Podcasts about foodgrads

Please join us as we sit and chat with Nicole Gallace, the founder and CEO of FoodGrads and hear more about her amazing company and our NEW partnership with FoodGrads. Thank you Nicole for your leadership and making this industry just better. You Rock!!! foodgrads.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/syscocanadafoodiepodcast/message

At FoodGrads, they are hands-on helping students and new graduates start their careers in the food and beverage industry. With loads of experience behind them as a food and beverage industry recruiter, they know the industry is an incredible place to work and build a career. We all love food right? And let’s face it the jobs are endless – scientists, baristas, marketers, chefs, product developers, sustainable food specialists, engineers, communicators, production leads—there are purposeful, meaningful career options—and they help connect people to them! Please join us as we talk with Nicole about her amazing non-profit company and how its helping the industry attract amazing people for long term careers. Enjoy, --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/syscocanadafoodiepodcast/message

Foodgrads recently partnered with Taste Your Future and you might have seen Nicole Gallace do more video shoots and social media collaborations. Chelsey is the woman behind the scenes. Chelsey Walker wasn’t intending to join the food industry, in fact, she never thought she would do marketing and communications,  but through her friend in the dessage business, this changed. Chelsey helps me with some social media pet peeves like posting on a schedule and working with hashtags. In exchange, I inspire her to peruse her side hustle.   Sponsor - FoodLabelPro.com Is your product packaging compliant with the new FDA rules?  The compliance deadline is January 1st, 2020. At FoodLabelPro.com we will upgrade your current panels for only $50. FoodLabelPro.com also provides package and claim reviews, laboratory analysis, shelf life testing, printer/graphics services, and menu analysis.   We are your one-stop shop for food packaging: FoodLabelpro.com. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Like This Episode? Then You Might Like These two episodes talk about social media: Sophie Mendes Van Delft, Content Marketing Specialist for Restaurants Canada - Sophie and I have a great discussion on social media for Restaurants Canada Rachel Cheatham, CEO of Foodscape Group - Rachel and I talk about the right media to consume and what both her and I read, watch and listen to weekly.   Show Notes When someone asks what you do for a living what do you tell them?: I’m a digital communications graphic designer I taught myself graphic design How did you teach yourself Graphic Design?: I took a few classes, but the internet and blogging courses are great. Just go to adobe creative cloud and practice Photoshop Illustrator Lightroom Tips from photos: Good photos take less work. What is Taste Your Future: A food and beverage Ontario initiative. The idea is that we’re building awareness in the food and beverage industry. Right now, there’s not a very good idea of the jobs around the industry. The new food jobs aren’t being filled and Taste Your Future is trying to raise awareness to tell the stories about the food industry. Buffer.io What is one misconception you’d like to dispel?: The food idnsutry has just as valuable jobs as engineering. These jobs are in food pay just as well. Describe the steps it took to get to where you are today?: I started as a Paramedic and hated it. Algonquin College Diploma in Public Relations Isabelle Docta – Taste Your Future How did you meet Isabelle?: Through horses actually. We met through the equestrian world. We do Dressage Dressage: A dance with the rider. It’s an Olympian sport How do you communicate better about yourself?: Be a human on facebook. Go to as many networking events as possible. Networking is more valuable than online communication How can you be the best in social media?: Be authentic and showing up. Answer things a lot. It’s just like getting a job. Just show up just like a job. Twitter is best for hashtags and so is Instagram What do you look for most in a job?: I’m trying to get side Hustle going with Social Media Management. Flexitarian/Reductarian Flexitarian cartoon How do you like working with Foodgrads: I love it! Nicole is awesome. We do a ton of video Unwrapped What type of food trends and technologies are really exciting you right now?: Every time I go into the food industry, I see something new Food Industry Social media trends: There aren’t many trends about the careers of it Ital Pasta Sticky Note Food Science/Nutrition stickynote cartoons What is the biggest problem in the food industry?: We are running out of people in the food industry and our job is to show awareness. Most factories are in rural countries in which young people don’t want to go there Favorite Quote: Surround yourself with people who are going to take you higher Favorite Book: Harry Potter fan Favorite Kitchen Item: garlic Press Best thing you’ve ever eaten: Some kind of cookies Garlic Ice Cream Any advice about getting into the food industry: Be open to every opportunity and connect with everyone working with you Where can we find you for advice if you want to be found?: You can message me on the taste your future page. Our biggest social media platform is Facebook. We just launched Instagram and I’m excited for that.

The Foodgrads Ambassadors program is an opportunity for students in Canada to explore the food industry by getting involved and educating college students about the food industry. Veronica and Yenci have benefitted well with the program as both now have jobs in the food science area. Veronica just recently got a job in Quality Assurance and Yenci is a product developer at Campbell’s Soup. Today we learn about how and why they became foodgrads ambassadors. The most important thing is that we see a fresh perspective of the newest people who have entered the food industry and we talk a lot about the pain points that a lot of students struggle with when it comes to finding a food job. We hope that if you are a student or new professional, that this episode motivates you to contact Nicole Gallace at Foodgrads, and to get involved *NEW* Patreon Due to our ad cycle being over, we’re trying a different model for My Food Job Rocks. We have opened up a Patreon page! Now you can support My Food Job Rocks if you want to and the reward tiers go from a complementary career advice book, to ad placement and more. We’d love for you to be part of the process. Visit Patreon.com/myfoodjobrocks Show Notes Foodgrads Ambassador Program: A system set up by Foodgrads. Youtube: Foodgrads youtube channel The Foodgrads Ambassadors program has about 10 people. 7 are interested in the states. All you have to do is contact Nicole@foodgrads.com What are the general questions you guys get as Foodgrads Ambassadors: They either wanted to know more about the food industry or more about Foodgrads. Why did you decide to join the campus ambassadors program?: Veronica: I worked at a career fair first and found that there were no food jobs. Eventually, I did blogs and videos. Yenci: I followed Nicole on LinkedIn for some time and Nicole gave a talk in our university so I wanted to help out. Why do you think people are going to the Foodgrads Ambassador program?: Students not in food science can meet people in the food industry and ask questions. Veronica Hislop’s 7 facts series. There are no websites for these food jobs. Students can have a voice in the industry. The blog is an outlet to have students to write. What got you guys interested in food science?: Both didn’t know food science was a career until someone told them about it Taste Your Future: Food and Beverage Ontario which is funded by the government. It’s an initiative from Food and Beverage Ontario For every one graduate, there are 4 jobs in the industry What type of food trends really: Sustainability and Culture, and what we eat What’s one thing in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: A lot of the food jobs aren’t known and I want to find them out because I might be interested in them. I would also ask, what makes a good food scientist and what would make me a good food product developer. How would you solve the problem of showing food blogs?: All we really need is someone to go and tell us about their job. There should be both an online presence and in person. For example, there are too many names for job titles like product development What’s your favorite quote, book or kitchen item?: Veronica:Become who you are. One of my favorite books is “the earth of ides”. Yenci: Kindness is key and all will happen when it should. University of Guelph motto: "Rerum cognoscere causas," a quote from Virgil meaning "To learn the meaning of reality." Favorite Food: In Colombia, a really good Potato soup. Ajiaco Soup The advice in the Food Industry: Veronica: It doesn’t matter what your background is, just go out and talk. People are generally friendly Yenci: Ask questions. Asking questions is a craft. Where can we find you?: Veronica on Linkedin, send a message! Yenci Gomez, message on LinkedIn. Contact Nicole with Foodgrads.

Check out our slides here This episode is a bonus episode where I rehearse the two little presentations I did in the past two weeks. I was wondering how I was going to practice them, so I thought...well, I have the mic and the script, why not practice through a podcast! Unfortunately, these rehearsals are not the final product, but they might be more informative than the final product because it has me flesh out my thoughts a bit more. The timeframe I had to complete these presentations is much shorter than what you will be hearing today, but perhaps that's a good thing. Here is a little background of the two presentations: On July 10th, Berkeley for the Developing Future Foods Seminar was an event hosted by Alex Shirazi, who does the Cultured Meat Symposium and a killer podcast.  I found his podcast really cool and we actually met at Food Funded in San Francisco. I was helping another person podcasting at the time so I helped him improve his podcast in terms of strategy and audio improvements.  Alex asked me to be a speaker at this one and with some encouragement from my co-founder, I did so and rocked it. This was the first time in a while I did a live presentation but after I was done, people kept on coming and talking to me, which is probably a good sign. This was the same result with IFT. On July 16th, I joined the first ever IGNITE Session, which takes 6 passionate young professionals and they build a presentation to inspire others by discussing a pivotal point in their career.  The people they choose relate to IFT award winners, young board members, people who create communities, and me. Debra Zabloudil did a great job facilitating this, and I've worked with her before at the Emerging Leader Network last year. I was chosen to do my presentation twice. One in the middle of the expo hall and another at a New Professionals Networking event. It was really fun and a lot of people came and talked to me. Every discussion I had was fruitful and inspiring. On Friday, expect an article about public speaking tips. I think that's what I'll be calling the article. It gives you my philosophy on public speaking as long as some tangible tips I use, such as cutting your hair last minute, to rock your speech. You can also find the slides on the top of the shownotes at myfoodjobrocks.com/131presentation Overall, the experience of public speaking was really energizing. If you want me to speak anywhere, let me know. Email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com and we can set something up. No ads this time, this one is a freebie. Note: These are very rigid scripts and most were made to flesh out content than to be conveyed, but this is the raw version of the content. The cooked version is volatile and colorful, which is only beneficial when seen live. Berkeley Event Hi everyone, I’m Adam Yee. Let’s ask a few diagnostics questions before going with this. Raise your hand if you know what food science is. Raise your hand if you have a science degree Raise your hand if you have a business degree Ok thanks! One more question: What does innovation mean to you? What I’m going to teach you today is the foundation to innovate in food. We’re all here today to see the forefront of food technology. It’s actually quite an exciting time to be in the food industry and I’m loving what Alex is trying to put together. I believe that there are so many different ways to innovate, there’s really no wrong answer, but I do think there are a lot of fundamentals that you need to hammer down to truly make something special. So a little bit about me, I have my bachelors of Food Science about 4 hours down south in Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Back in high school, I wanted to be a chef, but being a food scientist was a safer path. During my time in Cal Poly, I took charge of my creativity when it came to cooking to making food products. This includes entering and winning a lot of national competitions in the food science space. I’ve worked in the industry for about 4 years. Mainly in the protein bar field. And now recently, I’ve been recruited by some really cool people to be in a stealth mode plant based meat startup. If you’d like to know more about it, come see me after the show. Within industry, I made about $15 million in new product sales, maintained and innovated production lines and current categories in the bar space. And today I want to share with you what I’ve learned that helped me create good products. I’ve developed this sort of pyramid of innovation, what I thinka re truly the fundamentals of innovating in this particular field. On the bottom, you have Theory, or what a lot of thought leaders are saying, “mindset”. This mindset is super important because it basically allows you to not take no for an answer. I’m sure you’ve heard of the fixed versus growth mindset, and that’s one of the things we’ll be talking about. Next is knowledge of process, the technical nuances in creating products. I’ll tell you how my first job at a factory really amplified my ability to create really cool products. I think this is really important especially in the technical side of things to take away from. And the tip of the pyramid is hot trends. How can we recognize hot trends and how can we get them acceptable to the public? Theory of innovation Everyone has a different focus when it comes to innovation and a growth mindset. I think in general, there’s too many experts about it. That’s why it’s really important to carve your own path but do so by reading an accumulation of experts. Luckily, this field will always recommend excellent people. But books, podcasts, online courses, these were all fundamental to my growth mindset. I’ve listened to everyone from bad marketers to grand innovators and eventually, the people I liked, were starting to say the same thing. Small note: I recommend paying for the books and courses you plan on reading unless you are a huge passion for learning, buying things will force you to be more invested in the material and it’ll stick better. Eventually, you can build your own theory of innovation. For a small example, these are the books I’ve listened to that I’ve distilled have the most value for me. There are plenty of other podcasts and media that have helped me build my own theory, but let’s just focus on books. As you amass all of this knowledge, start to break them down into simple mantras that can guide you whenever you’re put upon a difficult situation. This will help you guide your thought process and come up with a solution based off of your personal beliefs and the experts you follow. So for me, a lot of the media I read is about asking great questions. This is amplified by my experience podcasting. The better questions you ask, the easier you can solve the problem. Taste is King is all about how products must taste good to be the best. There are plenty of products that taste terrible but sell a lot, but the best products taste good. And Spray and Pray is probably more counterintuitive than what you think of. In most circles, focus is a huge buzzword. I think focusing is very important, but if you can’t litmus test all potential avenues, you are missing out on potential opportunities. Here’s a list of other mantras based off of other people I’v emet. Maybe you recognize some of them. For example, the hustler. The guy in the suit who will grind it out to success. Or the visionary, who believes that they need to take action now. Or the life style designer, who really wants an easy life and that’s ok too. The best part is that these different mantras all work and all lead to innovation. Knowledge of Process So my first job was at a granola bar factory. It was actually a startup plant. Nothing was done, everyoen was new, and I had to be the expert. I got my hands dirty, sometimes doing the line worker’s job even though it was under my paygrade. It didn’t matter, I enjoyed the process and I learned a lot. Basically, it’s really tough! So within a year and a half, I learned how to make granola bars, dog buiscuits, crackers, and knew the machines, how to process them and the efficiency needed to make life easier for the workers. This was hugely valuable when I moved to corporate. The pain of create the products at the granola bar factory instilled the technical knowledge I needed to formulate protein bars to make the company millions. Most formulators don’t even think of commercializing, or the process of taking an idea to profit, until way later. But if you think of a way to commercialize first, then you eliminate a lot of wasted effort because the problem is scalable. And remember, every single product must be commercilizable to succeed. This is one of the hurdles with Clean Meat but luckily, there is already huge amounts of data that say it’s feasible to commercialize clean meat based off of the tissue replication industry. Clever Crossovers Once you get enough knowledge of the process, you can be creative and start applying processes towards new concepts. Here I have three examples. One project was when I first started my job at Isagenix. There was this 6 year long vegan bar in limbo and I took one look at it and recalled form my chocolate experience, that you can mask plant proteins with chocolate! Another was the template forms we used for granola bars. As long as we could templatize our bar formulas in Isagenix, we could create so many different types of flavors. By learning how to template my formulas, you can create a lot of products fast. Another example is what I’m currently working on. At my time in Isagenix, I learned how to make protein chips and we use a similar method to make this new product I’m working on with great success. So now let’s talk about Hot Trends. Everyone what’s a current trend everyone’s talking about right now? Ok, so another question I’ve always asked myself is that if you know the trend, how many other people know? Unfortnately, finding a trend that will explode is like finding the next bitcoin, it might be already happening. However, there are tons of opportunities where you can get ahead of the competition. Expos and Conferences, like IFT which this next week in Chicago, Expo West, Fancy Food Show, all really important places to find new trends and viable ingredients to make these trends happen. And a good piece of advice is that if you’re small, focus on the innovative ingredients because the big players will be too slow to apply these ingredients. It’ll take then 2 years for them to apply an ingredient. For you, it should take months. Seminars, like the protein Technology Seminar I went to last month was extremely useful. But it was really expensive. At about $1000 dollars, this price barrier filters out a lot of small players. However, I find seminars much useful than a 5 figure white paper and most startups don’t go to seminars because of the pricing barrier. But that’s a pretty big mistake. Newsletters like Food Dive and Food Navigator, I would even say following the Good Food Institute is beneficial as well. These will give you small tidbits of information that might be useful. Places like this, and create a network of cutting edge innovators is probably the best method. For me, the podcast I do has created a network that is so close to the cutting edge, I know all of the latest plant proteins, and clean technology. Networking with he right people is probably the best way to get info. So now we transform this foundational pyramid, and break it down into lego pieces. You’re free to build your own structure, integrating parts and pieces to create the newest innovation. Yet there is a way to do it. The difference between a Segway and the iphone has been written in many books but the most important takeaway is that it must be familiar and the marketing must be good. The better your marketing is, the more hands will try your product, but what will make the product stick is a good product. Then that creates kind of an infinite loop which kind of is this formula for virality. So an example is Taco Bell’s naked chicken chalupa, which is now being reintroduced. I could also say the taco fries are a hit too. It’s familiar, but slightly different. This is important for innovation. Beyond Meat has an incredibly powerful brand. I love them because every employee I met there is awesome. They are honest, Ethan Brown goes on viral podcasts, I honestly think this is why they sell at first. However, because their product is so good, people keep on coming back and they will keep on talking about this wow factor. A plant based burger than actually tastes like meat. Another probably older example is 5 hour energy. It was positioned really well in super markets and gass stations, advertising was spot on. So people will buy it. In most situations, the product works really well. It’s fast, convenient, and it works unbelievably well. SO as much as I would love to give you the secret formula to innovate, nothing beats trial and error. You have to actually do it to become innovative, but what I’m giving you is a foundation to innovate and keep on innovating. The more experiences you have, the more you can cross pollinate and create something cool. Jump into many things and eventually, they’ll connect together as long as you have the right mindset. If you can’t think of a way to innovate now, probably the best way to innovate is to try and gain traction from blogging or podcasting, or whatever. Take two of your favorite hobbies, combine them and talk about it. My Food Job Rocks was basically this. I enjoyed career advice podcasts and I thought it would be cool to interview people in the food industry. But the reward is getting people to actually listen to your stuff! But it’s a start to get the gears going. It’s the easiest way to get started. Anyways, that’s all, are there any questions. IFT IGNITE Event Introduction: Adam Yee is a food scientist and product developer. His experience ranges from granola bars, protein bars, protein chips, jams, chocolates, deli meats, and now plant-based meats. In his spare time, he hosts the podcast My Food Job Rocks! where he interviews an expert in the food industry weekly. My Food Job Rocks is a fully sponsored podcast that boats 45,000 downloads and has guests from the Nutritionist of Taco Bell to the CFO of Tyson ventures. My Food Job Rocks ‘ main goal is to showcase cool people in the food industry and inspire its listeners that they can have a  cool job like this too. [Adam enters stage] Hey everyone, how’s everyone going? So I go by many names. I’m a food scientist at my day job, I’m an expert at protein bars so a lot of people call me bar man, and I eat everything so I’m sometimes called garbage disposal. However, today, I come to you has the host of the podcast, My Food Job Rocks. A side project that started two years ago that has changed my life. But My Food Job Rocks didn’t start as a random idea, it was actually there to solve a problem. I think a lot of people who want to try something, think an idea just falls out of the sky, but the easiest way to create something amazing is to solve a problem This is the article that started a podcast that has over 45,000 downloads. It was posted by Nicole Gallace who at the time, started Foodgrads, a platform which would act as a bit of a niche food industry recruitment site. Since she was starting her thing, I aske dhow I could help. We decided to end up doing a podcast. So my task was to interview an expert in the food industry every week with the sole purpose to showcase that there are really cool jobs in the food industry. After doing this for 2 years, I’ve noticed some really cool things happening that I’d like to share with you today.   After about 120 episodes, you realize that passionate people, no matter if you are a food scientist, food safety auditor, event planner, or entrepreneur, you have the same things happening. Lessons, advice, they all say kind if the same thing. Posting an episode and an article every week also helped me retain information. We are all here today also, to network, and that’s great! But by having a genuine, passionate conversation, the network becomes a bit more substantial, the value of a good conversation was a worthy investment. And I also realized that, why am I the only one doing this? At the time, I can’t believe people aren’t doing podcasts about food science. So I really want to share that you can do this too. Skills I ask a set list of questions to all of my guests on My Food Job Rocks. I find asking the same questions gives me a set of data and trends that I can convince myself that this is the right thing to do. However, recently, I’ve been asking more indepth questions to make each interview unique. Here are 4 questions I picked out that resonated with me the most. How did you find out about food science? – Most people found out by surprise, or that their path wasn’t a straight line. Most people who received a degree in food science found out by switching. In fact, only younger guests really stuck with food science from freshman to senior. What are some important soft skills? – The most important skill is to be curious. And this is amplified by being inquisitive, passionate, and creative. As long as you love learning, you can get far in the food industry. What types of food technologies are really exciting you right now? – The umbrella of Sustainability has been one of the biggest topics that’s brought up but luckily there are many ways to approach the problem. We have cool products like Plant based meat and clean meat exciting most food scientists, but food waste has also been a huge topic to save the world. What is one piece of advice you can give someone in your industry? – Love what you do is the most common answer, and I think in the food industry, this is the easiest profession to love what you do. Food connects with people in such a different way than anything else, that those who love it, are obsessed with it. Blogging is hard Being Consistent is tough, it takes 6 hours a week to maintain and do things for the My Food Job Rocks Platform. That’s like, 12 netflix episodes. It can get tough, I think most people who start stuff like this don’t expect the long game. But this is about falling in love with the journey. The knowledge I acquired just doing one interview was more than enough to convince myself that this is worth doing. This is why I edit all of my own podcasts, because I can absorb the information once again. Sharing these interviews is icing on the cake. If you keep going, and try your best, week after week, you develop a sort of snowball effect. The more people you talk to, the more guests you have on the show, the more consistent your quality is, the easier it gets. What used to be about begging my friends I went to in college to try out this podcast, ends up being begging people on linkedin to give it a shot. But eventually, people start to get word of your stuff. As you refine your craft podcasting, or even blogging, you can convince experts to be on your show! Not only that, but the conversations you have will give you the ability to ask for really high profile guests to be on the show. A good referral is quite a powerful tool with the right network. And recently, I’ve received tons of Public Relations pitches so now I don’t even have to beg guests anymore! Network Now I would say the best part about doing these interviews are the people I’ve met. I make it an effort to connect with all of my guests in My Food Job Rocks. For some, I buy their products, others, I buy their services or partner up to do some amazing stuff. Usually, when I go to a conference, or expo, I ask if anyone one of my guests will be there and I got to say, I always meet someone! I think this type of networking is really important. Though the things we do here is awesome, nothing beats a good conversation with passionate people. It sticks, and I’m sure many of you can relate, if you work with passionate people, you can get things done a lot faster. You can Do This Too! Throughout my time doing My Food Job Rocks, I’ve met a ton of cool people. But it’s not just my guests. There are other people in other platforms such as Instagram, twitter, podcasting, blogging, that have asked for my advice and we push each other forward. This is the most rewarding part. Building a community of people will want to take destiny into their own hands. I offer as much help and support as I can. And so the biggest takeaway I want to give, is that you can definitively do this too. I am not special. In fact, I’d say I’m just a bit crazy, but I think all passionate people are crazy. It may seem daunting to create something like this in 2 years, but the benefits in all aspects of your life is incredibly rewarding. There is so much room in this space. Without podcasting, I wouldn’t know how to speak on stage, or ask for advice, or meet so many incredible people. The Ultimate Reward But maybe that won’t convince you. Educating people is nice, but what is the actual benefit? This might motivate you. How far can creating a platform really springboard your career? Well, for me, I left my corporate job in Arizona to join a plant based meat startup with some really high profile players. This would have never happened if I didn’t start the podcast. So this is just a simple story of someone who started a little blog, and how it opened so many doors for my career and all I want you to take away from this, is that you can do this too. And if you decide to put a lot of effort, and post consistently for a year from now, I’ve got your back. We’ve got your back. The world needs more science communicators. You can do this too. You got this.  

