Magíster en Ciencia de los Alimentos postgraduate personal statement example

Personal statement example

The trays came out of the dehydrator looking like old pennies. For my final-year project in Agronomy, I had dried apple slices from three varieties grown in the Maule region, and one batch had browned far more than the others despite identical pre-treatment. Working out why became the most absorbing problem of my degree, and it is the reason I now want to study food science at postgraduate level.

My project compared citric acid and ascorbic acid dips as treatments to limit enzymatic browning during low-temperature drying. I measured colour with a handheld colorimeter borrowed from the faculty, recorded moisture loss by weighing samples at fixed intervals, and ran a small sensory panel with classmates. The variety that browned most was also the one that took longest to dry, which led me to read about polyphenol oxidase activity and how it depends on temperature, oxygen exposure and the fruit's own phenolic content. I could not measure enzyme activity directly with the equipment available, so my conclusions were cautious. I could show that ascorbic acid gave more consistent colour across varieties, but not exactly why one cultivar behaved so differently. That gap is precisely what I would like the training to explore: the chemistry underneath the observations I could only describe.

Agronomy gave me a solid grounding in plant physiology, soil and postharvest handling. Those subjects stop roughly at the farm gate, and I increasingly want to understand what happens after it. Courses in postharvest technology and biochemistry were my strongest, and I have since been working through a general food chemistry textbook on my own, particularly the chapters on carbohydrates and Maillard reactions, which I found harder than enzymatic browning but more relevant to my job.

Since graduating I have worked weekday mornings at a family-run bakery in Talca that makes empanadas and bread for local shops. I started on the counter and now prepare dough and manage the ovens from five o'clock. The work is ordinary, but it has taught me practical things. I noticed that the pino filling made the day before held together better in the pastry than freshly cooked filling, and that dough rested in the cold room on humid days needed less water. The owner had always known this by feel; I started writing down quantities and conditions in a notebook so new staff could follow them. It is not research, but it showed me how much food quality depends on variables people manage by instinct, and how useful it is to make them measurable.

Outside work I sing tenor in a community choir, which has made me comfortable with routine, rehearsal and being one voice among many. I also help organise a seed swap in my neighbourhood twice a year, keeping a simple register of the varieties people bring. Neither activity relates to food science directly, though the seed swap has made me curious about how old local apple and bean varieties differ in composition, not only in yield.

I am applying for a master's because I want the laboratory methods and theoretical depth to answer questions properly rather than approximately. I am particularly interested in fruit and vegetable processing for small producers in central Chile, where drying and simple preservation could add value to harvests that are otherwise sold cheaply or wasted. I know I will need to strengthen my analytical chemistry, and I am prepared to work at it. I bring careful experimental habits, practical experience of food production at a small scale, and a genuine wish to understand why the third tray of apples turned brown.