WHAT DOES A FOOD SCIENTIST DO?
Published: Mar 28, 2025 - The Food Scientist manages R&D projects focused on post-fermentation product development, enhancing food texture and sensory perception, and innovating with new processes, ingredients, and technologies. This position develops prototypes that align with consumer preferences in texture, taste, and mouthfeel, and designs sustainable processes for texturizing alternative proteins. This role provides crucial data analysis, project updates, and compliance oversight across manufacturing facilities to ensure product safety and quality standards.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Food Scientist
1. Food Scientist Duties
- Application Development: Develop and expand application portfolio, formulate and make benchtop product
- Ingredient Sourcing: Identify and source new ingredients
- Technology Identification: Identify new technology areas and provide justified recommendations for selected area(s)
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate with the internal team and lead/participate in cross-functional teams
- Knowledge Sharing: Share knowledge and train colleagues
- Mentoring: Supervise direct reports and/or mentor other employees
- Customer Relationship Management: Develop and maintain customer relationships
- Project Leadership: Lead customer projects, including the development of formulations for specific customer requests, support customers throughout product lifecycle from ideation to commercialization/scale-up
- Formulation Optimization: Optimize new and existing formulations to increase margin and reduce complexity
- Profitability Support: Develop formulations in a manner to continue supporting the overall growth and profitability of the organization
- Sensory and Consumer Insights: Partnering with Sensory and Consumer Insights to gain consumer insight to inform product proposition, design, and desired claims.
- Prototype Development: Developing prototypes to support concept and ideation exploratory work based upon consumer direction.
- Team Collaboration: Active participation in and contribution to a team environment in which all members share information and support departmental priorities.
2. Food Scientist Details
- Product Development: Assists in product development & applications for Beverage, Snack and Culinary (for all major End Use Markets), for a key customer across Retail and Food Service
- Application Development: Assists in product development from initiation to launch.
- Collaboration: Interacts with chefs, flavour experts, technologists, marketing, manufacturing, and customers.
- Collaboration: Collaborates with Culinary Chefs and the Customer to develop concepts, translating culinary gold standards to industrial products
- Shelf Life Studies: Run shelf life studies to ensure product stability and safety
- Sensory Analysis: Run sensory analysis to ensure product acceptance and suitability for the customer and consumer
- Food System Formulation: Assists in food system formulations and generates related applications
- Troubleshooting: Interacts and troubleshoots with customers on application concerns
- Relationship Building: Fosters relationships with peers in key technologies and business functions
- Knowledge Development: Develops application knowledge within assigned food categories and becomes recognised as a solutions partner by food product developers and customers
- Library Management: Implements/Maintains Product & Raw Material library
3. Food Scientist Responsibilities
- Formulation Development: Developing formulations and specifications that meet the appropriate nutritional, regulatory and consumer requirements
- Product Design: Design product formulations from concept to the finished product.
- Documentation: Documents processes and procedures.
- Record Management: Updates and maintains R&D records.
- Customer Collaboration: Collaborates with external customers with sample request
- Product Testing: Perform and confirm formulation
- Technical Documentation: Prepare technical documents
- Product Testing: Conduct ongoing product testing
- Quality Management: Maintain a Quality Management System (QMS) in accordance with the requirements of ISO 17025
- R&D Participation: Participates in designated R,D&A projects, ensuring the appropriate documentation of experimental trials and outcomes is maintained to facilitate scale-up and product transfer to manufacturing
- Scientific Knowledge Building: Builds further scientific knowledge through interactions with peer scientists and/or academic experts, literature reviews, regulatory monitoring, and application studies.
- Literature Sourcing: Sources external literature to guide thinking on specific projects
4. Food Scientist Job Summary
- Sales Support: Support Sales Account Managers in selling blends to customers including liaising between Innovation & Quality (I&Q) and sales.
- Sales Support: Ensure successful sales of spices blends indirectly through working directly with the customer and Olam's sales team.
- Customer Engagement: Engage with customers in formulation queries, hosting tasting and sensory analysis sessions.
- Product Improvement: Translate customer feedback of needs and experience into product improvements and related activities.
- Sensory Analysis: Perform sensory analysis with testers and customers to ensure Latin American flavor profiles are presented correctly.