If you are still a high school or college student and you want to get into this industry, I hope this podcast will open up the pandora’s box of opportunities we’ll be laying out before you. But even if you are maybe a bit further along in your career, there is always time to jump in. Marie Gibbons is probably the most famous clean meat scientist for multiple reasons. She is funded by the Good Food Insitute, she is currently doing her research in Harvard, and she’s really passionate in what she does. Marie’s passion and kindness resonate in this interview. She is an extremely authentic and transparent scientist who explains the process of clean meat in simple yet dense detail. Do note, some of the experiences Marie has being a farm animal veterinarian are quite graphic, of course, to prove a point. We only talk about it in the beginning, but just be forewarned. Otherwise, I’m glad that Marie has a sense of humor so enjoy a bunch of smart alec scientists talk about clean meat among other things. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. Nicole is offering free job postings in the next two months and I highly suggest taking this offer. Email nicole@foodgrads.com and she'll give you instructions. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. Show Notes On the shownotes, I did something special and labeled Opportunities that are available in the industry. Clean Meat by Paul Shapiro 80,000 hours podcast – effective altruism podcast Zak Weston Harvard medical school Gym Meats When someone asks what you do for a living, what do you usually tell someone in a sentence or less?: I grow animal cells for meat. Dr. George Church How did you get to work with Dr. George Church?: I met him at an Effective Altruism conference and I contacted him after the show. We got to talking and here I am! How do you get funding for Clean Meat?: You have to write a grant or a giant lab report. When did you find interest in Clean Meat?: It came from when I was 12 years old and my dad gave me two pet snakes. I had to feed them mice. In order for snakes to live, they have to kill and then I thought of clean meat. Then I became a veterinarian and became a farm animal vet. And I realized farm animals aren’t treated the same way as other animals. I had to do a lot of really gruesome stuff as a farm animal veterinarian. If they get a disease, we have to find painful ways to remove it. How do you get in the foot in the door for Clean Meat?: Just like the food industry, there are so many avenues to help with clean meat. How is clean meat made? Opportunity: If you want to get into the science, focus on 3D modeling to prepare for baby back ribs and t bone steak. I can grow a nugget for $400 dollars Opportunity: Replace Fetal Bovine Serum to make plant-based growth media Opportunity: Somatic Cell Technology:Use pluripotency and turn them back into Stem Cells. Media components: Gatorade and Protein Powder. The standard Protein Powder has Fetal Bovine Serum Fetal Bovine Serum is quite a painful process by stabbing unborn baby cows in the heart to extract the fluid The growth factors have to be part of the serum which is the hard part because they have to tell the cell to grow. Opportunity: You can create growth factors with Recombinant DNA technology. You can get bacteria to create growth factor Algae Soylent Green Opportunity: Cut out the middle man to get the cells to automatically grow their own growth factor How do you change cells?: DNA, RNA, gene editing, environmental media etc. Induced Plurry Potent Opportunity: Scaling up Clean Meat. Regulatory, what is it going to be called? Opportunity: Induced Immortalization. To get cells to continuously grow until we said no. We just need to tell them to grown certain cells. Embryonic Stem Cells should be immortal. Telomerase Telomeres – serve as a buffer for our chromosomes to create DNA. What kind of resources do you use to find out about Clean Meat?: Sometimes, it’s literature based, sometimes it’s the feedback from professors and industry folks. Opportunity: Though there isn’t a lot of clean meat research, there is a ton of research in regenerative agriculture. Pigs are so physiologically similar to humans, which is why there is tons of research on pigs. We still need a lot of hands to sift through the research My Food Job Rocks: I get to study how life works. And not only that, but I have a chance to help animals and end animal suffering What would be your dream job title?: Clean Meat Scientist. I am funded by the Good Food Institute Harvard is generally interested in clean meat. Clean Meat and Plant-based meat actually has a lot of overlap. What companies are doing a great job in Clean Meat? Memphis Meats Mosa Meats JUST Foods Finless Foods What’s your favorite quote book or kitchen item: Blender and George Foreman Grill. I can make BLAT. Vegan bacon. If you’re trying to go more plant-based, you need to start with products with a lot of things going on and eliminate meat. A vegan food you really like: Tofu Scramble with Salad Greens and Asian spices Kimchi and lactic acid Smoothies – vegan chocolate protein powder, blueberries, greens Soylent Drinks Necter Soylent Rice and beans, and Indian food Do you have any advice to be a clean meat scientist?: Get familiar with cellular biology. All of these companies are looking for people and if you want to get into this, reach out and apply. It doesn’t hurt to reach out. If you want to reach out, you can go to the GFI and contact them. What should colleges teach you about to prepare you for life?: Taxes haha. Business course. There is a lot of common sense in business. A mandatory class on how to grow food. Where can we find you for advice?: My email is on the Harvard website, also on facebook, linkedin, or Instagram. I’m kind of bad for getting on emails but be patient.  

We talk a ton about sustainability on the podcast, being one of the most important topics food industry professionals are interested in solving. Isaac is the perfect person to talk about environmental impact. Having been in multiple disciplines, he’s been researching the sustainability from biofuels to chicken coops. We get to talk about the cool sustainability tools I never heard about. One topic, in particular, is lifecycle assessment, a complete analysis of any product in the world’s environmental impact. I hope that this interview gives you the tools necessary to save the world. I also notice that Isaac and I have very similar ways of cooking. For example, we love stir-frying in our favorite cast iron skillets. What does that mean? I have no idea. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. Nicole is offering free job postings in the next two months and I highly suggest taking this offer. Email nicole@foodgrads.com and she'll give you instructions. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. Show Notes When someone asks what you do for a living, what do you tell them in a sentence or less?: I’m an environmental scientist and my focus is comparing the effects of food and environmental effects in food. Why did you decide to join the GFI?: The mission is really exciting. I’ve worked on sustainability for a number of different angles, human health also. The technology like clean meat and plant-based meat can really change the world. What do you do at the GFI?: I’ll read a lot of academic papers, and clean meat articles, and everything, and then connect the dots and share it with people What is one fact about what you’ve found out?: Animals are generally not very efficient in producing meat. Clean Meat will reduce a ton of landmass. Not only animals but the corn and soybeans to livestock. 15-35 x more average land mass Clean Meat Some land is made for animals, a lot of arguments about land usage Though that may be true, half of all land on earth is from agriculture. As the earth becomes more populous and prosperous, the pressure for land is tremendous. Talk to Isaac about environmental impacts on clean meatLetter to the editor to the National Academy of Sciences on switching to plant-based diet might not be environmentally friendly. White Paper critiquing the flawed analysis on animal agriculture If someone were to get more information on alternative meats, where can they go?: Unfortunately a lot of these papers are very technical. We at GFI hope to break them down. World Resources Institute Steps it took to get to where you are today: Whitman College Walla Walla Washington, biochemistry and molecular science. I still took classes in environmental issues Purdue, Ph.D. in biofuels. Learned a ton about the environmental aspects of biofuels. After that, I started to get interested in food. Most important skills you need for your job: Big picture thinking How do you get better at big picture thinking?: Everyone is different. Some people are naturally inclined to think big, others like detail. However, to solve big problems, you need to talk to people. Coffee Causes Cancer in California Wework Impact Hub in Seattle PeasOnMoss What would be your dream job title?: I’m pretty happy with my job title now! Someday, I’ll have my own department of scientists but now, I love my title. What would you do with a team of environmental scientists?: Sustainability is a big problem so we need more experts. Lifecycle Assessment: A new scientific tool that has a lot of potential. Not the lifecycle of a cow or chicken, but rather, the lifecycle of a hamburger or a car. What About Protein Isolation? Ricardo at UC Berkeley Land use might be the most important environmental factors for animal farming What kind of research papers are you working on right now? Poultry farming and manure pasteurization How do you take in research?: I learn a lot by writing. Writing things to summarize and then I think about what other people say. I synthesize different viewpoints and different resources. What’s your favorite thing to cook?: I tend not to do recipes. Stirfry and stews. Some day, I want to use clean meat to make my family’s traditional chicken pot pie. Favorite Spice: Cumin, Rosemary and Thyme especially for potatoes and stews. Turmeric is good, but it stains. Adam’s Favorite Spice: Chipotle. The peppers in a  jar Favorite Kitchen item: Cast Iron Skillet Favorite Book: Cadillac Desert by Mark Briesner. About land and agriculture Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to go into your industry?: You can use your passion and skills on anything in the food industry. There are a lot of different ways you can apply your skills in food. What should colleges teach people more of?: The things that are really important are being reflective, being willing to admit your assumptions are wrong. Reflective thinking. The ability to write, the ability of have conversations on really important topics. Where can we find you for advice? The GFI website. Twitter: @doctordendrite

