Knowledge of the physical and biological sciences, economics, marketing, and engineering is applied to product development, food processing, packaging, food microbiology and safety, food defense, food security, quality control/assurance, technical sales, and distribution. Research programs involve food safety, food security, food processing, food microbiology, food quality, and processing. Consumer demands for a variety of highly nutritious and convenient foods of uniformly high quality create many and varied career opportunities in the food and allied industries. These careers include management, research and development, process supervision, quality control/assurance, procurement, distribution, sales, and merchandising.