What is the profile of Food Engineering education in Brazil? Are we following the contemporary professional renewal trend? Driven by these questions, the present study analyzed data regarding 21 academic courses, which represent approximately 22% of the total bachelor’s degree in food engineering courses offered in the country. Samples were defined considering a Brazilian annual ranking of undergraduate programs: very good (four stars) and excellent (five stars). Next, information was recovered from both the Brazilian Ministry of Education and institutional homepages of each analyzed program. The results suggest that food engineering programs exhibit relative identity, naturally due to their history and the path of each program and their faculty, shaping particularities in how fields of knowledge are constituted, in addition to their representativeness in the total workload of the program. However, initial analysis is suggestive regarding understanding that Brazil is not properly doing its homework, based on global movement, concerning food engineering education. The need to rethink Brazilian technical education, without culminating in additional workload, is emphasized, not only regarding new materials and technologies for learning and teaching, but also in terms of bringing a human and market approach. The achievement of this complex goal seems to be provided by the encouragement of student associations, transversal learning processes, and learning experiences outside the classroom as a means of improving undergraduate programs and human resources.

The main goal of this paper was to conduct an exploratory study regarding consumer preference in the field of Food Science and Technology. Two questions guided this study: Is it possible to identify a trail of crumbs concerning consumer behavior in the Food Science and Technology field? And, if that trail exists, where is it leading academia in terms of research trends of interest? A bibliometric study was conducted using an analysis software called CiteSpace. The use of this methodology ensured the impartiality of the literature review of the topic of interest. A survey of all articles indexed in Web of Science between 1993 and 2013 regarding consumer behaviour was carried out. In total, 1,786 articles were analyzed. The recent increased concern regarding consumer behavior was evident. With the USA and Spain having a significant role in driving the trail. Eight other countries that exhibited similar influences are: Italy, England, Australia, Germany, Denmark, France, Netherlands and Brazil. The research trends observed were grouped into seven major hot topics: sensory, health, safety, willingness to pay, packaging, ethics, and lifestyle/convenience. However, the development of publishing trends depended on where the research was carried out. A final suggestive finding, demonstrated that scientific knowledge does not occur in a vacuum.