Erin Rees Clayton holds a diverse scientific background. A PhD in Genetics, a Masters of Public Health, and is in food. With this skill set, she has a very broad and insightful ability to connect the dots, which helps her a ton in her current job in the Good Food Institute. Erin and I spend a lot of time talking about questioning. I think it’s a really important skill to ask good questions and we go into how to do so. There are so many questions we still don’t know how to answer in food and Erin will share them with you, so you can be inspired to answer them. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. Nicole is offering free job postings in the next two months and I highly suggest taking this offer. Email nicole@foodgrads.com and she'll give you instructions. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. Show Notes Did you know: Copper is an essential micronutrient When someone asks what you do for a living, what do you tell them in a sentence or less?: I work with scientists and entrepreneurs to make healthy and affordable meat alternatives The GFI works as more of a consulting role. They will analyze the scope, and mobilize the resources What kind of people do you get who come talk to you?: A variety, academia, entrepreneurs, and big companies. We also want other industries to get involves such as the tissue engineering company. Are there any educational hubs that are forming for these industries?: Not really. We’re trying to change it. Tufts, Harvard, and Berkeley have labs and innovation centers are going through this. Allison Burke Everyone is pretty much doing this. Washington and Texas A+M are both universities that are getting involved, probably more. Describe the steps it took to get to where you are today: Not a linear or planned path. Science is really about asking questions Dennis Thiele at Duke University. Copper Metabolism Then got a masters of public health at Michigan to get a more holistic view of scientific impact How did you get interested in GFI?: I stumbled upon it. I loved their mission and I wanted to see what it would be like so I wanted to go into it because I would always wonder if I didn’t What skills were they looking for?: I’m a Scientific Liason. At the time, it was grant writing in which I wrote a lot of during my time working. What are some big questions the GFI is trying to answer?: Plant-Based Meat Questions: The sources of protein. For example, pea protein. We really haven’t explored the vast majority of plants out there. Also, what are we trying to do with plant protein? Can we find healthier ways to create the product? Clean Meat Questions: Clean meat can rely on biomedical to get our questions answered. Yet the price of making Clean Meat has to be drastically lower than biomedical. A big point is to find a media to create clean meat. Media recycling systems or remove waste or add in is also a big questions Do you have any tips for asking good questions?: Not being afraid to admit being wrong. We always want to be right, but with cutting edge technology, we don’t know the answer. No one does but we are all working to solve these answers. Ask questions that don’t have answers and enjoy the process. My Food Job Rocks: 1. I get to learn new things and be challenged on a daily basis 2. I can make a difference in a very positive and big way. I’m one small part of that, but the potential is impactful 3. The people that I get to interact with. My colleagues are super cool. What would be your dream job title?: Similar to what I’m doing now. Food Systems Strategist maybe? Can you name one specific gap that’s stumping you?: I tend to think about what does it look like to develop plant based meats in other countries? Extruders are huge, expensive pieces of equipment and a lot of nations can’t afford it. What companies that don’t get much love are innovating in this space?: American Pulse Association, USA dry pea and lentil council. These are not for profit entities. Pulse protein innovation summit in Oakland: We brough farmers, breeders, food scientists, and plant based meat companies to discuss innovation of plants. Will that summit be there again, next year?: Maybe, not sure. We are actually having our own Good Food Institute Conference Who inspired you to get into food?: It’s more of a what, than a who. I saw GFI as the potential to really change something and this will make an impact. Should Scientists be Idealistic?: Some should be, most have a touch of pessimism. Favorite book: Fiction: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Non-Fiction: Long Walk to Freedom. For the books applicable to my career: Living Down Stream by Dr. Sandra Stiengraber and Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. Made an impact on thinking about health from not just inside our bodies, but outside as well. Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to get into your industry?: There is a lot of space that needs to be accomplished. People are struggling to find technical talent just because there’s not really a degree for that right now. Don’t be afraid to try something new. If a class sparks your interest, or you find a seminar that’s interesting, go and do it. Talk to people. You never know what you’re going to learn and making connections are crucial. A lot of scientists are introverted. How do you convince them to talk?: Us being scientists and talking is really important. Scientists can talk to other scientists and feel comfortable. What should colleges teach you to be more prepared?: Exposing students to broad applications to their knowledge. Not “If you major in X, you can’t work in Y”. Interdisciplinary collaboration: GFI is not just science and technology. We have innovation, policy, corporate engagement,

Aylon Steinhart brings his entrepreneurial grit and amplifies it through convincing and motivating people to start plant-based meat and clean meat companies. But isn’t that hard? To start your own company? The short answer is yes, but it’s something worth pursuing. Aylon and I tag team to break down the tips and tricks to becoming more innovative and entrepreneurial. We go from tips on getting into Expos for free, why it might be a good idea to start corporate for a bit, and the amazing resources the GFI has, to help you start your plant-based or clean meat company. To give you some sort of disclaimer, this interview was conducted before I decided to team up and start my own company. But perhaps this interview was one of the factors that when the offer was presented to me, I accepted.   Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. Nicole is offering free job postings in the next two months and I highly suggest taking this offer. Email nicole@foodgrads.com and she'll give you instructions. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. Show Notes When someone asks what you do for a living, what do you tell them in a sentence or less?: I work for a non-profit that is transitioning to animal alternatives. We’re trying to create a healthy and sustainable food supply through healthy innovation. I help startups and inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs to go into this space Watch out for Aylon Steinhart at a Stanford video How did you become an entrepreneur?: I was an account manager in Puerto Rico. I was studying business at Berkeley. Afterward, I took a leadership development training course at AT&T. I saw joining a leadership program to explore the learning ground of corporate life. Once I found out about industrial agriculture, things picked up fast and I wanted to make an impact. I saw that Beyond Burger and Impossible Burger were making an impact, and I wanted to be part of it. Impossible Burger vs Beyond Burger Even though I didn’t have a food background, I did a consulting to make a website for a food company. However, it was my innovation skill set that helped me with the GFI. Me not leaving the GFI alone is also another reason How to get to Expo West: Looking at the list and asking anyone to volunteer at their booth Startup Advice: Ask the right questions, make things as simple as possible, you need to think: “how easy will this be for the consumer to understand?”. Think of the end consumer. Are plant proteins premium?: Not really. It depends on a lot of different things Clean Meat is hard to commercialize, right?: Yes, but people are bright. The issue is to find Technical Cofounder Good Dot – Plant-Based Meat India Market Impact on both Plant-based Meat and Clean Meat is much more impactful than Academia How can we get more technical cofounders in the alternative meatspace?: You might know more than you think if you study muscle or plant knowledge. The GFI has 2 really good white papers on alternative meats and just email us. The GFIdeas community Slack Channel Kraft Heinz Incubator Good Catch Memphis Meats Many innovative companies in Israel We need more companies in both fields GFI company database What is one thing in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: What do consumers really want? Do they care if the meat tastes exactly like meat? Or can we actually make a better meat? Rennet: used to be gathered form the stomach of calves and then we discovered that we can ferment it with bacteria. Same concept is being explored with clean milk and eggs Who got you into Veganism?: Kip and Keegan. I watched a documentary. Media is important Pat Brown and Ethan Brown convinced me to go to Food. Bruce Friedrich too. Favorite Book: Artisan Vegan Cheese. I'm am making a probiotic beverage made by soaking Quinoa, mixed with a cashew blend and makes a cultured nut product Zak’s Bechamel sauce using cashews Favorite Food: Tom Ka Gai Soup – Coconut Milk based soup using plant based chicken 24 Vegan – vegan fish sauce Any advice for anyone who wants to start a food business: If you want to start a food company, I would urge you to start a plant-based meat and clean meat company Plant-based meat is a quarter of 1 percent of the meat market. In 3 decades, it will be a 1/3 of the total market. This was before the plant-based meat was actually shown. 70 billion dollars of market share is up for grabs But that’s hard: Yes, it’s not easy. Things that aren’t easy are probably worth doing. GFI has a list of white space company ideas for you to start their own company The White Space Company Idea You could import plant based food in Asia and sell it in the US. There is pre-extruded textured products as well GFI Blog. Look for me and find the resources You can email me directly if you ever want to start a food company: aylons@gfi.org

Really excited to have the first of 5 interviews from the generous people at the Good Food Institute, the best nonprofit that deals with the plant-based meat and clean meat space. Zak Weston never thought he would end up in food but after finding how much he could impact the world, he persistently networked his way to a job as a corporate engagement specialist at the Good Food Institute Zak convinces companies to put more plant-based options on their menus and clients include restaurants, food service companies, and even manufacturing. One really important topic Zak and I get into is discussing the group, Effective Altruism, a very pragmatic group of individuals who want to do good in the world. This is where Zak found that food was his calling. If you are stuck in your life, then this episode will motivate you to keep going. The food industry is the perfect industry to impact the world. Quick note, I met Zak in person at the Protein Technologies Seminar. It’s always good to put a face with a name. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. Nicole is offering free job postings in the next two months and I highly suggest taking this offer. Email nicole@foodgrads.com and she'll give you instructions. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. ShowNotes What did you do before the food industry?: Sales and marketing in software or non profit. I once started reading about the food industry and found that I could help fix the food industry. When someone asks what you do for a living, what would you do in a sentence or less?: I talk to companies on why you should give plant-based options. Companies all over the world are looking for plant-based products A lot of the job is networking, attending conferences and trade shows and talking. Sometimes we need to cold call but we have noticed companies are very open. We can easily tell people that people are open to plant-based food. We try to ask for a resource How do you find information about plant-based news: We have a team of 33 people who are writing and aggregating about the plant and clean meat industry. Plant-Based Foods Association, Nielsen, other well-respected places. Better Buying Lab, Academic Research, Asking Private sectors for answers. World Resources Institute Faunalytics: A subset of the research and data they’ve aggregated is plant-based and clean meat food Do you think companies who want plant-based options have a moral reason or financial reason?: Both. We take a pragmatic approach and fully expect that they need to make the profit. What is one misconception you want to dispel about the food industry?: The Food industry really does want to repair the world and climate change. GFI works to make sure things can be more sustainable. Consumers such as millennials care about the environment and where food comes from. Describe the Steps it took to get to where you are today?: I majored in business development. I had a job in Ohio and then in Florida. I learned a ton about sales I wanted to get into the food industry so I read a lot and interviewed people a lot. Effective Altruism Bruce Friedrich How did you get your job? Through networking or job application?: I met people in the GFI, did food industry networking, etc Center for Effective Altruism 80,000 hours – career guide to maximizing your impact using your career. Helps when you’re uncertain on your career. What is the most important skill you need for your job?: Being entrepreneurial, also being a great communicator Do you need to learn communication?: You can learn it. You have to put yourself in situations to do that. I used to read books on small talk which I found embarrassing. Once you practice doing it, you become more confident. Adam’s perspective: I only became social because I needed to lead things How many companies do you talk to a day?: 2 to 3 companies. Sometimes small or big. We maintain a product database on plant-based food service and retail to deliver to places who need that Made restaurant scorecards of 100 restaurant chains to evaluate their menu What would be your dream job title?: This is the perfect job. If I wanted to progress, I’d do the but bigger and better. What do you look for most in a job?: Impact on important issues. Most millennials don’t know how to change the world. “I want to change the world and I don’t know how” Trends and Technology: Plant based and clean meat (duh!) Memphis Meats Beyond Meat Regenerative Agriculture Wendell Berry one acre fund Mark Post Mosa Meats Expo West: Improve Nature, Forage, faba bean (chickpea?) butter, there are a lot of starts that blow me away Daiya’s ice cream pop Daiya yogurts Beyond Sausage Who inspired you to get into food?: A set of people that impresse don me that food is important. What books did you read that started you the food path?: The Ethics of What We Eat - Why our food choices matter. It’s probably the most consequential thing we do all day. Clean Meat by Paul Shapiro David Welch Michael Pollan’s book – Omnivore’s Dilemma What the best thing you’ve ever eaten?: On date nights, we try different recipes. We have a lot of dietary restrictions. We found an amazing dairy-free cashew alfredo sauce. Creamy, great consistency, nutty. Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to go into the food industry?: Get into the plant based and clean meat industry. Do as much research as you can and go to conferences. I promise you it’ll be very rewarding as this is the ebst time to get into food. What do you think colleges should teach you to be more prepared?: You should work in companies who value growth because it gives you career capital that will help you build success. It’s important to systematically explore career options. Eventually, you’ll get into a career space: hell yes, I want to do this every day. 80,000 hours career guide So Good They Can’t Ignore You You have to show high quality, passionate work that shows “yes, that person can do the job”

I met Lumeng Jin at the now discontinued Heart Healthy Competition in Chicago about 5 years ago. We participated in the same product development competition and kept in touch because that’s what you’re supposed to do as a student. In case you’re wondering, Lumeng’s team won that competition. I’m not bitter at all! Anyways, I wanted Lumeng on the show because she’s on the side of the industry that doesn’t get so much love on the podcast. Sensory Science and Consumer Research are both super important career paths in the food industry because it’s the science that deciphers how people will respond to your product. I would say in the hands of a master, this is one of the most important things to know when it comes to product success. Lumeng has worked many jobs and has even done her masters in this field and now lives in New York City where she conducts and analyzes large-scale consumer tests. So get ready for an exciting episode where we talk about the importance of this field. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. Nicole is offering free job postings in the next two months and I highly suggest taking this offer. Email nicole@foodgrads.com and she'll give you instructions. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. Shownotes What do you tell people in a sentence or less?: I do marketing research in food and household products Carrie Arndt – Follow her on LinkedIn makes really awesome graphics on brands Chobani rebrand infographics MMR Research has a lot of sensory research, market research, and global research Steps to take to where you are today: Bachelors in Food Science, Masters in Sensory My masters was in sensory. Tasters verses Non Tasters. I worked with Beverley Tever Sensory testing eliminates all the variables except a couple of them. Any best practices?: What are you really trying to achieve? What about consumer research?: You want to choose your target market. For example, people who love burgers need to be experts on burgers. We also need the environment to be fluid. What kind of statistics tests do you do?: In school, you do the test. Actually, in the real world, you get a statistician to work with you. Usually, food scientists will use ANOVA What kind of software do you use?: Red Jade (cloud based), Compusense (consumer panel) How do you capture sweetness/second?: Using software What was the funnest thing you’ve done?: We got samples of air fresheners in India How do migitiate client expectations: Work with the client and ask the right questions What do you look for most in a job?: I like working in a team. I work in an open environment. I enjoy collaborating to find a solution. I also look for career path and progression. Can you have room for growth on a certain company? Is it hard to ask questions?: Yes, but if it’s a healthy work environment, you should ask questions and people should want to help you What’s your favorite kitchen item?: Instant Pot! I made bone broth, for example. Amazon Echo The best thing you’ve ever eaten: Japanese food. In New York City, there’s a Japanese Hot pot place that has pig feet. Has collegen. Hakata Ton Ton. Any advice to get into the sensory industry?: Network with people in the sensory area. I go to the IFT sensory science division as a start. People are open to help. What I should have done in college: I should have talked to my professors about career aspects earlier. What would you tell yourself if you just started your job?: The world is not that scary Where can we find you for advice?: LinkedIn (inbox or email)

