Plenty of folks have heard of food tasters. It seems like a dream job, right? Come into work and eat your heart out. No sweat.
Despite being partially true, what some people don't realize is the systematic nature of the job.
Tasters are often confined to controlled environments. Meat tasting might mean being confined to a small booth lit by a dim, red light. The confinement is meant to cancel out any unwanted distractions, and the red lighting serves to camouflage how cooked the meat is. Summoning their full sensory perceptions, tasters take their time...well...tasting. Samples are almost always spat out.
For Godiva taster Jennifer Koen, her job sometimes requires sampling up to 50 pieces of chocolate a day.
"You need to like chocolate to like this job. Luckily I do," said Koen in an interview with Fox News.
"Eating chocolate is a pleasure in life. It's like sex--you love it but sometimes you need a little break."
The ongoing trait with tasters is their commitment to food quality. A few have even ventured into cuisines where human taste buds have rarely gone before.
Have you ever wondered how companies just know how chicken alfredo dog or cat snacks taste like chicken alfredo?
Meet Simon Allison, the man with a palate for pet food.
The owner of three cats, Allison's job title is senior food technologist for Marks & Spencer, a major British retailer. All pet food taste tests are conducted by him. That means Allison spends his work days smelling, chewing and spitting out a medley of feline and canine food samples.
Whereas most folks cringe at his job, Allison relishes it--just as much as he relishes his favorite cat entree: the organic luxury chicken dinner with vegetables.
The salary for food tasters varies greatly (usually starting from $30k), but if you are in the mood for a career change--and a wacky career change at that, hone your taste buds and see where they take you!