- Product Development: Support product development activities from bench top to commercialization focused on developing blends inspired by Latin American cuisines.
- Formulation Optimization: Identify opportunities for ingredients, formulation, and process optimization to enhance quality, reduce costs, and ensure consistency of products.
- Project Management: Utilize project management skills to prioritize key initiatives for Spice Blends informed by customer interests.
- Analytical Testing: Conduct routine bench top analytical testing activities and interpret results, especially for customized blends.
- Communication: Communicate with Food Scientists the end-user experience in a way which furthers development activities.
- Insights Building: Build insights based on development learnings to accelerate product development timelines.
- Product Development: Work directly with the Food Scientists to formulate desired products to hit price targets.
5. Food Scientist Accountabilities
- Plant Setup: Coordinate line plant set up and breakdown including connecting equipment lines, operation of plant controls systems, system sanitization and cleaning to ensure R&D schedule is executed
- Professional Interaction: Interact with other team members and customers in a professional manner
- Cross-Department Collaboration: Work with and support other departments, including Product Development and Engineering
- Product Development: Responsible for the development of new products based on interaction/direction from Sales and Marketing and formula revisions (including cost reductions) of existing products.
- Cross-Department Collaboration: Interaction with internal departments and outside vendors as projects dictate.
- Scale-Up Process: Participates in all aspects of the scale-up process (includes pre-production notes, hands-on supervision of plant trials, shelf-life evaluations, and coordination of product data to QC).
- Plant-Based Innovation: Lead the core science and development of novel plant-based capabilities for new products
- R&D Support: Working with the innovation team on R&D for new products as well as improving existing products
- R&D Support: Work across lab experiments, formulation builds and developments for new applications of plant-based proteins
- Microstructure Analysis: Lead to the understanding of product microstructure and analysis
- Team Building: Assist in building the innovation team
- Market Trend Analysis: Follow all future market trends to lead into the innovation strategy
- Relationship Building: Building relationships with external partners and industry experts.
6. Food Scientist Functions
- Flavor System Design: Lead efforts on recreating flavor systems resulting in meat identity, flavor integration in formulations, and finding solutions for off-flavor.
- Formulation Experimentation: Design and execute formulation experiments focused on improving the flavor of plant-based meat analogues
- Data Analysis: Develop tools and datasets for the analysis of flavor compounds
- Product Development: Understand ingredients and processes to create new product attributes.
- Product Development: Work as part of a team to deliver complex novel plant-based meat products.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Working side by side with the machine learning team and the research team on all product development on improvement projects
- Sensory & Consumer Testing: Lead studies in sensory and consumer testing that the company can use to drive product development project success
- Reformulation: Collaborate with Food Scientist team to reformulate, alter, and move forward in data-driven experimental designs
- Research Support: Support research efforts for both short-term and long-term company goals.
- Regulatory Adherence: Adhere to (and develop) food safety, regulations, Quality, R&D Procedures, Good Manufacturing Practices, and Safety Standards
- Product Development: Potential to support the development of bench-top food-based applications
- Process Improvement: Solve complex problems with operating equipment and drive process improvements
- Process Improvement: Identify areas to improve operations in order to achieve or exceed key performance indicators and targets
7. Food Scientist Job Description
- Project Management: Take ownership over project sustainable successes by utilizing effective decision making and communication, ensuring that the projects are following deliverables and meeting deadlines.
- Technical Expertise: Provide technical expertise to effectively lead and execute new product development, margin enhancement, quality improvement, and ingredient technology projects from benchtop to commercialization by leveraging current and new enabling technologies.
- Issue Resolution: Identify and bring forward issues & constraints, plus leverage internal & external expertise during the development process, and resolve technical issues, with minimal supervision.
- Problem-Solving: Approach challenges with a holistic perspective
- Team Coaching: Challenging and coaching the team to think about components and processes others may have missed.
- Timeline Management: Develop and manage technical timelines and activities for multiple projects, effectively communicate risks and mitigation options to management and cross-functional teams.
- Research Coordination: Coordinate and support research activities by initiating and maintaining collaborations, identifying new technology, and optimizing new and existing products by working with external companies and vendors.