Today we have an exciting episode with Claudia Sidoti, who not only owned her restaurant at 19, but also wrote recipes for the Food Network, and now is the head honcho at Hello Fresh’s North America’s division. As many know, meal kits have gotten a ton of buzz too, but I always wanted to know how the R+D process worked. I asked Claudia how her team develops recipes and wow, I was super surprised how it works. With over 100 dishes ideated a week, while accounting for supply chain, portion size, and ease of use, Claudia’s description of the process was really informative. So get ready for a really cool episode on how to be a culinary super star. Whether you’re in the restaurant industry, magazine writing, or meal kit business. Wanted to give a shoutout to HelloFresh, I’m not sponsored by them, but they gave me some meal kits for free. With moving, I only used one, and they’re very good for the busy professional. If you have no time to go to the grocery store or plan dinner, these are worth it. For me, I can live off beans and rice and free steaks I find, so meal kits aren’t for me, but they can be for you.   About Claudia Claudia’s deep connection with food began in her grandmother’s kitchen and eventually landed her in the kitchens of Food Network where she was the Test Kitchen Director. For more than 8 years she directed the culinary content for Food Network Magazine, which reached over 13.5 million readers each month, and is the 2nd largest magazine in the U.S. From its inception, Claudia launched the magazine and contributed more than 3000 recipes. She also directed a host of other projects including brand extensions, such as Food Network Café’s and large-scale events and festivals. Her start as a young New York City chef and restaurateur at age 19 landed her recognition in Restaurant Institutions and Gourmet Magazine. After eight successful years in the kitchen at Onini restaurant, Claudia decided to shift gears and began food styling for television commercials, editorial and print advertising campaigns. Several years later, she launched Beauty & the Feast, a New York City catering company, which was noted in New York Magazine’s, Best Bests. Over time, the company added several divisions including a wholesale food department that supplied prepared foods to coffee bars and cafes including, Barnes & Noble. In addition, she launched Urban Market an international specialty food shop that featured authentic dishes, inspired by Claudia’s multi-cultural family, which also landed placement in the New York Times food section. As a marketing and catering director, she helped companies such as Eatzi’s, Cosi and Panera Bread, to grow their businesses. During this time, she also developed an interest in food and publishing. She began working as a freelance food writer for the New York Post and other publications in 2002. Currently, with over thirty years of combined experience, Claudia’s unique perspective gives her the ability to lead HelloFresh’s kitchen as the Head Chef and Head of Recipe Development.   Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. Nicole is offering free job postings in the next two months and I highly suggest taking this offer. Email nicole@foodgrads.com and she'll give you instructions. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. Shownotes What do you tell people in a sentence or less?: I lead the culinary team of developers at Hello Fresh 5 people on the team Permalancer Freelancer What do you look for in freelancers?: expertise in the industry, temperament, people who work fast-pace Because of the changes in jobs, freelancers are becoming more available and I can hire them for their creativity Not all chefs are recipe developers, not all recipe developers in chefs How to make a Hello Fresh recipeFirst comes down from the top: choose the categories on what needs to be filled We analyze the constraints and the assignments (you must use pork tenderloin, or you must feed a family of 4) We then see what’s actually doable, we have time constraints, kitchen equipment constraints, to vet out the recipe Give the recipes to the team and split into categories. Not only that, but we have to itemize the portions. Each chef has a unique style which must be translated to the consumer. Usually this a week-long process. We use external focus groups to find out what they want How many recipes do you do a month?: Around 100 a month. Not all of them are through the process What’s one of the more popular dishes?: American comfort food dishes like pork chops, burgers, meatloaf Difficulty: We really take pride on how to make the dishes hassle free How do you cook a potato wedge efficiently: 425 in an oven, not too much oil, salt and pepper, roast for 20 minutes. Claudia’s website Steps it took to get to where you are today?: They weren’t not really steps, but dancing I opened up a restaurant at 19 The restaurant industry will teach you how to rush and think fast Grew up in Chelsea (NY?) 8th Ave was becoming restaurant row. I was fortunate enough to meet a chef who was just opening a restaurant. And I forced myself to become a chef. I acquired skills by learning from others and working really hard. How long did you work in the restaurant industry? I worked for 8.5 years at that restaurant What advice would you give someone who wants to open a restaurant: Understand your idea and understand your cost. “Are we actually making money on this dish?”. Most chefs don’t understand recipe development After the restaurant gig, I did a lot of freelance from writing to recipe development. I met a freelancer at the Food Network and we swapped jobs. I worked for the Food Network for 8.5 years and started with their first food network magazine What’s the best way to meet freelancers?: There are networking specific events and alliances such as culinary alliances, women in restaurant tourism, media tourism has a lot of events as well. Staying in it and word of mouth is best. Tips for recipe development: It’s extremely fast pace. 120 recipes per issue. Extremely rigourous testing. Pay attention to food trends and take inspiration anywhere We want people to innovate and build confidence and inspire them to take more risks My Food Job Rocks: The people. Not only my team, but the suppliers we work with and the customers we work with What type of food trends and technologies are exciting you right now?: Food waste and trying to reduce waste in the kitchen What are some initiatives Hello Fresh is doing for waste?: There isn’t really a waste component because everything is portioned very well. The beauty of meal kits One thing in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: Sourcing, and the impact of where our food is coming from and who is it being fed to Who inspired you to get into food?: My grandmother What’s your favorite kitchen item?: Wooden spoon and zesters. I like very simple food tools. At hello fresh, all you need is a cutting board, a knife a pot, a pan, and a baking sheet What’s your favorite food: Pizza. So much I built a pizza oven. Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to go into the food industry?: Wear a bunch of different hats and find out what fits the best. There’s a lot of opportunity to failure. How can we find you?:  Twitter: https://twitter.com/csidotifood Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/csidotifood/    

As you recall in episode 110, I interviewed at the intro to food science class in NCSU and had a blast. Now we continue with Dr. Gabriel Keith Harris’ story. Like many, his path to food science was unconventional, though he’s always had an interest with food, he went through the dietetics path until someone said he was interested in food science! Gabe’s main focus in the academic world is how food is processed through the gut. So get ready for an exciting episode where you’ll learn all about coffee and chocolate, inflammation of the gut, and how you can be a perpetual learner. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. Nicole is offering free job postings in the next two months and I highly suggest taking this offer. Email nicole@foodgrads.com and she'll give you instructions. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. Shownotes NCSU Interview Marie Gibbons (spoiler) Don Schaffner Ben Chapman When someone asks what you do for a living, what do you tell them?: I teach food science and nutrition scientice. I teach at the food science and bioprocessing department Bioprocessing: pharmacy, brewery, fermentation, etc Dr. John Sheppard Cal Poly-My school is lumped into Nutrition, we are Food Science and Nutrition Dr. Chris Albert – Dean at Missouri Pharmaceuticals is bleeding into food science so we combine the two Keith’s Area of expertise: What happens when you eat food, particularly plant foods. I get to study chocolate and coffee and see what’s in there. Chocolate benefits: 1000s of years of anecdotal evidence that chocolate was a medicine. Lewis and Clark Coffee isn’t quite as extensive: Arab scholars and coffee houses might have spirred the enlightenment. Prop 65: Coffee as a carcinogen May prevent type 2 diabetes, or Parkinson’s. 3 cups a days Study about not drinking something first thing in the mornings Coffee Chocolate – Tierra Nueva Chocolate Coffee Raw Cacao It’s no surprise that people are drinking cacao. This was its original intent Steps it took to get to where you are today: I grew up with an interest in food and health. Then I joined the navy. In college, I did a bachelor’s of dietetics. I met a professor who moved to food science and he convinced me to go to IFT. The first people I met were NC State Graduate students. I went to the expo floor and ate everything Food Toxicology – Dr. Steve Schwartz. He invited me to be a part of his lab at Ohio state. Cancer center at Ohio State Post-Doc: Center for disease control and prevention. Spent 3 years on how cells deal with inflammation. Inflammatory: How do you feel inflamed?: It’s our body’s immune response like an injury, or sprain. It does good, but can also do harm Low-level inflammation in the gut: You probably can’t feel it. The signals that are produced might be damaging Tenure process: The tenure process is the idea that you arrive as an assistant professor. You set up shop and your work shows that your work is vital. After 5 years, you make a giant packet that shows that you’re worthy to senior faculty. Then you get to Associate Professors. You then have a board of professors from all schools evaluate you to get tenure. Most important skill in the industry: The idea to always keep growing. When you graduate, you are not done. Treat your students to prepare themselves 5 years old. Things change so quickly in terms of how knowledge is communicated and how things work. How do you convince students to learn beyond what’s expected?: Being enthusiastic really helps. Also bringing professionals to talk to students where all of the voices are saying the same thing to push students forward. Why does hour food job rock: I get to give back to the people who taught me to be a great food scientist. I also get to eat my experiments. Food is right there and everyone eats What type of food trends and technologies are really exciting to you?: Sustainability. An example is consuming insects will be the norm. Also Clean Meats and fermentation. Another trend is automation. Where are my students are going to work? The speed the food industry is automating is impressive. The contrast to automation is artisan. Hyperlocal production Vegan trends vs meat trends What is one thing in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: I’m really fascinated by engineering. Just watching these machines astounds me. Fermentation:  how to get these microbes to make something for you? What do you think is the best way to learn more about it?: To visit as many food companies as possible. Watching how a large company vs a small company produces food. In general, the food industry experts are quite gracious in sharing knowledge. In food science, there seems to be a desire or willingness to share information. It's easier to be friends with people than enemies with people in the food industry In my graduate years, I wish I could have networked with them in the food industry. At the end of the class, we have students get dressed and be technically interviewed Favorite book: the bible, For reading and rereading: The Hobbit. Kitchen Item: rubber spatula Pancake culture: flatbreads, tortillas, naan Bread and beer are a result of noticing things Vanilla and chocolate fermentation is a bit tougher Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to get into your industry: Go on more food tours to give people a sense of what to look for. You should also visit universities. Where can we find you for advice: Through linkedin. Also via email. Contact me at gkharris@ncu.edu

Julie Wilson is a serial entrepreneur who’s started multiple businesses in the comfort of her home. As many know, this is the dream! You see it all the time on facebook and youtube, right? Julie and I dispel the fictions on starting an online business and also talk about the best steps to start your own. But more importantly, Julie is the marketing arm of FreshCheq, a really innovative software that allows restaurants to operate more safely and efficiently. FreshCheq can measure temperature logs, checklist staff tasks, and now recently, can monitor how much food a restaurant is wasting. Learn from Julie’s experience the amazing opportunity in the online space. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. Nicole is offering free job postings in the next two months and I highly suggest taking this offer. Email nicole@foodgrads.com and she'll give you instructions. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. Shownotes What do you do for a living?: I create businesses that solve problems. I love remote work because I’m not bound to anything How did you get into the online business space?: I was reprimanded for going to my son’s game and realized it wasn’t worth it. I started my first business at 2006. I bought a foreclosure business and managed it remote. I sold my business then, started an online business There are a lot of scams out there. For someone who wants to start an online business: Do a lot of research and find a mentor FreshCheq: Me and my 4 partners make up FreshCheq. Scott manages restaurants for 20 years. He noticed that recording food safety parameters in restaurants suck. So he digitized it. What did they hire you on as in FreshCheq? The marketing arm of the business. When you were on board, did you have an app?: it was an idea. Our co-founders are great coders How did you build an app?: We did market research, found out what people wanted in the beginning, then they develop a wireframe, and then we start testing things as a team. It took a lot of communication. The first version was created in 6 months. What questions have you asked to refine the app?: We ask our people a lot of questions and we almost have 400 restaurants under freshcheqs. Thanks to Scott’s network, we get really good feedback. Some questions are about accountability when people are busy. Our users said that they need text alerts What do your customers see the results on your app?: We can see how they’re using the data such as food temperature logs. Owners can see immediately who does their texts. Gamification: Using streaks (like snapchat) Rollout of food waste logs: Restaurant owners will be able to log how much food they will waste Ken Burgin Why does your food job rock?: Every day, I make life easier for restaurant owners. With the new food waste rollout, it’s even better. Notable people: Kristin Rainey – Food Acquisition for Google. She sources all the food at Google cafes. She focuses a lot of food waste and plant based diets What products are really exciting you right now?: Making food careers cool (thanks!) What is something you’d like to know more about: Food waste and plant-based diets. Expo West Daiya Ice Cream Popsicle – Coconut Based Beyond Meat Sausage Allysa Cowen – Living on live food Raw Diet Clean Meat by Paul Shapiro Why did the FreshCheq team interest you?: I was really excited about FreshCheq’s mission. It solves a problem in all the fields I’m interested in. How do you communicate remote work?: We do an Uber Conference at least once a week. We can screen share We also use Asana We’ve been fortunate with the people we work with What’s your favorite type of food?: Fondue Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to start their own business?: Find a mentor and talk to someone that you trust. What about your mentors?: Mine were serendipitous. People should ask to be mentored though. My old boss did all sorts of crazy side hustles. I watched him and took notes.  I kind of figured out a lot of things on my own, which is something I wouldn’t recommend. What would you say to someone who has an idea but doesn’t know how to start: I don’t think it’s possible to research too much Where can we find you for advice?: Julie@freshcheq.com. I’m very active on Linkedin.  Our goal for freshcheqs is to be involved in the food industry

This episode was recorded at Expo West! Shannon Gomes and I connected on linkedin and just decided to wing a podcast episode while I was there. We found a table early in the morning and just did an episode. The world of Public Relations is something I’ve always been curious about. What do they do? How do they reach out to media outlets? These and many other questions are what I ask Shannon today. So if you’re interested in public relations as a profession, be prepared for a crash course on the day in the life of one. Shannon’s 17 years plus of experience and knowing the in’s and out’s of the industry shines brightly in this interview. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. Nicole is offering free job postings in the next two months and I highly suggest taking this offer. Email nicole@foodgrads.com and she'll give you instructions. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. Show Notes How do you feel about expo west?: I ran in here and found 5 people I knew. It’s just so cool to be here. How do you navigate Expo West?: Expo West app… but carry a notebook too The problem is that the booths you want to see are spread everywhere What do you tell people in a sentence or less?; My job is to get clients in the press. At the end of the day, I’m a food storyteller. Let’s talk about your company: I am an independent PR firm and live in California In the agency, then in Williams Sonoma for 3 years. I really liked doing anything and represent who I want to represent How do you go after clients?: I have goals on who to talk to. I have clients who I feel really strongly about. I reach out to them and use the power of linkedin First have an in person coffee meeting What makes you different?: I do everything from the intern to the executive. When clients hire me, they are getting me How do you cold call?: You have to do your research and get to know the outlet Can you give me an example of a session?: I craft 90 day plans. A 1 to two page word documents and add tactical and creative elements. Who are our targets and goals? PR is a creative process and you just have to be very creative, unique. You’re pitching Ideas “What are your dream outlets you’d want to be in?” Wrong answers: Get me famous. Right answers: I want to learn about you Williams Sonoma Agrarian Line We brought in these really cool makers and I had the media get to know these people Harvest tour for my olive oil clients and have the master miller talk about olive oil For towns: You don’t need to go into New York city to be on TV. You can do just as well as you target cities. Birmingham Alabama. Tons of food outlets over there and people are moving from NYC there. There are a ton of magazines there What is the most important skill you need for your job?: Be personable, authentic, be good at human relationship Why Does Your Food job Rock?: I get to tell the stories of farmers Trends and Technology: Rise and interest in Probiotics. I represented Farmhouse Culture and learned all about it there. Proteins Back to the basics @goodfoodgomes Instagram account #kidsinthekitchen My kids love Late July and there are brands like that. Simply Fuel – probiotics Bar in a bag Customization Just Date Syrup – Mejoule date syrup What is the biggest challenge the food industry needs to face?: Rising above the marketplace noise. How do you rise above the competition? Best is storytelling. Earned Media Paid Media Advertising Instagram Tip: Respond to people and respond quickly What is something in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: The distribution channels and how things are packaged. These are the challenges my clients face. I come in when everything is developed Who inspired you to get into food?: I was born in Sonoma County and it was all about food and wine What’s your favorite quote, book or kitchen item?: Find something you are passionate about and keep on doing it Was there any time where you didn’t feel passionate?: I used to be in tech PR and learned about tech storage. Not really passionate about it, but learned a lot about it Storage World magazine Natural Bay Area not Natural San Francisco Brooklyn Food Stuff Nashville Tennessee and New Orelans are the new foodie cities What’s the best thing you ever ate?: A lot of food comes from Nostalgia Any advice for anyone who wants to go into the public relations industry: Talk to people. You gotta learn the ropes What would you want colleges to do to make people smarter?: bring in the people who are doing the work in the food world. One person might be inspired Shannon@goodfoodpr.com @goodfoodgomes. Let’s connect!

