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10 Strange Food Jobs That Actually Exist

You don't have to be a chef to work with food. Check out these rare and strange job ideas for serious foodies.

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Close-up view of home made dog treats with the word Woof
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Dog food tester

Since dogs will basically eat whatever food is put in front of them, we have to rely on humans to make sure their food tastes good. Dog food testers report on the food’s texture and consistency. Most dog food is made with vegetables, fish, and high-quality meat, so it’s not as gross as it sounds. If you’re not into food, check out these other weird jobs you didn’t know you could apply for.

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Pink Bubble Gum Background that can be used to provide your message
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Chewing gum chewer

If you constantly have a stick of gum in your mouth, this is the perfect job for you. Gum manufacturers like Cadbury hire people to chew their gum before they put it on the shelves to make sure it will sell well. Gum chewers help the marketing team come up with new ideas and help the scientists get the flavor right.

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Egg shell close up
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Egg peeler

Someone has to peel hard-boiled eggs. Some restaurants and companies that package hard-boiled eggs often hire egg peelers to do the job. Nowadays there are machines that can help with this tedious task, but some egg peelers still like to do it the old-fashioned way. Many in this profession become really good at it. In fact, an employee of Atlantic Food Inc.’s cooked-egg division once peeled 48 hard-boiled eggs in one minute. That’s a world record! Check out these unusual high-paying jobs.

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Tasty colorful cupcakes on table
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Cupcake creator

New cupcake flavors and new ways to eat cupcakes are always being discovered. Cupcake creators come up with those ideas. They develop recipes, try out new flavors, and make sure people will like them.

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Many Chinese fortune cookie paper with prediction
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Fortune cookie message writer

Companies pay people to write the words of wisdom that you find in your post-meal fortune cookies. You don’t need any training for the job, but it helps if you are creative and have good grammar skills.

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Fish lunch box, fun food art for kids
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Food artist

You need only step into a gallery, craft shop, or museum to discover that artists have been working for centuries to turn food into art in the form of still-life paintings, jewelry, china, decorative eggs, and serving dishes. Jewelers, potters, glassblowers, and craftspeople use every medium from clay to precious metals and gemstones to render food into images for admiration and use. Food is a subject for everything from greeting cards to shopping bags, handbags to Christmas tree ornaments. Food professionals may use their knowledge to design and manufacture kitchen equipment, teapots, and elegant, useful tools for cooks. You won’t believe that these bizarre jobs actually used to exist.

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Open book, hardback books on wooden table. Education background. Back to school. Copy space for text.
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Rare book collector

Collectors treasure old and rare cookbooks. People who are in culinary school like to reference these books to study and to find new ideas. Collectors will hunt down and create a library of old cookbooks over the course of many years. These cookbooks include things such as the history of food advertising; chefs; restaurants, hotels and menus; food and the media; the cooking school movement; food and the arts; appliances and equipment; and the industrialization of food production, among many others.

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Tropical fresh fruits and vegetables organic for healthy lifestyle, Arrangement different vegetables organic for eating healthy and dieting
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Forager

A food forager is someone who goes out exploring for new, exotic items to add to a restaurant’s menu. They often like to attend farmer’s markets to find fresh, new, locally grown foods to incorporate into dishes.

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Cocoa beans background
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Chocolate explorer

Most people think that they would be a great fit for this job, but it’s actually a bit more complicated than you may think. Chocolate explorers travel all over the world to find the perfect cocoa beans. They have to have a keen sense of taste and be very knowledgeable about the cocoa plant.

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Fresh fish at the market in Thailand
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Fish scaler

Fish scalers do the dirty work after the fish are caught and before they head to the store. This messy job requires a strong hand and a good waste management system. And you should also probably be okay with fishy smells, because working this job must stink! Next, read about these strange royal jobs that actually exist.

Morgan Cutolo
Morgan Cutolo is a former senior production editor at Trusted Media Brands. She graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 2016, where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. In her free time, she likes exploring the seacoast of Maine, where she lives, and snuggling up on the couch with her corgi, Eggo, to watch HGTV or The Office.