The Current Gaps in Food Science

In this video clip, Kantha Shelke, Principal of Corvus Blue LLC and Senior Lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, addresses a growing skills gap in the food industry, arguing the problem extends well beyond early-career scientists.

Many young graduates enter the workforce unable to troubleshoot problems or manage projects, partly because Covid-era disruptions cut off internship experience and partly because few instructors in college and university programs have actual industry experience. Food science curricula, Shelke says, has not kept pace with how much the field has evolved, especially amid rising public distrust in food.

Part of the reason for this problem, according to Shelke, is that outsiders, including Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who succeeded in unrelated tech sectors, now assume their playbooks can "solve food" despite lacking grounding in chemistry, nutrition, physiology, and the practical realities of food production and consumption.

To address this, Shelke describes the Victus Ars Classes she leads, which is a program that teaches four things colleges rarely cover: ingredient functionality (how ingredients behave and interact under real processing conditions, not just what they are); production troubleshooting as a skill built through experience; translating nutrition science into commercially viable products, including a course reframing "ultra-processed" foods as poorly formulated rather than simply processed; and evaluating supplement claims against real bioavailability and safety within complex food matrices. The program also teaches "prevention over reaction," drawing on experience with production lines, litigation, and recalls to show that most failures are foreseeable.

Shelke closes with advice for people starting out in the industry. She highlights the importance of getting close to manufacturing, learn what a specification and shelf-life study are, build a cost model, read (and understand) regulations, and spend time with people who deeply understand their subject matter to grasp how food is made, how it should be eaten, and how it can be made better, more sustainable, and more commercially viable.

References

1. LinkedIn, Kantha Shelke, PhD. LinkedIn, 2026. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kanthashelke/ (accessed August 27, 2026).
2. Shelke, K. About. Personal Website, 2026. https://kantha.com/about/ (accessed August 27, 2026).