Today I help Debomitra Dey and Soniya Katekar design their website through a conference call. I’ve done this before, but I wanted to post this up so eventually, if you would like to create a blog, or Instagram account, or podcast, you can use this as a way to motivate you, or at least see how I get motivated to do things. In this episode, I drill down on the purpose on how I structure my website, and then talk about how committed you want this to be. More importantly, what are the steps and processes you need to focus on to go all out? I hope this episode will inspire you to create your own platform! Like Debomitra and Soniya, I’m always happy to chat with people who are trying out ways to educate people on science. After all, we are all in this together. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. Nicole is offering free job postings in the next two months and I highly suggest taking this offer. Email nicole@foodgrads.com and she'll give you instructions. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. Show Notes The Food Tech Club Soniya Katekar - Pretzel Baron Food Safety Manager Debomitra Dey - Equinox Lab Sensory Analyst Did you know: In India, if you tell anyone in Food Science, people think it’s cookingMindset: Treat this like a job, the only way you will make an impact is to post every day Website: You should focus on a way to have your reader “binge watch” your content Use bought wordpress themes for a template to get things up and running Spending money on things because it’s an investment SEO is ok, but consistent content is better Example of a good website: Mr. Money Mustache Website Tips Home Tab About Section Articles or other media Contact Tab Social Media Tab Right side of the column is to have: recent or best posts. Category list, banners to buy products Should you tag your posts on your website? I do tags on profession or category Gather people’s emails because it’s much better in the long run to collect emails How to get social media tracking:  Yea just post anything, often Books on Social media (Gary Vaynerchuk) Crush It Crushing It Jab Jab Jab Right Hook You should think about money when you make an online platform because you will be striving for value. This is a very hard thing to grasp. On guest blogging You should invite guest bloggers after you have a bunch of articles under your belt. Guest articles will help bring their audience over to your area On Linkedin posting Just test things out on social media until you find something that ticks On communicating to people about food scientist Talk big about food scientists. Don’t talk daily life. It’s too boring. Talk about how to feed the world through food. You have to take three steps back. Anyone can read a term paper, nobody reads textbooks, but people read stories On getting traction Post every single day Notable food influencers mentioned Meg and Cat Katie Jones

I’m sure you've heard a lot about Tyson Foods investing in a lot of cutting edge companies. Beyond Meat, Memphis Meats, and Tovala to name a few. I wanted to get to the bottom of this, so I asked Tom Mastrobuoni to talk about the reasons why Tyson is putting a stake into these companies. His answer surprised me. To get ahead and be truly innovative, Tyson knows that it has to be invested in these up and coming companies. I learned the complexities of why it’s a win-win situation for companies to partner with Tyson. For one, Tyson has a vast array of resources to help any food company out. The new food companies just have to innovative. One of the most valuable things in the interview is talking with Tom about the newest trends. Because Tom is at the cutting edge of the industry, I asked for his opinion on plant-based foods, clean meat, artificial intelligence, and blockchain, among others. If you want to know the hottest and most game changing food technologies, this is the episode you should listen to. I hope it inspires you to think big! Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. Nicole is offering free job postings in the next two months and I highly suggest taking this offer. Email nicole@foodgrads.com and she'll give you instructions. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. Show Notes Michael Wolfe, The Spoon Fancy Food Show Do you have any airplane tips?: Nope! The aisle seat is better than middle sitting When someone asks what you do for a living, what do you do?: We run the venture arm of Tyson foods and we’re reinventing Tyson Foods What caused this?: We saw a shift in consumer demands and we needed to keep up. Tyson is 80 years old We’re a 2500 team with 100 location We not only do meat, but preprared foods 2nd largest producer of tortillas Tyson Ventures, a subsidiary: Focus on two things, sustainability and the internet of food Reese Schroder: Expert at Corporate Venturing Justin Whitmore: Executive VP of corporate strategy Chief Financial Officer: What does that mean? Well, technically, I’ve extended the role. I’m CFO+ now. Even though I still have to do financials, I love to work closely and source new ideas. Was being a CFO+ a requirement or a passion?: A passion. You have to work with people and connect with people, and understand their story. What is the misconception you like to dispel about Tyson?: If we invest in a company, that doesn’t mean we’re shifting completely to this. Tyson is big, we need to think how to handle disruption, so we look down the road in 5 to 10 years. We’re not shifting, we’re exploring In a theory point of view, investing in “competitors” is easy, executing it is super hard. The top leadership must be on board. Corporate Venture can be a force multiplier Tyson petfood Tyson tannery business (leather) When we approach a company, we don’t want to acquire it, but we want to be around it Describe the Steps to get to where you are today: Villanova University in Public Accounting Worked in New York around the big accounting firms, ended up creating own firm Opportunity for Tyson came up, everyone eats and I’m having a lot of fun. Tyson isn’t about making a profit or sucking up IP, we want to add value to companies and we have the resources How do you get to Tom’s level?: Do deals. Get a degree in accounting or financing. If you audit them, you can do it How did you apply for the job?: I applied for this job at an online job board Advanced Venture Partners Augusta Columbia Capital Good reputations are hard earned, they give the bad ones for free How do you find your deals?: Mainly our two pillars. Sustainability: Either alternative proteins or food waste fits in these pillars. Internet of Food: Disruptive marketing techniques, factory monitoring, enhancement of sustainability Perfect Day Tovalo Foodbytes How do you pitch an idea?: We find them, and they find us. But, we also look for competitors in that space and see who disrupts them. How to find competitors: Pitchbook, google, etc. We find competitors who are doing things more quietly, more thoughtfully, etc. How does interacting a deal work?: We usually email you with info about Tyson Ventures. 98% of the time, the company is super excited. We then have a 60-90 minute interview with a Subject Matter Expert at Tyson to grill the company. The results can range from pilot to non-investment collaborations. We want to add value to day one. Tyson is doing this so intimately because Tyson is a people business. We invest in the network. We make those warm introductions for them and it builds the network. Why Does Your Food job Rock?: Global Corporate Summit in California, my boss said I have a really cool job. I have the opportunity to change Tyson and I’m empowered to do so What is the most prominent or popular place for food companies? There are so many emerging ecosystems 1871 Plug and Play Chicagoland Food and Beverage The Hatchery, Chicago There’s so many and we don’t have the time to go to them Tyson Innovation Lab Let’s talk trends and technologies Plant Based Meat: On the board for Beyond Meat. Because they are targeting a bigger target market, and they have crisp distributions, this made sense. This is proof that this is not going away any time soon Clean Meat: Commercilization is up for grabs, I predict that once someone gets ahead, they will buy up their competitors. Really interesting space, we’d love to talk to people and give them resources. Poultry Science at the University of Arkansas. Though a long way away, we still need to know how to market it. We think food deserts and emerging nations would be the best avenue Complex=Expensive Internet of Things (for Food): Tovala, for example. Direct to Consumer is not a familiar angle for us. In Michael Wolfe’s podcast, you mentioned that you can get data from consumers really fast. Data is king for a consumer product. It’s changed so fast. Before, I had to write a letter to an airline. Now I can send an email and get my rewards points 30 seconds later. By investing in Tovala, we can get so much data on what they like and what didn’t they like. Uber is like hitchhiking on your phone. Tovala has their own forum where they can troubleshoot and innovate. We brought Tovala and Beyond Meat to our R+D Lab and asked how we can partner up. Blockchain: We have had meetings on blockchain to have more meetings about blockchain. We’ve announced IBM and Walmart partnerships. Most blockchain companies are hyper-focused SOX Compliance Someone has to be the certifying body for blockchain Artificial Intelligence, AR, VR: Safety AR VR might help with making the factory more safer We are looking into robotics and exoskeletons. Also market research is important. Upward Academy In all aspects, AI, AR, VR best in safety for the workers. Food Desserts: We’re working on making food cheaper and more affordable. The challenge is that doing this is a triple bottom line issue with profits. We want more community leaders to tell us how we can help. This is important. Do you have any advice for anyone to tackle something big?: Have the passion for it. Any time you do something big, it’ll be hard. Understand their perspective, why they’ll say no, and get them to yes. Books: Good to Great Where can we find you?: LinkedIn. Please make your profile open. I’m on twitter. Google Tyson Ventures that you can submit a form.

Fred Hart contacted me after listening to my interview with Hugh Thomas and was so inspired by it, he contacted me to be on the show. Fred’s pretty legit, he’s been a speaker for Expo West, has an awesomely inspiring team, and the dude just oozes passion. We talk a lot about the power of branding, and the nuances it really takes to make a brand stand out. We don’t only say the power of say, words, but the power of color, the power of being different, and small design tweaks to make it stand out. Other big topics are about my favorite topic, how to be more creative, why Boulder has such a powerful natural food community and the beauty of being obsessed with your work. Fred also was generous to share his expo west experience. Attached is his team's massive photo collection of the expo.  And his article about it! Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. Nicole is offering free job postings in the next two months and I highly suggest taking this offer. Email nicole@foodgrads.com and she'll give you instructions. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. Show Notes How did you meet Hugh Thomas: Through BevNet. How did you meet Alex Oesterle: I’m in Boulder and he’s in Denver How did we all meet each other?: We’re obsessed When someone asks what you do for a living, what do you tell them?: I build food brands. I work at a creative agency, with 16 people, We work exclusively with the food and beverage company and work on packaging and brand consulting How do you prepare to brand?: Holy trinity: Client, Category, Consumer Client: Who’s the client? Category: For example, water is a commodity but can be branded to anything go to 14 food and beverage trade shows If it doesn’t resonate with the consumer Scenario, what’s more important, more claims or fewer claims?: If I throw you 6 tennis ball at once, you’ll probably not catch any of them. But throwing one is easy to catch. We want you to catch one. However, claims can be used abundantly People don’t read, but they recognize. Romancing the brand: Sprite: Hip hop Artists are like Sprites. Cool, icy or crisp. Bobo’s Oat Bars: Beyond being an oat bar, what makes this product unique?: The bar is named after her own daughter. Coffee shops exude this too so we sell Bobo’s at coffee shop Creativity is so subjective that there’s only variying degrees of wrong Is creativity a muscle?: I do, and I think that as kids we’re the most creative and we lose creativity though most people can build it up How do you train creativity: I break down creative pieces like documentaries and see how I can make it How Adam gets creative: I argue with different people and that’s a good thing. How do you Do people come to you or you go to them?: Clients come to us either through referrals or trade shows. Entrepreneurs who talk to us just get it and want to go forward. At the end of the day, it’s about sharing a vision. If you don’t want to have a beer with them, you shouldn’t be working with them. Did you join Interact in the beginning?: I left San Francisco 2.5 years ago to grow Interact from 3 people to 16 people. We went to their own branding Describe the steps it took to get to where you are today: In college, I didn’t party too much, but I loved the design. For design, do what you love, and the money will follow if you work hard enough. Food and Beverage Industry: Food and beverage is probably the most stimulating and captivating industry because it’s competitive design. No other industry competes with each other for the “share of stomach”. I have to interrupt a consumer’s shopping behavior. Interview with Alex Oesterle What catches your eye in grocery store?: People don’t read, they recognize. For example, Coke is red, Tiffany is teal. Color is huge. Brand identity is huge. For example, Monster Energy Monster claw. Shape too. For example, Voss water bottle. Method cleaning. The tear drop bottle. A lot of natural categories are switching to bright color. You should always challenge your catrgory, but not your consumer. We’d have to find different ways to see if the color is different, but effective Goodbelly – did not want to do white. They owned black and black is the color of efficacy. Color Psychology: We don’t adhere to it a lot because if everyone did it, everything would be red. You have to keep in mind the context of the brand How do you become more innovative?: It takes a willingness and a confidentness to take a leap of faith. Tension leads to attention. If I describe a cookie, it can’t be just any cookie. It has to be unique. Do you guys use small tests to show tension?: Depends. Small brands trust their gut. Big brands is a bit harder. For big brands, you have to maintain equity and give a breathe of fresh air. On buyouts: You have the chobani’s and KINDs of the word where they maintain their independence. The small companies can innovate, the big food has the power of scale. As long as big food leaves their acquisition alone, then it becomes beneficial. Annie’s Foods RX Bar Justin’s Nut Butter Independence is something that big food recognizes is really important. What kind of food trends and tech is really exciting you right now?: Cannabinoids. We’re in the heart of it in Colorado. Adaptogens are popping up too. Rebel Coffee is doing something. Ashwagandha Holy Basil About Cannabis and CBD: No market leader just yet. No one has necessarily been adding it directly to food. Is it legal?: It’s in this weird gray space. The biggest challenge the food industry has to face?: Better defining sustainability. It could be privatized, not heavily regulated, but it can be. Rotten documentary: It exposes the darker side. Boulder Colorado: Has a history of natural food. For example, White Wave Foods. Celestial Seasonings was founded here, a lot of outdoors Naturally Boulder Naturally San Francisco/Naturally Bay Area What is the one thing in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: The supply chain. How does it all work. Saffron Brands Chobani Was there a brand that inspired you to get into food?: Monster Energy Drinks. You can add so much to improve a food brand. Most people think that logos are word-based, but they are actually pictoral. Alex Oesterle’s interview with Brandon Roten and Wendy’s Some brands don’t want to be the best and use it as their advantage CEO of Taco Bell moves to Chipotle Even though Chipotle is taking a beating, it still has a strong brand integrity. If this CEO can activate that, it will work Missy Schaaphok Episode Kardashians tweet about Snapchat Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to go into your industry?: The creative industry is very blue collar. You need to let your obsession drive what you do. What’s your favorite interview question to ask?: If they were a crayon what would you be? Adam’s answer: Dark Blue Describe it to a blind person: Right before the sunset, that is dark blue. What do you think colleges should teach more of?: Soft skills Do you have any advice for speaking gigs?: Having something to say. Don’t talk about yourself but just share knowledge Keep doing some work. Post and talk on forums and blogposts. That’s how you build rapport John Kraven Where can we find you for advice?: Interact boulder Instagram. Fred@interactboulder.com

- All about a PR firm that features law professionals as sources in news releases written by journalists that are published on http://www.AdvocateDaily.com. Gretchen Drummie, Managing Director of AdvocatePR and Editor of http://www.AdvocateDaily.com joins us. - We're talking #haircolour tips & tricks with Kearns & Co Hair Toronto​'s Ana Karzis​ - http://www.kearnsandco.co - 25 classic audio treasures have been added to The Library of Congress' #NationalRecordingRegistry - Musicologist Eric Alper tells us more in #OnTheRecord. http://www.twitter.com/thatericalper - Travel expert Candace Derickx tells us about exploring Giethoorn, Grave and Willemstad in Holland - learn more at http://www.holland.com and http://www.lifeinpleasantville.com - HR Professional Nicole Gallace tells us how http://www.FoodGrads.com is helping close the gap between recent graduates and the food and beverage industry. - Multi Award Winning Recording Artist Carlos Morgan performs new single 'Have A Little Faith' in our LIVE #StudioSessions. See him perform at 'The Duet Songbook Concert' at Mills Hardware (95 King St. East) in Hamilton on Friday, April 20th - Tickets: https://www.ticketfly.com/event/1665377 http://www.carlosmorganmusic.com www.whatshesaidtalk.com