- Technology Strategy: Support Talking Rain’s Technology strategies by documenting data and independent, unique and patentable ideas that result from experimentations and concept generation activities.
- Food Safety & Quality: Stay abreast of latest developments in the field of food technology. Ensure food safety, quality, and SQF practices are followed at all times, advising immediate manager of any food safety and/or quality issues.
- Food Ingredient Development: Support the identification, development, evaluation, and commercialization of food ingredients in food and beverages.
- Formulation & Testing: Build advances on food and beverage formulation and testing capabilities. Design and conduct experiments to test the functionality of food ingredients in the most appropriate product model systems.
8. Food Scientist Overview
- Product Development: Assist in developing new products, optimizing processes, and working with team members.
- Product Modification: Assist in the modification of products and work with R&D team members and process team.
- Functionality Testing: Assist in designing and performing functionality tests.
- Analytical Testing: Assist in performing physical and analytical tests.
- Application Work: Assist in application work for ingredients.
- Project Management: Manage projects assigned from concept initiation through product launch.
- Quality Assurance: Takes leadership in establishing quality specifications, nutritional labeling, plant start-ups, and defining tests needed to assure product quality and safety.
- Training: Training personnel in procedures.
- Testing Organization: Organize and complete testing of varieties.
- Data Interpretation: Work closely with R&D and Product Approval teams to design and conduct testing. After conducting studies, summarize and interpret data, develop product specifications, and communicate results.
9. Food Scientist Details and Accountabilities
- Project Management: Manage R&D projects in post fermentation product development, related to food texture and sensory perception.
- Process Innovation: Investigate and explore new innovative processes, ingredients, and technologies for product improvements.
- Application Testing: Engage in application testing and formulation development with ingredients, and evaluate the nutritional value, functional and sensory properties of mycelium-based products.
- Prototype Development: Develop viable prototypes, compatible with consumer preferred properties such as texture, taste, and mouthfeel.
- Process Design: Design innovative and sustainable process concepts for the texturization of alternative proteins using extrusion and other approaches.
- Data Analysis: Analyze and interpret data to understand relationships between ingredient function and application performance and make recommendations.
- Reporting: Provide status updates, project plans & achievements, and outcomes to R&D and business teams.
- Documentation: Prepare and maintain finished product and nutritional specification documents.
- Collaboration: Connect regularly with the Corporate Food Safety team to communicate new programs under consideration, and be involved in the testing process.
- Food Safety & Quality: Incorporate food safety and regulatory information wherever applicable in training program design and documentation.
- Food Safety & Quality: Follow established programs, policies, and practices to produce safe, quality foods that meet regulatory and company requirements.
- SQF System Support: Support the development, implementation, maintenance, and ongoing improvement of the SQF 2000 Systems.
- Auditing: Travel to manufacturing and fresh food facilities and suppliers for food safety, quality assurance and regulatory compliance audits, testing, and product improvement efforts.
10. Food Scientist Tasks
- Vendor Collaboration: Work closely with third-party vendors and culinary specialists as well as internal brand and innovation teams to ensure product quality and regulatory compliance for manufactured, procured and fresh products.
- Quality Assurance: Lead quality issues to resolution and work with the recall coordinator.
- Audit Management: Lead technicians to properly plan and execute audits.
- Customer Issue Resolution: Analyze customer comments and resolve issues with plants or suppliers.
- Labeling Compliance: Follow labeling regulations that affect products, including nutrition, ingredients, Country of Origin Labeling, and warnings.
- Labeling Compliance: Confirm or change product packaging information to ensure compliance.
- Labeling Compliance: Review and proofread product label proofs to ensure compliance with Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) requirements.
- Nutritional Guidance: Provide ongoing regulatory and labeling guidance and assist with Nutrient Profile calculations for Menu Labeling requirements.
- Product Information Review: Review new and current product information in systems such as VIP, VENUS, PID, and PLUM HOST to ensure in-store scale label accuracy.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with Product Development, Category Managers and Retail Divisions to answer regulatory questions.
- Customer Support: Work with Call Center dieticians to ensure customer questions are properly researched and addressed.
- Sensory Coordination: Work with the Corporate Food Technology (CFT) Sensory group to organize panels and coordinate delivery and preparation of product samples.