Abstract
The regulation of a profession is justified when it improves consumer protection and public health. Higher education food science and technology (FST) degrees, widely offered in many universities in Europe open to a wide range of jobs in the food sectors where the employees could cover different positions, roles and carry out diverse activities dealing with the food production and the quality and safety of the food products.This work reviews the state of the art of the FST regulated professions requiring higher education qualifications in the European countries. The research was carried out by collecting specific information on regulated professions by contacting unions, professional associations, public servant categories/professions, and by visiting national and EU websites. The data collected for each regulated profession were: country, training/education required, date of implementation of regulation, professional training (if required), capability test (if required) and acts required by law to be signed by a regulated professional. Only professions that required a higher education diploma were included in this search.Few countries were found to have a regulated profession in FST, in particular: Food Engineering (Turkey), Food Technologist (Greece, Iceland, Italy and Slovenia), and Oenologist (Italy, Portugal and Spain). FST regulated professions in Europe are thus scarce and have a rather limited history. The Food Technologist in Italy and the Food Engineer in Turkey were found to be the only completely regulated professions found in Europe. Food and professional regulation have been evolved over the years and raised the debate on the regulation of FST professions. Academia as well as other policymakers has to further contribute to this discussion to keep high the standards for quality of education and training of the qualified workforce and professionals in the food sector.
Highlights
The production, processing and distribution of food is the largest and most important economic10.7455/ijfs/3.1.2014.a10 activity in the world and in the EU, where the Food and Drink industry is the leading manufacturing sector exceeding e1000 billion turnover (FDE, 2012)
The purpose of regulation of a profession should be justified by its public interest and in the case of food science and technology (FST) professions it is related to the assurance of consumer safety and/or correction of the asymmetry of information when acquiring the services of the professionals (Garoupa, 2004)
According to the current EU legislation and the European Commission regulated professions database, there are four professions that include in their title the term “food” regulated in some EU countries, namely: Food Inspector, Food Chemist, Food Hygienist and Food Technologist
Summary
The production, processing and distribution of food is the largest and most important economic10.7455/ijfs/3.1.2014.a10 activity in the world and in the EU, where the Food and Drink industry is the leading manufacturing sector exceeding e1000 billion turnover (FDE, 2012). Graduates find jobs in various positions offered by the industry, public and private research centres, consultancy in the food sector as well as those related to food (e.g. packaging, raw materials production, food service) In this framework, FST professions play a key social role in keeping up standards and protecting the health of the consumers, giving food professionals the overriding responsibility of the assurance of the quality and safety of foods. The purpose of regulation of a profession should be justified by its public interest and in the case of FST professions it is related to the assurance of consumer safety and/or correction of the asymmetry of information (for example, adverse selection of the worker in a specific role or position because of the employer’s and/or consumers’ lack of ability to judge and assess his/her skills and knowledge) when acquiring the services of the professionals (Garoupa, 2004). In this paper the results of the analysis of the state of the art of the FST regulated professions requiring Higher Education qualifications in European countries is reported along with the differences between countries, as well as between the FST and other regulated food-related professions
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