Sebastien messaged me on linkedin and said he was impressed by his work. Being the snoop that I am, I checked out his profile and found he was a food photographer! Hmmmm I never had a food photographer on the show…. I decided to interview Sebastien to understand the art of photography and what I got out of it was an interview about the amazing feeling interviewing creative people. Sebastien isn’t just a photographer, I would say he is a sort of historian. He not only takes food photos, but also interviews and documents the works of chefs, hunters, anyone in the food industry really. If you like photography as a hobby, Sebastien gives some great tips not only in a  professional sense like what equipment to use, but also how to up your Instagram game. He also talks about the struggles of being a photography student in college and described the experience of making his family’s lobster bisque. About Sébastien Born into a culinary household and raised in some of the finest kitchens, Sébastien’s passion for food and hospitality runs throughout his veins. Somehow, convinced by his mother to never become a chef, Sébastien’s curiosity and creativity lead him to pursue another artistic discipline – Photography. Later marrying his love for the photographic medium with gastronomy, he quickly found his way back into the kitchen. Today, he utilizes his industry knowledge, kitchen mentality and artistic talent to create stories and visual content for clients around the world. Food | Place | Identity – a compilation of Sébastien’s photo essays, brings awareness to the significant rolls food & cooking have in societies and cultures. From small-town chefs and local farmers, to Three Star Michelin establishments, Sébastien travels the world to capture and tell the stories of the people who feed us. Photo essays from the Food | Place | Identity platform have been published by international publications since its debut in 2014. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. Nicole is offering free job postings in the next two months and I highly suggest taking this offer. Email nicole@foodgrads.com and she'll give you instructions. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. Show Notes   What do you tell people you do?: I’m a culinary photographer Anyone can be a food photographer, right?: I get this a lot I just make food look pretty. Through a lense and through the light. Other people make the food look pretty. Do you have a studio?: I freelance and I have an agent Can you give me your thought process when taking a picture?: I do both studio and documentary work. I do an interview process, I spend the day with them and capture what comes and find vantage points. What equipment do you use?: Cameras and lights. I use a 5D Mark 2 Canon and I have a  variety of Lenses. Gloss is what sets an image apart. For light, I use Speedatrons. Old but does the job. I shoot off of capture one when I take a photo and I use photoshop to edit them How to take better Instagram photos: Use natural lighting, find a window, play with composition Can you describe the steps to get to where you are today?: I went to university to study photography. My friend told me to shoot food because my family was so into food anyways. The classes I took reflected that I’m good with taking pictures of food. I started look at food from a philosophical and cultural perspective which gave my work depth. A lot of us underestimated get a job. I got an assistantship 4 months out of college. Even though he was a fashion photographer, there were similar principles. My rep officially took me on after that as an artist. How did people notice you?: I assisted the photographer on volunteer shoots in the past. The first shoot is for volunteering to see if it was even worth the work. I just kept in touch with him and developed a relationship. Be a really good assistant and keep hustling a portfolio and small gigs. What do you think is the most important skill you need for a Photographer?: Work on your concept and how you develop concepts. Try to be inspired and keep on being creative. How do you get inspired and creative?: Keep on researching and being aware of what you do. Talk to chefs, read everything. Food philosophy, food science, anything. Being involved in your industry and being passionate about it. There’s a great community in the food industry and we can push our industry forward. Why does your food job rock?: Other than playing with food, I get to meet some awesome people. Being able to talk to so many like-minded people is just an amazing experience. How do you develop your documentary work?: It was an offshoot to understand food and identity. It wasn’t just about food, but also the people and how food shapes their identity I recently documented a hunt What have you noticed to be the most interesting thing about people working for food: They’re all the same yet different. Chefs are crazy in the way. It takes a certain kind of people and it takes over their lives which is a good thing. At the end of the day, food is an act of love and it’s the central point of Creatives talk the same language and from a creative standpoint What would be a dream project?: If I could travel the world and document everything about it, I would love that. What is something in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: Food sciences, food history and how it shapes cultures. You can’t learn enough about it. Do you have any book recommendations for food people?: Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma. The Raw and the Cooked by Claude Lévi-Strauss One of the important books to read as a foodie. He kind of breaks down recipe writing and when to cook. It’s still very relevant to what food is. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harris Clean Meat by Paul Shapiro Favorite Quote: Luck is a matter of Preparation Meets Opportunity Favorite Kitchen Item: Spoon, a tasting spoon. We use it all the time. It’s the litmus test of food Favorite food: Homemade Lobster Bisque. The process of making it with family and having a specific flavor to it. Every time I have it, it’s been with people I love. Is there any advice you’d tell aspiring chefs?: Assess how passionate and how much you care about food before you get into it. It’s a very tough profession. There are a lot of small industry issues that young aspiring chefs don’t pay attention to. This might apply to all creative professions. If you were to tell yourself something valuable in the beginning of what you know now, what would it be?: Really talk things through with the subject that’s involved. Get to know the person a lot better. Where can we find you?: I’m traveling quite a bit. Online is best. Instagram: @sduboisd . I’m also in Toronto. www.duboisdidcock.com What was your annoying pet peeve on Instagram?: Crazy food fads like unicorn food and weird colored grilled cheese. Social pandering.

This is my take on an entrepreneur interview. Most if not all of the questions are free form in some way so this was an…interesting episode. It takes a while for Keenan and I to warm up, to get on each other’s wavelength, but you’ll get some amazing dialog at the end of the episode. Originally supposed to be an episode about ethics, this became an episode about people. How do you find good people, what makes people tick, what makes them do good things, or bad things. Perhaps that’s the most important thing in entrepreneurship. Keenan does not hold back in this interviews and is a fiery and loud guest. He will bring some very controversial views. I ask you just listen. This is the end of our Northeastern Lecture Series. Next week we’ll be going back to our 1 episode a week format every Monday. See you next week! Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. Nicole is offering free job postings in the next two months and I highly suggest taking this offer. Email nicole@foodgrads.com and she'll give you instructions. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. What is your definition of a startup?: A project with zero funding and zero operations. It grows from zero to something. What industries have you been in?: Sports, education, men’s grooming What are the common theme for starting buisnesses?: An MBA will give you a perfect process using imperfect people. However, in my opinion, perfect people make an imperfect process work. If I have good people, it will work and be successful How do you hire people?: Talk to people you want to promote. Do you have an interview question that you find useful to vet people?: Not really. Find what people are passionate of. What do you think makes a person Ethical?: Clarity, Accountability, Vulnerable, we’ve all been let down, so we know what it looks like. Have you been in an unethical situation?: I’ve worked for some major brands, the whole system is unethical. What drives someone to be unethical?: Risk is based off of unpredictability, threat and fear. You have a decision to make not based on chance or likelihood based on threat or fear. How do you mitigate risk?: I’m more of a gambler. But still there’s a way I can migitate in the large term Why I started entrepreneurship: The risk aspect of entrepenuership because I defined what the risk was. Can you describe a favorite failure?: I started a sports agency. I saved $100k and gotten another $60k injection. Once it started losing money, I invested my 401k. When you’re an entrepreneur, you’ll risk a lot to achieve success. When did you have to let the project go?: I had near $168 dollars left to my name. I was at a dead end. No where left to go. How did you bounce back?: I applied for a craigslist job at an education startup. They’re looking for a college admissions startup. I didn’t have the street creds but I got the job. I worked my way up through contracts and I eventually took over the company. A friend of mine wants an R+D job but has quality experience. How can he get the R+D job?: I want to see work ethic. Were you promoted? Do you have experience in other sectors? You need to be well-rounded. Generally, that breeds self-confidence Should you work harder or work smarter?: People want to see you sweat. But you eventually find techniques that limit wasted motion. You’ve perfected the technique. People say practice makes perfect but if you practice mistakes, you’ll only make mistakes Books, Quotes, or Heroes: Humility is not about thinking less about yourself, but thinking about yourself less. I’m my biggest fan. I had to become my biggest fan. You’ll never have a more fair fight than the person in the mirror Dying a second time: How to not be forgotten How can we find out more about you?: Find him here How did you find Darin?: We were classmates but I found him different yet cool with.  

As you’ve heard in episode 112 with Todd Barr and 114 with David Mahoney, Analytics becomes an ever powerful technology to save the world. Yet the subject is pretty dense and hard to grasp. In most cases, it requires coding. I bring Uwe Hohgrawe on the show to talk a bit more about analytics and his answers surprised me. It’s actually better to be a subject matter expert first and then dive into the analytics more than anything else. So this interview is much more about why Analytics is something you might need to invest in the future, especially if you want to make big changes in the food industry. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. Nicole is offering free job postings in the next two months and I highly suggest taking this offer. Email nicole@foodgrads.com and she'll give you instructions. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. Shownotes What do you tell people in a sentence or less?: I’m working for one of the most prestigious universities in the united states and I lead analytics The history of analytics Florence Nightengale was a Nurse/ first female statistician. Identified areas where soliders died more than other areas. It was more from diseases than wounds. Who else sues big data: Jeff Bezos. Sold books online but used Big Data to beautifully shape amazon’s philosophy “What is good for the customer is in the end, good for amazon” Different parts of analytics are outsourced: for example, you can buy data and buy visualization services. Analytics tools: Dope Sequel R Python Spark Is there anything that you’d like to dispel today?: I completely understand that people are scared of data. Even though we gather a ton of data, it’s for artificial intelligence. We use this to find new knowledge. Clean Meat – Paul Sharpiro’s book The best professionals in analytics are those who have the best knowledge about the domain. I started in the pharmaceutical business. I then became a social scientist and got into analytics, which helped me in the pharmaceutical industry. I was in charge of global analytics from Johnson and Johnson. What appealed you about North Eastern?: We incorporate real world data in NorthEastern. The students are also all around the world and I love it. Why do you love what you do?: I get feedback from students that are impactful. I love it when students get it. How can what you do, feed the world?: If we are able to have people buy stuff and control traffic, we should be able to identify hunger and find ways to feed people using analytics. How has science evolved?: When I started college, I used a dial telephone. We’re going faster and faster but the core remains the same. We have to deliver quality and answer the question What are your thoughts on Artificial Intelligence?: If it saves time and makes you more innovative, it’s worth it. Any advice for anyone in the food industry?: Know what you like to do. Talk to experts and get informed. For analytics, know math, statistics, some tools. Machine learning, predictive elements Where can we find you for advice?: Northeastern website

Can you patent your grandma’s cookies? No, but it can be a trade secret. David works as a lawyer at a really cool company that you’ve probably never heard of: Indigo Ag. From what I've gathered, the company uses data and analytics to find the optimal place to grow plants all around the world. David’s path to being a lawyer was unconventional but synergizes very well with what he was passionate about. He was a scientist first, but was so good at arguing and logic, that he was recommended to be a lawyer. In the end, he was able to combine his love of science with his practice of law. A big portion of the podcast involves us talking about the difference between a trade secret, a patent and a copyright. Things that are confusing and there’s a lot of gray area, but it’s nice to know. I recall in this interview, I had a cold so I might sound a bit clogged up and congested.  Expect some loud coughs. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. Nicole is offering free job postings in the next two months and I highly suggest taking this offer. Email nicole@foodgrads.com and she'll give you instructions. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. Show Notes Dave is an expert in intellectual property who deals with patents When someone asks what you do for a living, what do you do for a sentence or less?; I’m an attorney. Or I work in a corporate setting protecting and licensing the technology. To average joes, I just say I work for technology companies. The perception on attorney’s: Like the 12am commercials on TV. Where do you work?: Indigo Ag Inc. Locations in Massachusets, Memphis, Tennesse, Brazil, Argentina Indigo Agriculture: Harness the microbiome technology for seeds and plants for the benefit of augmenting crop yields. The theory is that the microbiome in the soil will optimize growth in plants like drought tolerance, pesticide resistance, and other factors. These are all naturally occurring, non-GMO programs. We find what is out there in the environment that would benefit the growth of these plants. The hard part is finding the symbiome plant/fungi helping the plant grow. Partner’s program: will work with farmers and will guarantee paying a premium for their crops. This is due to the quality being better than what might be there otherwise. What’s the difference between intellectual property (IP) and patents? IP is the umbrella, patents include that. The IP umbrella: Patents, copyright, trademarks, and trade secrets Trademark: Partially bitten apple in the back of your laptop. It’s a well valued. Copyrights: Due to the rapid pace of technology, most software companies go this route. Doing anything is also copyrighting Trade Secrets: Recipes and formulations. You can protect it indefinitely as long as you keep it a secret. This is what the food industry does Patents: Public. Limited process time. The limit is about 20 years The most common, known way is the music industry. Everytime a song plays, they are charged a royalty fee. Penalties: If you find out KFC’s secret recipe, could you copy it?: They need to use reasonable measures. For example. If you are an employee and you steal a formula, you can be sued. If you sign an NDA or any employee confidentiality, you can get penalized for stealing. There is not an enforcement for fighting for a trade secret How did you get to where you are today?: I thought I was going to be a scientist but I found out that law would be the best path for me because I can argue really well. My score at the GRE told me I should work on the LSAT. Human Genome Project – David found many gray areas with the Human Genome Project in regaurds to law and it was the perfect intersection between science and law. My first job a laywer at a company that was searching genetic sequences automatically. Can you patent genes?: It’s really hard to patent genes. You have to know everything about the gene/microbe What do you think is the most important skill you need for your job?: Wisdom. Which comes from experience. Why does your food Job Rock: It rocks because they are trying to do something no one has done in the food industry. Why is what you do important for the global food supply?: 2 reasons. This technology is capable to use the unnoticed land to grow crops and would notify people to not hard vital areas that can grow crops. How will the future change be impacted in what you do?: Hopefully, we can impact agriculture that uses natural substances to make yields more robust. We can get rid of chemicals doing this. How has technology helped in what you do?: It allows us to screen tons of data really fast. How will artificial intelligence change food and agriculture careers?: it will benefit and change it. Artificial Intelligence will allow better prediction for physical microbiomes and research purposes. What is one significant example of what you do will benefit the world?: Things are built upon other things and we need to know how to access this technology. To truly improve technology, we need to collaborate but have agreements in place. Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to go into your field?: I don’t know if this is a field for everybody. In all seriousness, whatever field you go into you need to really believe in it. What I enjoy in my job is that I get to see stages in biology that is applicable to food and agriculture. We take for granted the ability to go to stores and buy great quality food no matter where we are. People don’t even think about where food comes from anymore. Do you think there will be more diversity in the world or less?: If we’re able to be productive and more mindful, then yes, I think we can.  

If you’re in the non-profit space, what do you have to do to jump through the hoops and get funded on your project that will help your community? This is the question I asked Ted Johnson today. Ted leads an incubator that helps push these projects to get funded and we go through multiple scenarios on how to get community projects funded. This includes things I’ve never known. Some examples include ethnic based sororities and fraternities, kickstarters and go-fund-me’s. Other topics we talk about that are super interesting is the complexities of Food Deserts and the power of writing. We really stress the importance that everyone should learn to write and the best way to do it? Start a blog! About Ted Theodore R. Johnson is a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice. Prior to joining the Brennan Center, Dr. Johnson was a national fellow at the New America Foundation, where he undertook projects on black voting behavior and the role of national solidarity in addressing racial inequality. Previously, he was a Commander in the United States Navy and, most recently, a research manager at Deloitte. You can read more about Ted here. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full-time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. Show Notes What do you tell people in a  sentence or less: I study racial disparities and the implications those disparities have on public policy What do you do in the food realm?: There’s tons of data showing that communicates with less access to food have less access to healthy food. It’s hard to get a fresh piece of fruit in a food desert Food Desert: A geographic area where there is no access to fruit and evegtables. Healthy foods are not accessable. They form because grocery stores don’t find it economical to set up in poor neighborhoods How do you prevent food deserts?: The federal government has to get involved and the solution might be to give grants to innovative projects Urban Gardening Uber, Lyft, Airbnb: Sharing Economy How do people get funding for their projects?: there are a lot of places that want to invest in solutions Idea: Combining free breakfast and food trucks. This removes the pain point for kids on free lunch can get food right at their house and remove the stigma of free lunch. How to Get Funding Angel Investment and Community Crowdfunding helps a ton Black Fraternities and Sororities are actually one of the best ways to get funding as they are lifelong community activists Every culture has their way of giving back to the community. For example, Hispanics send money back to their homeland. Hispanic and South East Asians can pool community resources extremely well. Ted, what role do you play in this?: I’m at the federal level. I identify problems and find solutions and find the natural fit for the agency or policy maker. I put the human element in. I try to close the wage gap. Is that hard?: Super hard. It’s because of the politics. The decision makers think “how does this benefit me?” Can you describe the steps it took to get you where you are today?: Math major, ended up in the Navy in cyber security. Was a whitehouse fellow. During that time, I saw a lot of disparities in the black community so I focused the rest of my career on that. I spent my last few years in service getting my PhD in Public policy The Lesson in all of this: It’s NEVER too late to change yourself What is the most important skill you need for your job?: Writing. It’s a really effective way to communicate a complex problem to people who can build support. There is a talent to write short, long and book-length content. All are important. For me, I try to write lived experience. Not just data, stories Writing is a muscle. Start a blog. It gets your name out there. What is what you do important for the food system?: It impacts the global food supply because it makes food cheaper and people should be getting it. A lot of the food that grows is, unfortunately, going to processed food. How will the future change or be impacted by what you do?: If we figure this out, resources will be freed up to help us do more things. If people live higher quality lives and we get more talent, we can improve every aspect of our society. How has science and technology impact what you do?: Yield. The more food we have, the more it will help with our cause How will artificial intelligence change what we do in food and agriculture: It will free up a lot of mundane tasks and will help us make better decisions by recognizing problems we’d never discover. How can what you do help us as cities: The only ways companies will do things is if you buy more stuff. For example, if a chicken is free ranged, they will plaster it everywhere. We have to do the same with food disparity. Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to get into food policy?: Be specific. Find that passion in that discipline and go from there. Where can we find you: TheodoreRJohnson.com Everything is there. I talk about cybersecurity, racial security, everything.

