What Is Food Science? This laboratory manual has two pur- poses. The first purpose is to describe what food science is and what food scien- tists do. The second purpose is to describe fun laboratory experiments that demon strate practical applications of food science. Food science is all of the science involved in taking agricultural food prod ucts from the farmer's gate to the grocery store, restaurant, or dinner table. Food scientists generally work with all sectors of agriculture. Food science includes both basic and applied biology, microbiology chemistry math. business, engineering physics, and other disciplines. A food sci- entist's goal is to make safe, high quality food products that are profitable to all seg ments of agriculture.