Click on each mentor to find out more about them
After completing my BSc in Food Science and Nutrition at Northumbria University and an industrial placement year at PepsiCo in Leicester, I started my career in product development within the Food To Go sector. I then moved into Project Management for Ferrero (working on the Thornton's Chocolate brand) and Nestlé (working on Aero, After Eight, Yorkie and Kit Kat). I even lived in Barcelona for a year while working for Nestlé Spain which was a great experience.
Currently working at McCain in Scarborough as a Senior Food Scientist working on New and Existing Product Development.
My career has taken me across different locations and products, I am excited to meet the students and offer advice where I can!
I started my journey in the food industry by studying Food and Nutrition at Sheffield Hallam University. As part of this course, I completed a placement year at Sainsbury’s which included technical, NPD and ethical trade. After University I returned to Sainsbury’s to be part of their graduate scheme. I continued to work as a product Technologist in bakery at Sainsbury’s until I made the decision to have a career break and travel South and Centra America.
When I returned to the UK I moved to manufacturing and spent 2 years working as a Process Technologist in a Greencore Food to Go site. Although I loved working in manufacturing and I learnt a huge amount from my time there, I missed the variety of retail and moved to Asda in 2022. I am currently the Category Technical manager in Frozen at Asda.
After a engineering degree in Food sciences, food technology and human nutrition, I worked in various roles going from production to quality, food safety and regulatory compliance. Over the past 8 year I chose to direct my career towards sensory science, first working with consumer testing and now as a sensory scientist with Arla since 2022. I am currently leading an expert sensory panel.
Deb is the Global Hygiene Specialist at Vikan, providing bespoke food safety and hygiene advice, training, and support to colleagues and customers internationally. Vikan are a Danish manufacturer of cleaning tools to for the food industry.
Debs’ food safety/hygiene career spans five decades. Prior to Vikan she was employed as a poultry plant microbiologist; a scientist within the UK Governments Food Safety Division (researching the after-effects of the Chernobyl disaster on public radiation dose due to the consumption of contaminated food); and as Food Hygiene Research Manager at Campden BRI.
Deb holds degrees in both Applied Microbiology, and Nutrition & Food Science; and is a qualified FSSC 22000 Lead Auditor.
She has always been a passionate about food safety/hygiene and regularly presents at international food safety events. She has also authored numerous food safety/hygiene publications, including peer reviewed papers, trade articles, book chapters, food industry guidelines, and on-line articles.
Additionally, Deb is a Fellow of the Institute of Food Science and Technology and sits on their Scientific Committee; is an Advisory Committee member for the European Hygienic Engineering Design Group; is a Director of the Society for Food Hygiene & Technology; has helped develop Benchmark requirements for GFSI; and is former Chair of the CBRI Microbiology Member Interest Group. Last year she was the recipient of the IAFP Sanitarian award.
At home in England Deb lives in a small village on the east coast of Suffolk and enjoys rugby, gardening and real ale.
Emmanuel is a chef by trade and worked in Michelin stars Restaurant and Hotel in Paris and London from late 80’s till early 2000’s.
He moved into a development chef position with Northern Food, creating sandwiches, sushi and pizza recipes for M&S. He worked on quiches and ready meals for majors multiples and recipes dishes for M&S.
He joined a venture in food targeting healthy/innovative snacking option working with production partner across the UK to deliver the vision. And expanding further into Europe. He then moved into bakery and dessert with concept to launch responsibility. Worked on savoury Pizza with again concept to launch responsibility.
He now works for the leading manufacturer of Mince pie and bakery goods within the UK leading a team of 14 people from development managers to kitchen assistant.
He has gained multiple awards across the various product portfolio.
My journey in food started at Leeds University where I studied food science and nutrition. I always had a keen interest in trying new foods and interested in nutrition so the course at Leeds was perfect for me! In between my second and final year I took a year in industry working at Co-op as a Undergraduate Product Developer. This year gave me valuable experience in retail and the importance of supplier retailer relationships which helped massively when I applied for my graduate role as a Food Technologist at M&S, which is where I am now.
Before joining Arla, I studied an integrated Master’s in Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham. Whilst I was there, I undertook an industrial placement year at GSK as a Production Engineer in a toothpaste factory; it was there that I learned I loved the pace and variety of the FMCG world!
After graduating, I was lucky enough to join Arla’s 2-year production management programme which has seen me work at our Lockerbie, Oswestry, Settle and Jönköping (Sweden) production sites across various roles. In the 3 years since, I have been the Logistics & Planning Manager at our UHT and lactoFREE milk site looking after a department of 30 people as well as having the opportunity to deputise for the Site Director. In September this year, I’ve moved across to our most complex UK site, Stourton Dairy, as Operational Support manager looking after CAPEX, CI, Sustainably and our site performance program.