  We shoot around the topic of big data around, but it’s hard for us to understand what that actually means. Luckily, Todd Barr helps break down not only Big Data, but also gives us a taste of the fascinating world of Geographic Information Systems, and Precision Agriculture. Using drones, tractors, or anything that scans data, Todd can gather mass amounts of data, organize it, and give hyper-targeted solutions on certain issues in the food realm. We give tons of examples of how this technology works. For example, we can fix farms really easily because we know what plots of lands need more water, and we know where to put Whole foods in which suburb because we know what type of people live there, This interview is admittedly really rocky, because I had a hard time trying to understand this! And I want to understand it so I ask a lot of questions. Todd does an amazing job breaking it down with examples on how precision agriculture can feed the world. The first half of the interview is very rough, but I want you to take note how I try and understand the technology and eventually we get to the heart of it. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full-time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. Show Notes What do you do for a living?: I collect data using drones and satellites and analyze data. I color maps like a kindergartner Tractor technology: started as GPS, ended up using new technology. Post Katrina, they are self-driving and getting real-time data. People don’t realize what’s on a farm. There are automatic tractors nowadays Geospatial: is basically X Y Z data. Geographic Information Systems (GIS): Using technology and data to run spatial analytics to solve real-world problems Whole Foods and Trader Joes uses geospatial technology to plant their shops How did you get to the Big Data industry?: 20 years in Washington DC. Introduced through work and learned about it before big data was a thing. Where can you learn about Big Data?: Youtube has great videos, ESRI, Open Source, QGIS Where would you go first?: I’d join the spatial community on twitter #GIStribe and then go to youtube Can you give me an example on this technology?: We did a study on tractor accuracy so reduce how “off” they are in their path Another example: Scanning biomass of orange fields and tells you if biomass is a correlation of yield Is there any software you need?: You need to create a lake database and link it to a JSON file and you chunk it out to do the analysis. You can extract and input a row. We use cloud systems to handle the data. We use Amazon web services. What kind of skill do you need for your job?: You should know a bit about statistics but you should also learn to ask questions. Be interactive. Big Data is about volume velocity My Food Job Rocks: I make food cheaper, and I get to play with data. How do you make food cheaper?: We can scan a whole mass of data and find ways to reduce input. We can target an area that has problems and fine-tuning it. You spend less on resources. More and more farms are asking people to do this during the growing season What is Darin’s course: Darin’s course is about food security and this technology will help with solving food security. A lot of countries are now looking into this technology. Africa, for example, is getting a lot more yield with this technology. What is what you do important?: It’s going to make food cheaper because we can find pain points and reduce it. Planet Labs is taking pictures of the earth every day and the stuff gets processed in under 24 hours. Doves or small satellites. You can buy their services and get the big data. What up and coming technologies will help you in Precision Agriculture?: This technology will be cheaper. However, machine learning will improve this technology by a lot. What will AI do to your industry?: It will come up with recipes in what humans have been doing for years. So it would give you a recipe for maximum yield on a farm. When will this AI be coming?: It’s here, we need to convince people that it’s a proper ROI. Monsanto, Cargill is already implementing it. Medium-sized farms probably won’t buy it yet. How do you feel about self-driving cars?: I hate them. But I like assisted self-driving cars Other technologies: Vertical farming, Hydroponics, Stacking farms on top of each other Favorite book: Fahrenheit 451 Favorite Kitchen Item: Ipad. I can learn to cook or order from seamless. Amazon Echo Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to go to your field?: Don’t be afraid to ask questions, know statistics, don’t be afraid about a computer program. How to learn computer programming: Data camp (in browser coding). You should learn python if you want to go into Big Data. Really easy to learn Where can we find you?: Twitter (Spatial_punk). I havea blog at medium called Spatial Impressionism. Workshops: Spatial R and Spatial Squal classes at Colorado State and going to Miami and Ohio University  

  To kick off our Northeastern Lecture Series, I give you an episode that feels like a spy flick than anything else. Mitchell leads and manages food spies who look for food fraud in various companies and his mission in life is to make food authentic. This was all inspired by a food safety incident in China. So this episode brings us to the complex world of food fraud, and how Mitchell promotes food authenticity through various services and non-profits. We also get into a discussion on blockchain. Though nobody seems to truly understand blockchain, Mitchell tells us why it might not be the panacea we’re looking for. We do this interview live with Mitchell conveniently at Phoenix at the time. Kinda cool, huh? Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full-time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. Show Notes What do you tell people you do?: I’m a Food Spy. I run a food intelligence gathering firm where I contract operatives all over the world What do these spies do?: very good at gaining employment and taking audio and pictures Examples: Melamine in China Honey Fraud Peanut Corporation of America In general, profit will always take over quality when push comes to shove Has quality improved since you started or not?: Consumers want quality, but there’s a chance that it can be clever marketing How do you get into a career in Food Fraud?: You have to try internally and create a system inside the company to test out. This takes a ton of courage. The European Union Regulatory Environment is much more honest compared to the United States. How did you get into food?: I was a lawyer in the semiconductor industry. When I was setting up an international trade company in China, I got some terrible food poisoning Most important skill you need in what you do?: Common Sense. Food Industry is complicating the issue Why Does Your Food Job Rocks?: It validates my mission in life Switzerland Organic Food (Bio). Nobody bought the lower priced produce because they know it's authentic. Why is what you do important in terms of the global food supply?: Because it’s global. We want to promote food authenticity. International Food Authenticity Non-Profit Trends and technologies: Why Michthell does not agree with Blockchain in a food fraud standpoint How will artificial intelligence change the future?: Artificial intelligence is honest and not greedy so it will help food fraud a lot What is one example that shows people that what you do is important?: This interview! Outside of the food industry, how can regulatory help others in the future?: We need better regulations. People in public affairs and public policy can help us push forward. How would they contact you?: Info@inscatech.com I am also googleable Any advice for anyone who wants to go into the industry: Go for it, but be passionate        

This is a special interview where I get on skype and talk to not only Dr. Harris, but his whole class! In terms of content, this is a standard information about me, how my food job rocks, the life of a food scientist in my eyes, and what I’ve learned podcasting. If you’ve been a long time listener of the show, you’ll realize that I say the same things in previous episodes, or articles but unless you’re super obsessed with me, you’ll learn some things about me that is a great summary of the content I’ve produced in the past 110 episodes. You can even say I’ve updated my philosophy quite a bit. So key takeaways in this episode is that I distill the tactics for getting say, a job. Or switching jobs. Not only that, but the power of asking questions and the power of building your credibility. You’ll hear no laugh track on this one. Its either because I’m not funny or I couldn’t hear the crowd. I’ll be doing double episodes in the next 3 weeks and this is a special segment. I had the opportunity to help Darin Detwiler with his class, Global Economics and he allowed me to interview 6 of his amazing guest lecturers and use it as supplemental information. These types of technologies include Geospatial Technology, Food Fraud, and Analytics. All super interesting technology. Some of the lecturers are not focused on food actually, but they’re good none-the-less. So yea, expect 2 episodes a week, Monday and Wednesday. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full-time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. I’ve updated why My Food Job Rocks: to overall, I have the ability to impact millions of people with food. Foodgrads.com Gabriel Harris' My Food Job Rocks: I get to work with cool students about the food scientist How did you find out about Food Science?: Serendipitously googled it How do you process Granola Bars?: A lot of stuff is mixed together in large machines. The big focus on how manufacturing helps with product development Manufacturing job: Bootcamp for Food Scientists How did you change from Granola Bar to Isagenix?: Networking and job hopping You can interview for another job. A lot of people actually don’t know this. Companies will encourage you to leave, and get experience somewhere else and come back. Your network is your net worth. You also need to have strong and weak relationships What is the day in the life of a food scientist?: It’s based on projects rather than the daily life. You have to work with a lot of people to get this done. Episode 80 Adam gets interviewed for the Phoenix New Times How did you start a podcast Why I built a website: A website is 100% mine I interviewed my friends first: Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4 Paul Shapiro – Clean Meat There will always be problems in the world. You should be the one who solve them What have you learned from 100 podcasts: How to ask better questions and when to ask better questions Student Questions How do ideas come up when you make new products? Sometimes through market research, sometimes through top leadership. It really depends on the company. However, you DO have the ability to give input if you gain enough credibility in the company. Is your podcast on Spotify?: Yes! Click Here 

Really excited to have Austin on the show. What’s really cool is that he found My Food Job Rocks because he’s a regular listener of Don and Ben’s podcast, Food Safety Talk. Funny how that works, right? So Austin became a regular listener and engaged with me on social media. We now pretty much support each other in everything we do. Austin has his own site, Fur Farm Fork where he posts really technical, powerful stuff about food safety. This was a fun interview. Austin’s past was a bit different than most as he found out why his food job rocks out of falling into an internship and found out he really loved auditing and making corrections to said audits. Now taking on a leadership role at Earth2O. We get into in-depth discussions on whole genome sequencing, and since we have a water expert, we get into the raw water craze that was sweeping Silicon Valley at the time, and Austin has quite the interesting viewpoint on that. Also, quick disclaimer, I apologize for saying the company name Earth2O as Earth H2O multiple times in the episode. Hope you can forgive me. About Austin Austin Bouck is a quality assurance manager at EartH2O, a certified B-corp bottled water and coffee manufacturer in Oregon. When not at work solving technical quality challenges, he continues to ponder food safety issues on his blog, Fur, Farm, and Fork, which helps him stay sharp and share his knowledge with other professionals and the public. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full-time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. Job Title: QA Manager for Earth2O The difference between Quality Assurance versus Quality Control Quality Assurance: The framework used to set up quality Quality Control: The action step. The auditors used to make sure things are done right Earth2O is a small company. I brought someone on last year. I used to lead a team of 9. The biggest misconception: A lot goes on in bottled water. For example, cleaning, has to last 2 years, etc. Technical Expertise in water: Water treatment is complex. There are tools such as: Reverse osmosis: Pretty much means ultrafiltration Deionization Distillation Describe the steps it took to get to where you are today: I wanted to be a vet and I did my bachelors in animal science. I applied but I’m on the waitlist. I did an internship at OFD Foods. I had to do a risk assessment in the lab and I loved it! I stayed for 3 years and then I moved to my hometown in central Oregon Temple Grandin Certified B-Corporation. A business that’s a force for good. Oregon gas law What is the most important skill you need in Quality Control/Assurance?: The devil is in the details IFSQN – A Forum for QA people What’s your dream job title?: I want to be known as a _______ guy What do you look for most in a  company?: Employee investment. Either going to an established company or start your own QA culture. Some companies don’t care about Quality Management Mary Wilkerson – American Peanut Corporation Whole Genome Sequencing: The hottest technology for food safety, but still really new Sequencer Cell Phones Where can we find more information about whole genome sequencing?: It’s actually hard to find info about it. What is the biggest challenge the food industry needs to face?: As we get more specific on food safety, we’ll be focused more on processing What about Raw water?: “can you please define what’s raw water?”. Different people want different water and everyone has a different reason to not trust your water. However, there are some natural spring water sources that are actually up to standard. (Earth2O has this water). As a capitalist, go them! As a food safety standpoint, it’s like raw milk. Favorite Quote: Where does the true source of music lie? In the strings themselves or the hands that pluck them? Favorite Kitchen Items: Avacado Slicer and Silicon Rubber Stapula Any advice for anyone who wants to go into the food industry?: Be ready for multiple roles and be ready to find out you like some of those roles. What would you tell yourself your first day at your job?: Calm down. Eat the elephant a bite at a time.

So this is part of the graduate student series, a series launched last year about graduate school. Even though Cat and Meg are graduate students, they have taken a different path. And this path is actually getting more popular. Cat and Meg are both getting their Masters of Professional Studies Designed for professions who want to transition into the food industry, this program is sprouting up everywhere. Even Cal Poly has one just for their dairy program! According to Cat and Meg, this 1 year intensive course allows you to tackle on a project while taking the classes you’ve always wanted including but not limited to, wine tasting, food entrepreneurship, and cheese making. Not only that, but Cat and Meg are also food communicators and instead of doing just a plain old podcast, they are killing it using Instagram! Check out @nonfictionfoods, where Cat and Meg post beautiful pictures of food and the science of that food. Overall, if you’re interested in a different approach for graduate school, or are interested in the food industry, this might be the episode for you About Meg Meg is a Master of Professional Studies (MPS) student in Food Science at Cornell University. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Queen’s University, Canada in 2015. Between her degrees, she worked for two years in sales and marketing with consumer packaged goods companies. It was here that she was inspired to go back to school and pursue a career in the food industry. Aside from school, Meg has always been passionate about food and public health. She is excited to be a part of the next generation of food leaders that thinks of innovative ways to drive the industry forward and create products to improve our quality of life. About Cat Cat is also a Master of Professional Studies (MPS) student in Food Science at Cornell University. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the College of Wooster, OH in 2017. Following her junior year, she interned in Quality Assurance for Gordon Food Service in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was there that she fell in love with what the food industry has to offer. She is looking forward to pursuing a career in the food industry that melds her passion for science and creativity. About Nonfiction Foods Nonfiction Foods is the brainchild of two Cornell professional graduate students, created in an effort to bridge the gap between science and the foods we eat every day. After meeting at Cornell, Meg & Cat realized how little they and their friends and families knew about the foods they consume. The biggest barrier they found was the lack of reliable media presence for food science facts and so Nonfiction Foods was created. They are primarily on Instagram and reached 1,000 followers in just under two months of starting. In addition to their Instagram they have a website, Facebook page, and are currently on the lookout for new opportunities to expand their reach. Sponsor - Bakerpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods Unless you have been living under a rock you can not get away from Halo Top Ice Cream’s amazing success with their under 300 calories per pint ice cream. What’s a frozen dessert manufacturer to do to compete? Pick up the phone and call Icon Foods at 310-455-9876 or find them on the web at www.iconfoods.com that’s what. They have a new HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix that delivers amazing mouthfeel and sumptuous flavor all under 300 calories per pint. But, here’s the best part; you simply add the HiPro dry mix to any milk type, add glycerin and inclusions and you are off to the races with an amazing finished product lickity split. Icon Foods HiPro Ice Cream Dry Mix comes in hard ice cream mix, soft serve, vegan and wait for it… Keto. Call my friends at Icon and let them ReformulateU. 310-455-9876. Episode Summary Cathrine Boyles - 1st year in professional studies. Love the free food Meghan Marchuk - 1st year in professional studies. Love the scenery We are studying a professional study. It’s a 1 year course that has you choose a project to complete so you go straight to industry. You can specialize in food product development, food chemistry, etc. You can take a diverse amount of classes Cathrine – Chemistry background wvas in Canada and work for food industry companies Meghan – Graduate from the College of Wooster and jumped straight into the course. Interest in entrepreneurship How did you find out about the program?: I googled food science masters and this was the most appealing. You have to do your GRE and send your transcripts Is there a requirement?: Cornell is pretty vague on grades and GRE scores. We think the personal statement matters the most. How do you write a personal statement?: Ask the alumni these questions. You should mention how you’ll give back to the school. You also need a great hook. How many units do you have to take?: We have to take 30 credits (per hour). 20 of them have to be food science. Has to be a 4000 (4 level class) Do you have any funny stories in your classes?: In our wine class, we were confused when our professor tasted asparagus in wine. What’s the biggest thing you learned about your application process?: Talk and email alumni. Don’t be afraid to email people outside your comfort zone. Figure out your advisor before you get there. It’s hard, but do your research! How are advisors different in your program?: We have a very different experience with advisors compared to other graduate students. Lay out your expectations What kind of questions you asked to have you convinced of this program?: It’s quite a large financial bet. I had to ask people, “will this course get me a leg up on the competition?” The cost of the program is around: 30k (30% added on in Canada). It is an investment What type of food tends and technologies are exciting right now?; The plant-based alternatives. I love meat, but I understand the environmental and ethnical issues. HPP- High Pressure process used for diamonds now for the food industry. Apparently, very good at getting the meat out of a lobster. What is the biggest challenge the food industry needs to face?: Factory farming, and food waste. Also, how are all of these food companies going to work in the future? How are we also going to communicate with food? Nonfiction foods: How did you make it? Sitting in class and learning about eggs and that’s how it got started. We went through 100s and 100s of text messages about the names. Rejected names: the Shucking Truth Tips on Instagram: Hashtags, comment and talk to other food blog influencers. Who inspired you to get into food: To both, my family. Favorite quote book or kitchen item: Good Food Great Business by Susie Wyshak Favorite kitchen items: I want to buy a kitchen aid mixer. Also a garlic press Ingredient by Ali Bouzari What’s the best thing you’ve ever eaten?: Banana pudding from Magnolia Bakery. The pepperoni roll Jessica Goldstein The best thing about being a graduate student: The flexibility, the diverse classes, and meeting amazing people in the food industry The worst thing: Being poor, the blend of work-life balance, not enough time to prepare for your career sinc eit’s only a year Do you have any advice for anyone to go to graduate school?: Do an internship or work a bit so you have some direction. The application process is not easy and no streamlined. Always remember to keep trying and reach out to people. What’s the best way to contact you?: ceb364@cornell.edu mam795@cornell.edu Instagram: nonfiction foods 

