Food Science and Nutrition BSc (Hons) – 2019 entry

Why choose this course

Our food science programmes are ranked number 1 in the UK by The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2018 and number 2 by the Complete University Guide 2019.

The Department of Nutritional Sciences is home to an innovative teaching and learning environment. The strength and depth of our research means you’ll not only by taught be internationally recognised researchers, but also be able to become actively involved in cutting-edge research during your studies.

What you will study

Food science is a multidisciplinary subject that applies sciences such as chemistry and biology to the study of food.

Our BSc Food Science and Nutrition will give you an understanding of the raw materials that will become food, how they interact and how food science can have dramatic implications for human health and disease. Food safety also forms an important component of the course, as food can be a major source of disease-causing chemicals and microorganisms.

Our course will not only provide you with a thorough understanding of food composition and analysis, but will also give you a high standard of experience in nutrition and microbiology.

Professional Training placements

As part of this course you have the option to complete a Professional Training placement. These will give you the opportunity to develop your professional, academic and personal potential, equipping you to be adaptable, resilient, globally minded, confident, entrepreneurial and digitally savvy in the workplace. These qualities are widely recognised by employers and a significant proportion of placement students at Surrey are offered graduate-level jobs or go onto postgraduate study.

Find out more about Professional Training placements and discover how these have transformed our students’ lives and career choices.

Food Science and Nutrition placements

We strongly encourage you to take a placement in the UK or overseas. Recent students have undertaken placements with leading companies such as:

• Tata Global Beverages
• Sainsbury's
• Nutricia
• Surrey Human Performance Institute
• Unilever
• Pladis
• Yakult.

We place great emphasis on organising a successful, research-­based placement, allowing you to extend and enhance your practical abilities and sharpen your professional skills. Employers may sponsor the final year of your degree and many offer our students employment on graduation. To help ensure that you have a successful experience, you will be visited in person during your placement year. 

In the competitive world of graduate employment, companies are more likely to consider applicants who have previous professional experience.

Applying for placements

Professional Training placements are usually applied for and secured via an open and free-to-all process, within which students can select and apply for numerous opportunities. Placement providers use their own recruitment and selection procedures and the majority of students will secure their placement in this way. However, support is also provided to students wishing to source their own placement, subject to university requirements being met.

Students are generally not placed by the University, however they are given thorough support and guidance alongside access to a vacancy portal representing thousands of placement opportunities each year. Please be aware there may be travel costs incurred when attending interviews and assessment centres at the placement provider’s premises.

Careers and graduate prospects

We offer careers information, advice and guidance to all students whilst studying with us, which is extended to our alumni for three years after leaving the University.

Our reliance on a supply of safe food, together with the economic problems that can arise from crop damage and food spoilage, means that graduates from this programme are in high demand by the food and beverage industries.

The combination of modules covering human nutrition, microbiology, food composition, food processing, food analysis and quality assurance provided by this degree equip you for a range of careers.

An important aspect of food science is understanding the vital link between diet and health so that foods can be developed to have maximum nutritional value. You could be involved in undertaking exciting research into the potential and most recent applications of food science – the development of novel foods. These include foods with new synthetic or natural ingredients which are used to replace fats or lower cholesterol, foods with novel health-promoting extracts from plants, or foods that have been altered by genetic manipulation.

As a nutritionist, you may be concerned with the beneficial components in a food, but as a food scientist, you will need to ensure that a food bought from a supermarket contains the optimum amount of these components. You will also be concerned with the quality and safety of the food.

Our graduates are involved in product development, food analysis, research, consumer advice, legislation, food safety and teaching.

Most of our graduates go immediately into the job market, taking jobs that often follow naturally from a successful Professional Training placement, but many of our graduates also pursue further study. This includes taught masters programmes and PhD studentships.

Some of our graduates over the last few years have secured roles such as:

• Technical Graduate, Bakkavor
• Process Technologist, Adelie Foods
• Regulations and Compliance Executive, IFIS
• Conformance Manager, Nestle
• Nutritionist, Whole Foods
• Food Technologist, JF Renshaw
• Regulatory Analyst, Leatherhead Food Research.

Study and work abroad

We give our students the opportunity to acquire international experience during their degrees by taking advantage of our exchange agreements with overseas universities or by completing a Professional Training placement abroad. In addition to the hugely enjoyable and satisfying experience, time spent abroad adds a distinctive element to your CV. Visit our global exchanges pages to check where you can go.

Our international exchange programme offers you the opportunity to spend your Professional Training placement working in another country. Students have travelled to Canada, Australia, Brazil and many European countries, and typically work in a research laboratory at a partner institution.

If you work in another part of Europe you may be eligible for an Erasmus+ grant, as well as your full student loan if undertaking an unpaid research placement in a foreign university laboratory. This is an excellent opportunity not only to acquire valuable work experience, but also to improve or learn another language.