Newswise — CHICAGO–The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) today announced the inaugural class of certified food scientists (CFS). With nearly 1,500 food scientists from 54 countries around the world now officially certified, the CFS certification program recognizes food scientists’ knowledge and applied skills. The program itself complements both academic and work experience, and ultimately, helps demonstrate the professions’ commitment to safe, nutritious and plentiful food for consumers. The new inaugural class was officially recognized during the Opening General Session on Sunday, July 14th at the 2013 IFT Annual Meeting and Food Expo held at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL.

“As a profession that encompasses multiple disciplines and commodities, the breadth and depth of food scientists’ significant contributions to the global food system are often not recognized,” said Kurt Buckman, CFS, Vice President Food Safety, Quality External Supply Chain at Pinnacle Foods Group, LLC and Chair of the International Food Science Certification Commission. “The CFS certification serves as a mark of distinction and trust for these food science professionals, who will be instrumental in feeding the growing population of the nearly 9 billion people projected by 2050.”

The CFS is a global certification program that was developed through a statistically valid research study involving more than 1,800 food science professionals from 42 countries. In fact, in the first class of CFS credential holders, nearly twenty percent of the certificants are from outside of the U.S. With more than 27 years on average of experience in food science, these credential holdershave a wide variety of professional backgrounds, including C-level industry executives, university deans, government officials, expert consultants, and other important and diverse roles. The inaugural CFS class includes employees from all 18 of the 2013 Fortune 500 Beverage and Food Consumer Products companies.

The International Food Science Certification Commission (IFSCC), a new independent, third-party certification body within IFT oversees the testing, governance and policymaking of the CFS program. The IFSCC ensures the autonomy of the CFS program and provides appropriate oversight of the certification process. The CFS program governance, exam creation and administration are designed to meet standards of internationally-recognized certification programs – the International Standards Organization (ISO) 17024 standard for personnel certification programmes.

View a list of all the certificants Learn more about the CFS certification Hear what others have to say about CFS

### About IFT For more than 70 years, IFT has existed to advance the science of food. Our nonprofit scientific society—more than 18,000 members from more than 100 countries—brings together food scientists, technologists and related professions from academia, government, and industry. For more information, please visit ift.org.