SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA JOB MARKET : THE NEW JOBS : FRESH CAREERS IN FOOD SCIENCE : JOBS ARE GOING BEGGING IN THIS ALMOST INVISIBLE FIELD

She wears a white coat, not an apron; works on a lab bench, not a kitchen counter, and bears the title “chemist,” not “chef,” but Jennifer Farnady is as intimately involved with the food you eat as Betty Crocker or Mrs. Butterworth.

Only you’d never know it unless you were an avid reader of food packaging. Jennifer Farnady makes gellan gum, an ingredient that thickens pastry fillings, ice creams and jams. If you’ve never tasted it, don’t worry; it has no flavor. If you’ve never noticed it at all, that’s no problem either; it has no nutritional value.

As an ingredient, gellan gum is a lot like Farnady’s job--invisible but important. That’s one reason why, during this job-withering recession, jobs in the food-technology and food-science sectors are going begging.

But it’s not the only one. People have to eat, recession or no, so food-processing companies generally feel economic downturns less than other manufacturers. In this era of two-income families, technological advances that increase foods’ convenience are gobbled up. And fewer students are heading toward science-oriented college majors.

“We’re seeing more jobs than people, especially at entry level,” said Fred Caporaso, chairman of the Food Science and Nutrition Department at Chapman College in Orange. “I get calls from companies, three to six each week, wanting students. But we’re graduating fewer and fewer students.”

The news in the food-technology area--jobs that range from product developers such as Farnady to quality-control technicians and technical sales people--is not all good. The recent spate of mergers and acquisitions has left many food companies with tightened budgets. But the news is still better than in many areas of employment.

Although there are no statistics kept for the narrow field of food science, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that between January, 1990, and January, 1991, employment in the manufacture of food and kindred products rose by 7,000. That’s a 0.4% gain, compared to a 0.2% gain in the total work force, said economist Bill Goodman.

“There’s no question that there’s this long-term trend toward consumption of more highly processed foods,” said Jon Sargent, an economist with the labor bureau’s Office of Employment Projections. “It started in the ‘50s and ‘60s with the advent of the TV dinner and includes, more recently, special microwave meals. Those are the products that come from food scientists.”

Sargent calls food science “a kind of unglamorous job that maybe doesn’t get its due recognition.” Farnady, who works in the Gellan Gum Food Applications Laboratory at Kelco Corp. in San Diego, calls it a great job that still affords opportunity, especially for those with advanced degrees.

“I’ve seen through the years that the market has gone down some, especially with all the buyouts,” Farnady said. “But it’s still an area where there are jobs available.”

Farnady, 26, graduated from Chapman College with a bachelor’s degree in food science and nutrition. Although her company offers advancement based in part on experience, she says she can see how her lack of a master’s degree could be a hindrance.

Michael Kushkin, president of Roth Young Personnel in Bedford Heights, Ohio, said his firm is currently searching for qualified food scientists for several major manufacturers. He’s looking for people with basic science degrees and master’s degrees.

“The jobs are out there,” Kushkin said. “You have to be a bit more qualified. Jobs for people with five to 10 years of experience have been one of our biggest areas. As the economy did soften, we did not find too much softening in these areas.”

Although many companies that recruit food scientists for manufacturers want employees willing to relocate to the Midwest, where companies such as ConAgra and General Mills have headquarters, there are jobs in Southern California.

Chapman’s Caporaso notes that the Southland is the No. 3 food manufacturing center in the United States, behind New York and Chicago. That makes it a good site for those searching for food-technology jobs.

On the downside, however, is the fact that one of the largest employers is Hunt-Wesson Inc., a division of ConAgra, which has changed hands four times since 1983. Such changes often mean cuts in budgets and some redundancy in jobs between the newly acquired firm and the parent company.

“A few years back, we had quite a bit of growth,” said Kay Carpenter, spokeswoman for Hunt-Wesson, which is located in Fullerton. “But at the present time, we’re not filling many positions.”

Still, the industry at large and in Southern California is healthy, said Ronald J. Amen, vice president of ABIC International Consultants Inc., a food industry consulting firm in Orange.

“Food companies as individual entities have layoffs but as an industry they’re very stable, and there are always more openings in the food industry than there are people to fill them,” Amen said. “That’s especially true in the technical areas. That statement does not change even in recession.”

Elizabeth Fordyce, western regional sales manager for a food company that manufactures brewer’s yeast and baker’s yeast extracts, is on her third food-industry job and would agree wholeheartedly with that statement.

The 34-year-old sales executive for Red Star Specialty Products not only sells the flavoring but helps manufacturers figure out new applications for it and trouble-shoots when something goes wrong between the laboratory and the store shelf.

Fordyce has a master’s degree in food science and nutrition. She began work on a doctorate when she decided that food technology was for her--but laboratories were not. A liking for people led her to sales; her education allowed her to win a job with highly technical overtones and a salary in the $50,000 to $65,000 range.

In general, food scientists make salaries as disparate as the companies they work for and the jobs they hold. An entry-level quality-control technician with a bachelor’s degree in science could make between $20,000 and $35,000, while a plant manager with a master’s degree in food technology could make in the $90,000 range.

“There’s always been a lot of opportunity,” said Fordyce, of Laguna Niguel. “It’s an industry that people don’t think about. You go to the grocery store, buy all these new products and don’t think how they’re put together.”