University of Reading
Please click on their name to find out more about each mentor
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is a non-ministerial government department whose fundamental mission is 'food you can trust' - by this, we mean that people can trust that the food they buy and eat is safe and what it says it is, and that food is healthier and more sustainable.
Sophie's current work focuses on coordinating a joined-up approach to the scientific research of FSA's Regulated Products (food and feed that require authorisation to be sold in the UK) - this involves engaging with government colleagues, research councils, universities and industry partners. Prior to this, Sophie worked as an FSA Research and Development Officer - in this role, one of her primary responsibilities was managing the FSA's portfolio of fellowships and PhD studentships to ensure that they delivered high-quality research and outcomes.
Before joining the FSA, Sophie worked as an academic scientist investigating the behavioural and neurobiological features of language - she completed her PhD at the University of Birmingham, followed by a postdoctoral position at the University of Warwick.
Huel is the leading complete food company. Jess, Huel's Junior Nutrition CX Manager, has a Master's in Performance Nutrition and now heads up the nutrition branch of the customer experience team. Our mission is to make nutritionally complete, convenient, affordable food, with minimal impact on animals and the environment.
Throughout her 4 years at Huel, Jess’ role has evolved into creating a specific branch focusing on the ‘nutrition first’ mindset of the company. This role is fast-paced and varies day to day, specifically focusing on training and mentoring the team, educating customers, and answering in-depth nutritional queries whilst liaising with other teams within the business to complete projects.
Sam provides advice to industry and governments globally on scientific, technical and regulatory aspects of food, particularly in relation to food supplements and functional foods (e.g. weight control products, sports products etc). She has been working in this area for over 20 years.
In addition to her role as a consultant, Sam is also Technical Director for the Council for Responsible Nutrition UK (CRN UK), a food supplements and functional foods trade association, whose members she has been supporting since 2006. She has been a member of the International Alliance of Dietary/Food Supplement Associations (IADSA) international Technical Working Group since its conception in 2010, and was Chair of this group from 2012 to 2017. Whilst Chair of the group, Sam led international working groups in the production of global technical guidance documents for the supplement industry, many of which can also be applied to functional foods. She has also assisted in the production of an EU-focused GMP guide for food supplements and a specific EU GMP guide for botanical preparations.
Sam is a Fellow of the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) and, taking on a completely different role, she is IFST's Honorary Treasurer and Chair of the IFST Finance Committee. Prior to this, she was Chair of the IFST Food Regulatory Special Interest Group from 2017 to 2021. Sam is a member of the Institute of Food Technologists, USA, and of the Society of Dairy Technology, UK. She is Chair of a government-industry forum on food standards and labelling that facilitates open discussion between government policy leads and industry stakeholders, and she is a member of the Food Standards Agency’s Working Group on Food Standards.
Ben is an R&D technologist with 3 years’ experience in the food and drink sector and has worked in Food to Go and now in food and drink development for TCP. His career is a combination of 10 years’ experience as a chef, and before switching to NPD/R&D after completing his BSc in Food Development at University College Birmingham.
Ben now works at Tata Consumer products (home to well-known brands such as Tetley and Tea Pigs) where he develops products ranging from functional beverages (RTD and tea) and adapts products from the TATA brand in India for the UK market.
Ben works with teams globally from India, the US & Canada, Australia and New Zealand and his role involves project management for products in these markets, while also managing the lab & sensory suite in Greenford.
In his spare time, he enjoys making chocolates, eating out & watching rugby.
Alex works in the Product and Ingredient Innovation (PII) team at Reading Scientific Services Ltd (RSSL). He completed a BSc Nutrition and Food Science degree at the University of Surrey which included a placement year, also in the PII team at RSSL. The placement year was for Alex the way to get broad range of experience on a range of different product development and ingredient evaluation projects. After finishing his degree, he returned to RSSL as an Innovation Technologist in the PII team.
As part of his role he works on a range of product development projects. Recently, this has been mainly the vegan area (vegan meat, fish alternatives and dairy alternatives, including milk, cheese and dips). He has also been involved in several different beverage projects and ingredient evaluation projects. These involved formulating a new ingredient into a range of products such as yoghurt, protein bars and drinks.
