Nearly 90% of graduating seniors from the Food Science program at Purdue University gain employment in the food industry. Ensuring the program is meeting employers' needs is one mission of our curriculum committee with input from an Industrial Advisory Board (IAB). In light of the recent outcomes-based assessment requirements outlined by IFT, feedback from our IAB members regarding the relative importance of the core competencies was needed. The objective of this study was to survey the IAB members regarding relative importance of each of the 46 core competencies. Each competency was ranked using a Likert scale from 1 = not important to 5 = very important. Statistical analysis was conducted using the Mann-Whitney nonparametric test. Significant differences (P = 0.05) were found between several of the five content categories with Success Skills scoring highest (4.35 out of 5) on relative importance followed by Applied Food Science Knowledge (4.02 out of 5). Also, significant differences (P = 0.05) were found between competencies within each content category. Overall, the results suggest that the 46 core competencies should not be given the same instructional weight within a curriculum. One option for addressing the variation in importance could be to include some planned redundancy within the curriculum for those core competencies that were ranked the highest. In addition, part of the outcomes-based assessment process should include measures of the level of competency being achieved by graduates. By considering relative importance and competency achieved by graduates, important areas for improvement can be identified.