W hat does STEM stand for Science Technology Engineering Mathematics 4
What Is STEM Sit down at your dinner table and take a look at the food in front of you It may seem simple but in reality many people are hard at work making the food we eat every day Food chemists create new flavors for packaged food Farmers calculate the number of seeds to buy for planting all their fields Dietitians use nutritional software programs to plan diets for people with food allergies All these people make a living working in jobs that require a STEM education STEM is a quick way of talking about science technology engineering and mathematics Some of the most exciting careers are in STEM fields A strong STEM education can take you to the next level in just about any career field What great STEM job may be waiting for you A scientist records his observations of a crop of corn 5
Chemistry and Food When is the last time you had ethyl butyrate If you drank orange juice at breakfast you probably had some of this added flavor this morning Years ago families shopped each day for fresh food Today businesses make products such as packaged orange juice that last weeks in a refrigerator or months when it is unopened But to do this they have to take out parts that can cause it to go bad quickly But this also removes some flavor A flavor chemist supplies new flavors such as ethyl butyrate to add back to the juice A flavor chemist creates many flavors to add to packaged food 6
Flavor chemists study the chemicals that give foods their unique flavor such as sweet strawberry or savory roasted tomato Then they mix pure forms of these chemicals hoping to recreate the flavor so that a food company will use it Food scientists also study how flavors interact with each other How does freezing or heating affect the flavor A raspberry flavor used in a liquid sports drink might not be as delicious in a cookie mix if it breaks down during baking 7
