After earning his PhD, Bates worked for Frigidaire in Dayton, Ohio in their research laboratory where he studied freezing's effect on bacteria in foods.
Bates worked for Carnation (now part of Nestle) in Van Nuys, California from 1952 until his 1966.
Bates also developed drying and concentration of liquid foods and aseptic packaging.
He even worked on pesticide residual studies in dairy products prior to his 1966 retirement.
Bates was also active in the American Chemical Society (ACS), serving as Editor of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry from 1965 to 1982. and was active in ACS's Agricultural and Food Chemistry Division Archived 2009-08-15 at the Wayback Machine.