Throughout my career it has always amazed me how many people are involved in putting products on the shelves of the nation’s supermarkets and I’ve been fortunate to work with so many from our inbound logistics and production teams, right through to branding and marketing!
A recent food science graduate. After studying for a intergrated MSci at the Univeristy of Leeds I now find myself starting afresh in the world of retail. Starting as a junior product developer role at ASDA I find myself at the beginning of my career in the world of product development. I'm excited to experience all the new things within this role.
I have worked in the Food Industry for over 30 years in both technical & development roles. My journey started with a degree in Food Science at Reading University, followed by joining the graduate programme at Rank Hovis McDougal (RHM), working on the Mr Kipling brand and Cadbury's cakes. I have worked with many other Brands - McVitie's, Mars, Sara Lee to name a few and currently on Kingsmill & Allinsons. And also across the retailers in categories such as cake, biscuits & desserts, chocolate, bread, and even poultry.
I've been working as a packaging developer for the last 3 years across drinks, snacks and ice cream. I enjoy all the problem solving and creativity that goes into designing new and improving existing packaging.
Melissa holds a master’s degree in food science and nutrition from the University of Leeds. During University she spent a year in industry at PepsiCo working within their R&D food safety team. She returned to university and completed her master’s before starting a permanent position back at PepsiCo as a Product Developer within R&D. Melissa currently sits in the Europe Seasonings team developing new flavours and renovating existing ones for many of Europe’s favourite snack brands (Walker’s, Cheetos, Lay’s).
Melissa is also a current student with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), gaining her postgraduate diploma in Sports Nutrition.
As a nutrition graduate from the University of Leeds, I have started my professional career as a Product Quality Technologist at Valeo Foods UK. My role in the central technical team for confectionary and snacks focuses on product quality initiatives. In my projects ranging from consumer panels and food safety culture, I am excited to continue learning and developing as I begin my career in the Food Industry.
Hi, I’m Savannah, I am the Early Careers and Skills Specialist at Greencore. I look after everything from Early Careers Attraction, Selection and Onboarding for our programmes such as Engineering Apprenticeships, Degree Apprenticeships, Graduate Schemes and Placement Students. I work on the building of campaigns for Early Career programmes through building relationships with schools, Universities and having a strong social media presence. Managing the end-to-end recruitment and candidate experience through interviews, assessment centres and site tours. Ensuring all government legislations are met and producing contracts, offer letters, keep warm activities and the design and delivery of first week induction. The best thing about my role is the networking and being able to meet new people from all cultures, backgrounds, and cross functions. I also like the scope the role offers for creativity and the encouragement of bringing in new innovative ideas to help redesign process' and innovation.
I started off as a Degree Apprentice myself, working full time as well as studying for a Chartered Leadership and Management Degree working through multiple functions within HR but found a passion for Early Careers!
The start of my journey in food happened at an early age, being brought up in a large family that mealtimes were the times of great conversation and wonderful food, I went onto complete my degree at Northumbria University studying Food Science and Nutrition. After graduating and working a summer in Dublin, occupying a QA role in produce, I moved back over to England and started working in retail for Asda. My first role was cheese Product Manager, travelling the world tasing and selecting cheese (could this job be any better), I then moved around areas developing products for cooked meats, pizza, ready meals, meat, fish, and poultry.
As I progressed to leading teams, I moved out of product development and into the world of Technical and Compliance (still for Asda) and led the food safety and quality agenda in Meat, fish and poultry.
I am now leading a large technical and quality team across IPL/Forza and Kober, which are owned by Asda. We procure, process and pack across various Business units from edible produce, potatoes, nuts and dried fruit, protein and house, plants and flowers.
I look forward to meeting the future talent of the food industry and showcasing the wonderful world of food.
Zoe Shuttlewood is a food safety professional with over 20 years of experience in factory quality assurance, food safety management systems and supplier quality, she has been working for McCormick since 2011. Zoe obtained her Masters’ degree in Food safety Management from the University of Central Lancashire and is a registered food safety manager (RFoodSM) with the Institute of Food Science & Technology (IFST).
Working as a subject matter expert within McCormick’s Global Scientific and Regulatory Affairs team focusing on risk sciences, Zoe is accountable for raw material & allergen control program governance. Activities within these programs include evolving raw material risk assessments using the latest scientific and historical data. Participation in horizon scanning activities and working with key trade association on areas of emerging risk with a focus on contaminants and allergens.