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Things To Bear In Mind When Researching Food Science

If you are diving deeper into food science and technology, you will have to often conduct deep research. But research will only be beneficial if you can derive authentic and useful information from it. Not everything you find in an online search for food science will have the same value. So, how do you decide which information to retain and which to overlook?

Humberto Ojeda Avila, a food science technician working at Garden Master in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, US, tells us what to remember when researching food science. He shares some great tips from his experience in the field and believes every researcher can benefit from minding these little things.

Understand the different stages of research

Humberto Ojeda Avila says that the first thing every researcher needs to understand is that there are two stages to retrieving information for research – information discovery and information access. Information discovery is finding out that the information exists somewhere on the internet. Certain tools like the Food Science and Technology Abstracts (FSTA), International Food Information Service (IFIS), and PubMed are meant for information discovery.

Information access refers to getting the full text of a research paper or article. For this, we usually need tools like Google Scholar, ResearchGate, or a subscription to the Food Science and Technology journal.

Keep your search subject-specific

Now food science is a relatively wide area, says Humberto Ojeda Avila. It involves Chemistry, Biotechnology, Biology, and other subjects too. But if your search is not highly focused you could end up with a mountain of information and finding out what is relevant from among these hundreds of research articles will be a nightmare.

Search for subject-specific sources instead. For example, FSTA will give you information about research papers that are only related to your field that is Food Science and Technology. Multidisciplinary databases are more likely to give you irrelevant hits which could consume a lot of your time unnecessarily.

Diversify instead of sticking to a single source

Often researchers prefer to consult a single source because they find it reliable and feel that all the information they need is available in one place. But research is about gathering as much information as you can on a topic. Humberto Ojeda Avila recommends using more than one source for research. Subject-specific but diverse sources can give you a wider outlook.

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