.