Alex considers his role as Innovation Technologist especially enjoyable because no two days are the same and he enjoys the range of different projects. This aspect has helped him build on the technical knowledge developed during his studies, further helping him understand the functionalities of different ingredients and their interactions with each other.
Another part of the Innovation Technologist role has involved assisting clients with scale-up of their developed products to either Pilot Plant or factory scale, This has meant regularly running trials in the Pilot Plant or attend Co-Manufacturer trials helping Alex increase his processing knowledge.
Hannah is a Technical Manager for Ella’s Kitchen, a leading organic baby food brand. In her role she is responsible for the quality, safety and legality of products.
Working in a smaller company means that her role is varied, with every day bringing new challenges and opportunities. Day-to-day work includes complaint management, continuous improvement, product specifications, regulatory updates, site audits, microbiology, food labelling as well as involvement with new product trials and launches. Hannah continues to build on her knowledge and has opportunities for professional training to support her both in her current role and for the future.
Hannah studied BSc Nutrition with Food Consumer Sciences at the University of Reading with industrial training and has been in industry for 7 years.
Adam is a senior technician in the Functional Ingredients Department where they analyze a range of products and pharmaceuticals. Most of the work is on food. His work mostly involves the use of HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) which separates and then detects specific molecules in food such as caffeine of vitamins (these are the functional ingredients). They also test the colour of materials such as cocoa powder and have Ion Chromatography (IC) testing, another form of liquid chromatography.
Adam has a MA in Chemistry from the University of York. The course had a placement year in the 4th and final year of the degree that he spent at RSSL as an intern. He completed the masters project at the company and at the completion of the degree accepted a permanent position there.
The range of the work is what he enjoys the most, as within HPLC there are so many different methods and techniques. This keeps him engaged with work every day. What he particularly enjoys is supporting senior members of the team in the development of new methods to expand the range of analysis they can provide to clients (analysis of organic acids like acetic acid in cocoa beans). This type of work helps him build on the knowledge gained through the masters project which focused on redeveloping a routine method for analysing amino acids in food.
Susannah is the Product & Sustainability Manager at BOL foods. The role covers three main areas: Optimisation of the current range, technical and sustainability for the brand. BOL is a plant-based brand based in London, production though, is outsourced to large manufacturers in the UK. They work collaboratively with the suppliers to develop exciting new products and ranges.
They are a certified B Corp as of March 2021 - this is a sustainability accreditation, that demonstrates high social and environmental performance. Susannah led the brand through the certification process and continues to work on sustainability-related workstreams as part of her role.
She studied Food Science & Nutrition at Leeds University including a year abroad and graduated in 2018. She has now been at BOL for 4 years, though she originally started as a Food Technologist with a focus on the technical side of product development. Over the past 4 years she has taken on new responsibilities and now the role covers the three areas previously mentioned.
Cara is a Graduate Food Technologist at Marks and Spencer’s working with the Meat, Fish and Deli Category. She is really enjoying the challenges as a food technologist as no two days are the same and graduates are encouraged and supported to take an active role within the team.
She is new to the industry as she graduated from University of Reading with a degree in Food Science and Nutrition in July 2022. Within her time at Reading, she also completed an industrial Placement at PepsiCo and got involved with EIT food at an Autumn Summer School.
Her key interest is within improving Allergen Management systems and the use of technology and digitalization for the future Food Industry.
I specialise in hot cross buns and sourdough bread. I manage all aspects of the development process from briefs, customer samples, factory trials and critical paths - ensuring our products get launched on time! I make bread and hot cross buns for key retailers like Tesco, Sainsbury's and Waitrose and also a few products for food service customers too.
Key parts of my role include: ensuring products can be made in our factory, making sure products have the correct shelf life and are compliant with the government's HFSS (high fat sugar and salt) targets. Before this role I did a placement year at Mondelez International working on reducing sugar in chocolate products .
I also have experience in consumer research, where I led consumer research projects for a large snacking company. I graduated in 2019 from the University of Reading with a Food Science degree. I've been part of the IFST since my time at university.