Following university education ending with the first state examination, prospective food chemists do one year of practical training with a chemical investigations office. Focus is set on the legal evaluation of foodstuffs, cosmetics, tobacco products and consumer goods. Trainees finish with the second state examination becoming officially recognized food chemists. For the next step after studying at a university, most often graduating from with the first state examination, students have to do one year of practical training with a chemical investigations office. This training is focused on the legal evaluation of foodstuffs, cosmetics, tabacco products and consumer goods. Students finish this practical training by passing the second state examination.
Following main studies and passing the first state examination, prospective food chemists have to do one-year internship with an authorized chemical investigations office. Here students are supposed to deepen their knowledge acquired at a university and also to transfer it to practical applications. Main emphasis is set on the organization, performance, and quality assurance of foodstuffs analysis, the legal evaluation of foodstuffs according to given regulations as well as the conduct of official food monitoring including business inspections. Interns work in the respective sections of the chemical investigations office dealing with different groups of foodstuff for some time each. Here they learn significant working techniques as well as how to render an expert opinion. Tobacco products, cosmetics, consumer goods, and drinking water are also taken into account, for example by means of special seminars.
According to current regulations, students can have up to six months of practical work experience in food chemistry with a university or extern research institute credited to the twelve months of practical training. In some federal states interns are supposed to work a couple of months with an accredited extern research or testing laboratory.
The graduation qualifying students for a profession is the second state examination. With this examination interns have to show that they have broad knowledge about the monitoring of foodstuffs and consumer goods and that they are capable of all analyis techniques and evaluation measures necessary. At the moment, the examination consists of one oral test in “legal regulations for foodstuffs and conduct of foodstuffs monitoring” and three practical examinations concerning the analysis and evaluation of a food product, a consumer good, and a sample of drinking, process or waste water.
The future examplary conditions of education provides for a third section of examination that consists of three oral examinations to be taken in the following fields:
- Legal regulations for foodstuffs and consumer goods
- Organization and conduct of the monitoring of foodstuffs and consumer goods
- Quality assurance in laboratories and businesses
In addition to this, there will be three practical examinations and three supervised legal evaluations from different fields of the internship.
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