Student testimonial
Student Juan Du - MSc Food Quality Management
Almost finished with her master Food Quality Management, Juan Du had to do an internship. In the following story she will tell about her experience.
But more importantly, I got to see how an organization works and I gained work experience.
Internship
“After my bachelor Animal Science in China, I went to Wageningen University to follow the master programme Food Quality Management. At the end of this programme I had to do an internship, which I found via my supervisor. I did mine at the FAO in Rome. The FAO stands for Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. FAO is fighting for more sustainable agriculture and better policies and against hunger. Within this organization I worked at the Nutrition and Consumer Protection Division.”
“During my internship, I searched for published nutritional data on quinoa, which looks like a grain but is a pseudo cereal. It originates from South America. I also worked on compiling high-quality data in INFOODS database. The goal of INFOODS is to stimulate and coordinate efforts to improve the quality and worldwide availability of food analysis data. By doing so we want to ensure that anyone anywhere will be able to obtain adequate and reliable food composition data. So I was spending most of my time in the office behind the computer.
I acquired knowledge on nutrition assessments and compilation, since this was not a part of my major. But more importantly, I got to see how an organization works and I gained work experience. The outcome of my internship will be in a published paper, which is not published yet, and a more comprehensive database.”
Master Programme
“My internship is not directly related to my master. But they have things in common. During my master programme Food Quality Management, one of the most important skills I learned is to be critical and always seek for scientific proof. During my internship I could put this knowledge into practice.”
Future Career
“Once I am done with my master, I would like to do research and consultancy since they both deal with knowledge integration. I would like to continue with a PhD, if I can find a suitable one, and have a career in research.”