Abstract: Objective To understand the employment of undergraduates majoring in food hygiene and nutrition and to provide reference for the development of dietitians. Methods Questionnaires were distributed to food hygiene and nutrition undergraduates graduated in the period of 2008 to 2020 from Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. The questionnaire included basic information, initial employment information, current work situation, and the prospect of career development of this major. Results There are 61.7% (158 / 256) of the undergraduates who chose employment and 37.8% (97 / 256) of the undergraduates chose further education. There are 95.3% (244 / 256) of the undergraduates who believed that the competitiveness would be improved with a master's or a doctoral degree. There are 89.8% (230 / 256) of the undergraduates who believed that registered dietitian certificate was helpful to the professional development of the specialty.The employment of the undergraduates was concentrated in the nutrition department of hospital [31.6% (50 / 158)], health system institutions [24.7% (39 / 158)], food / nutrition / health management / pharmaceutical enterprises [24.1% (38 / 158)]. Among them, the job-hopping rate of the undergraduates working in hospitals was the lowest[28.0%(14/50)], and that in food / nutrition / pharmaceutical enterprises was highest [73.7%(28/38)]. Conclusions The undergraduates majoring in food hygiene and nutrition mainly worked in nutrition department of hospital, health system institutions, food / nutrition / health management / pharmaceutical enterprises. The employment of nutrition department in hospital was highly conformed with the specialty and showed a high-stability. Obtaining a master's or a doctoral degree and Chinese registered dietitian certificate was helpful to employment and professional development.

Key words: Undergraduate, Food hygiene and nutrition, Employment, Investigation