I stumbled upon Stephanie’s podcast and discovered that her episode count was the same as mine. Curious, I checked out her site and her clean, bright, and crisp platform contrasted my dark, grimy and unartistic website. I sent her a quick email and got a response back, and here we are today. Stephanie is located in Charleston South Carolina and travels all over the southern United States to eat food and interview a diverse array of guests that invoke a southern flare. There are some differences between our podcasts. Stephanie does her podcast face to face. I barely do. Her podcast has no structure, mine as too much structure. Her podcast is about the fury of southern cooking, mine is about the calmness of a food lab. But the passion is still there. Stephanie and I talk about communicating via podcasting and writing, especially what the difference is between the two mediums. As a writer, we also discuss how to describe food, and we give some salivating examples in this episode. Overall, I had a blast with this episode. As you’ll see, it’s full of laughter and radiates with southern hospitality. Sponsor - Bakerpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods So let me pose this question to you food developers and R and D colleagues out there in Podcast land. Have you even run into a situation where you have marketing breathing down your neck to accomplish the impossible? I’ll bet. This is where my friends at Icon Foods can play a roll. Their ReformulateU initiative is in place and ready to help you reformulate with Clean Label Sugar Reduction in mind. Icon’s CEO Thom King was on one of my podcasts a while back and he literally wrote the book on cutting out sugar. His book Guy Gone Keto comes out in late March. If you are looking to cut down on your added sugars in your formulas and want a reliable supply chain partner in clean label sweeteners and ingredients look no further than Icon Foods. www.iconfoods.com or give them a call at 310-455-9876 Question Summary What do you do for a living?: I'm a Podcaster and writer Southern Fork: a podcast where I interview people in the south (culinary, expats, etc), I focus on the cultures and stories and profiles as chefs. I don’t review restaurants. I go to restaurants and make opinions on restaurants. I also write and the writing and the podcast work well together. Notable people: Merherwan Irani, Steve McHugh Podcasting versus writing: Do you pick out stuff from your podcast to put into your writing?: No, the interview allows me to get inspired and learn more about the chef. For example, I found out chef Steve McHugh had Leukemia from a couple minutes of interviewing with him and was able to get inspired by an article. Describe the Steps it took to get to where you are today: I’ve always been a writer and gravitated more towards food. When I was hired as a writer, I couldn’t get all the information I wanted. When I went freelance, I used the skills I was good at to create podcasts and long-form interviews Advice on freelancing: Reputation is the number one thing When I first started, I talked to my friends. My first 10 episodes were from my friends. I got better as I talked to my friends. As I got +90 episodes, I could go to a restaurant and ask “who reps them?” I can call the representatives and ask for the chef and I start to snowball based off of my guests Tips on making guests comfortable: Every podcast I listened to, I hope I speak less. I can only do two a day (I do these live). I don’t really know the nuance of the story. Everyone is different but we are used to our questioning as being a defensive mechanism. We’ve created an environment where we sincerely want to know why. The chef and culinary realm have a lot of profanity. My show is the one time we don’t need to clean it up. What is the most valuable thing you learned about podcasting: Podcasting is a new skill that made me stretch my comfort zone.  Advice on writing: don’t use drool-worthy or nom nom. The point of writing is to translate one sense to another sense. For example, translating taste to writing. Most of the time, relate to an experience or memory. Or describe the moment and environment and you can match it with the dish. FONA Flavor Course – Ancient Grain You can put connotation on descriptions. For example, icy can mean gritty like a slushy Umami – Sweet, Sour, Salty, Satisfaction Why does your food job rock?: I am so interested in the life of a chef Why do people like what they do base off of your interview on Southern Fork?: The need for approval. But also the compulsion of passion. The chef’s life is like being in an opera, golfing and a battle all at once. The best kitchens are completely silent. This is why there are more open kitchens.  What don’t you like about the front of the house in restaurants?: I want to feel comfortable when I eat. Service is super important. I don’t need bad service when plenty of restaurants have good service. Food trends: Done with Pork belly? A shift in service. The shift in service where the chef is giving you the dishes. It feels like you’re in somebody’s house. It heightens the experience I like off-menu item trends. For example, like a burger or soft serve ice cream or a surprise menu I like cured eggs shaved on salads, on top of fish dishes I like red wine: Mediterranean, Greek, Turkish. Wines that are getting on the list that are interesting and fun I like local/trash fish: Lion Fish, Tile Fish, Wahoo, Wreck Fish Tomorrow: Uni from Maine Adam’s pet peeve: eggs on top of things. Instagram,: #putaneggonit Also: deep fried pig ears. Charleston: Pig Ear Lettuce wrap What is something you’d like to know more about: Cheese! I give myself a task every year to learn to do something Who inspired you to get into food writing?: Charlotte Observer: Kathleen Pruvis. And John T Edge, director of the Southern Food Ways Alliance. Restaurants were part of the civil rights movement. David Wondrich (Esquire and Daily Beast) he looks at cocktails. Wayne Curtis in Rum Favorite Quote: Food people are the best people. If you can’t use butter, use cream. Julia Child Favorite Writing Technical Book: Will Write for Food (book and blog) that makes you understand the different types of writing mediums. Read the kind of articles you enjoy and want to contribute. (Eater versus Bon Appetit). Do chefs write recipes?: They write methods and batch things, but won’t translate it for single serving individuals  If you go pro, you have to go weight and scales What’s the best meal you’ve eaten recently?: One of my best friends moved to a new restaurant. He never was the head honcho. I ate his menu and I enjoyed him spreading his wings and I enjoyed it so much. Edmond’s Host (oust).  Food is really about pleasure memories What kind of advice would you give a freelancer in food media?: Save a lot of money. DON’T DO IT. In my world, it was inevitable. The writing world is very volatile and everything is cause and effect. If I didn’t have work, I would have to work in Food and beverage. Whenever a chef explains a dish, I wanted to ask so much more. You should read food articles for the structure to improve your writing. An average consumer will just absorb the news, you should absorb the structure. Where can we find you?: thesouthernfork.com. I’m on facebook, I’ve given up on twitter. Instagram @thesouthernfork

I met Ken when he commented on an article I posted. I think it was the one on how podcasting changed my life. Ken mentioned his experience podcasting in the food industry so we got to talking and decided to swap interviews. You can listen to my interview on Ken’s podcast on the show notes. Ken is what I like to call, an authority in the restaurant management industry. He’s had a restaurant for years,a nd then after selling it, he decided to take a more, teacher role. Ken doesn’t like the word consultant, but he has helped so many restaurant owners lower their cost and manage their dream. So in this interview, we learn some tips on how to become an authority in your space, but this is also a nice interview for people who are in the restaurant industry. You’ll learn the biggest problem with managing the restaurant industry, and even steps on how to sell a restaurants, and so much more. During our interview, Ken and I talk a lot about podcasting and blogging and I separated a good chunk of our interview and we’ll be turning it into a bonus episode later in the week. *NEW* Sponsor - Bakerpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods So let me pose this question to you food developers and R and D colleagues out there in Podcast land. Have you even run into a situation where you have marketing breathing down your neck to accomplish the impossible? I’ll bet. This is where my friends at Icon Foods can play a roll. Their ReformulateU initiative is in place and ready to help you reformulate with Clean Label Sugar Reduction in mind. Icon’s CEO Thom King was on one of my podcasts a while back and he literally wrote the book on cutting out sugar. His book Guy Gone Keto comes out in late March. If you are looking to cut down on your added sugars in your formulas and want a reliable supply chain partner in clean label sweeteners and ingredients look no further than Icon Foods. www.iconfoods.com or give them a call at 310-455-9876 What do you tell someone in a sentence or less?: I work with restaurants to get more business Barbeque Stopper – A word that makes everyone go silent, consultant, psycologist…. Food science I developed profitablehospitaility.com and posted blogs and podcasts onto the website Restaurant Owners are great at food, but they lack marketing and accounting skills. Ken has all of this as downloads How do you get people to find you?: Linkedin! I post frequently and people like it. It’s only been recently that I’ve used linkedin. I’ve been here quite a while. I’m available as a speaker and do workshops, which adds on. SEO is great too. Can you describe your ideal clinet/patients: I came from a  restaurant and a café background as an independent workshop. I ran workshops to gently tell people to get out of the restaurant business. You have to build a business with people who want to get going. How do you vet them: Money is a great filter. $40 dollar membership, $400 dollar call. Find a pain point, give value Steps it took to get to where you are today: I’ve always wanted to have a  café so I bought one in Sydney and grew it over 10 years. Bought another with a partner. Didn’t work out too well. Sold the café business. I sold the training side to the restaurant and hotels association. Then I consulted and was approached by Silver Chef and they bought the business. Why did you start a podcast?: I liked a podcast and I liked listening to them. I thought it would distinguish myself compared to the rest. Do you recommend any other podcasts?: History podcasts, business podcasts, BBC food program, Russian History podcasts, Hardcore History, Paul Barron Food Service authority in the US, Food Marketing Nerds (Wendy’s, Jersey Mikes) What are the common questions you get in the restaurant business?: Where do I find a chef? Why are my food costs so high why are my wages so high? Why is social media not working? You will get more engagement on articles trying to cut cost than to increase sale What advice can you give about cost?: Cloud based scheduling is cheap and easy to implement. And Cloud based point of sale system. Adopting technology is not about cost, but the struggle to understand it How do you teach people about technology?: Well it’s about stories. Great stories will convince people to adapt to technology. Especially if you mention if you save money. “If you want to get more people to listen, they need to hear cash register ring more” How do you sell a restaurant?: You need to control a lease and get it right. You will usually get a lease for 10-15 years. You have the right to do almost whatever you want with that lease. You also have to have it be easily ran. It has to be simple and people who want to buy businesses need to get it right away. What should someone do when they want to start a restaurant?: Get into the restaurant industry. Your college experience probably doesn’t cover it. Learn the ins and outs of a restaurant. There’s a very steep learning curve. Be there in the business 6 to 12 months Favorite Restaurant Concept: Grounds of Alexandria right next to the Sydney Airport Eataly World – FICO. A Theme park in Eataly What flavors are hot in Australia: Hot, big, spicy flavors such as Asian food. They also like to know more about where the food comes from Gelato Shops Hokey Poke – New Zealand flavors Unicorn Frappachino – worker complaints Tyler Cowan – Overrated or Underrated? Reid Hoffman – Masters of Scale GMO – good or bad? Bad Vegetarians good or bad. Good Social Media in marketing. Good or Bad? Good Robots/Automation? Good or Bad: Good Favorite Book: There’s a new three volume biography about Joseph Stalin. The Life of Stalin. What is the best food you’ve ever eaten?: An Indian restaurant called Malabar Any advice for anyone who wants to be a consultant: I talked to someone who consulted consultants. You gotta sell the benefit and pitch that you’ll make someone more money. “I’m going to cut your power cost and refrigeration” everyone wants it but must pay him to know the brand. Most consultants are too busy talking about themselves rather than tell them the benefits. Simple numbers work better, focus on dollar amounts rather than arbitrary percentages. Where can we find you?: I have a blog at kenburgin.au, profitablehospitality.com.au, Ken Burgin on Linkedin  

Sometimes you just browse the internet and you see a product that just is so noticeable that you have to take a look at it. This is Hugh Thomas’ company Ugly Drinks in a nutshell. A bright, light blue can with various bold flavors, and the U looks like a tongue, like it’s teasing you. Not only that, but Ugly Drink’s clever marketing campaign is eye catching and a bit tongue in cheek! Ugly Drinks was kind enough to give me some ads to show, which you can see on our website. Hugh posts regularly on linkedin promoting his company but does it in a way where I want to know more about his company. Success after success, funny ad after funny ad, I just loved the way his team is challenging the soft drink market! I had to have him on the show and I am so glad I did. Not only did I learn about the creativity in marketing and branding behind Ugly Drinks, but Hugh gave really clear, transparent advice to help the budding food entrepreneur excel to their level. So if you want to hear how to start and market a food company from the ground up, Hugh gives great tactical advice to do this! From choosing a manufacturer, to leaving your job, to getting into stores, and so much more. Soon to be launched in the United States around the time this podcast airs, keep an eye on these guys. Not because they’ll be dominating, I mean, they definitively might, but this company is just a fun, bright, brand, and I’m sure that if you follow them, they will take you for a wild ride *NEW* Sponsor - Bakerpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods So let me pose this question to you food developers and R and D colleagues out there in Podcast land. Have you even run into a situation where you have marketing breathing down your neck to accomplish the impossible? I’ll bet. This is where my friends at Icon Foods can play a roll. Their ReformulateU initiative is in place and ready to help you reformulate with Clean Label Sugar Reduction in mind. Icon’s CEO Thom King was on one of my podcasts a while back and he literally wrote the book on cutting out sugar. His book Guy Gone Keto comes out in late March. If you are looking to cut down on your added sugars in your formulas and want a reliable supply chain partner in clean label sweeteners and ingredients look no further than Icon Foods. www.iconfoods.com or give them a call at 310-455-9876 Question Summary When someone asks what you do for a living what do you tell in a sentence or less?: I try to build a rebellious healthy drink brand Ugly is a flavored sparkingling water with no artificial flavors. We stand for the ugly truth For example, we targeted Red Bull. Most sugary drinks have the same taglines. They talk about how it improves people’s lives but not their health. Have you gotten criticism on your aggressive ads?: No, people are very receptive. People should have choice and transparency How did you meet your cofounder?: Thomas and Joe met in a drink company. Thomas was in marketing, Joe was in sales. Originally had a still bottle drink but consumers wanted canned sparkling water. The first step was: how do we even make this? Called a lot of manufacturing facilities. A lot of people said “no” but eventually found one. How do you have people validate a food product?: Start small, make your own batches and go to farmer’s market. Once you see repeat basis, you have something. You can test on a farmer’s market or even online. How do you find a copacker?: To get a copacker to notice you, invest in a domain name and email, and a logo to show that you are legitimate. If they can’t help you, you have to follow up: “do you know anyone who can?”. This question helped a lot. The steps you took to get to where you are today: I finished university and started at Heinz brand management team. Then I joined a smaller startup as their first marketer and had to do everything. The brand grew massively (he met Rihanna!). I met my cofounder and left when the team had 60 people. What is the different in working in a big company versus small company?: I hated structure in a big company but I missed it in the small company. You should have a simple plan as too much structure will overbear you. For example: We aligned our team to do store demos and not big shows. This allowed us to focus and refine. As the team grows, you can improve structure. Doing store demos helped a ton with communicating the brand to people. How long did it take you to transition full time to Ugly?: Thomas and Joe came up with the idea in 2013. Thought it would take 2-3 months, took 18 months to start. 9-5 job and production fumbles, legal fees, etc caused some delays. Was there a concrete period where you had to quit?: You need a 3 month notice period. We had to talk to the CEO and he gave us his blessing. We did 3 month runway from leaving our jobs and getting into stores. How did you get into stores?: Joe had some connections, but sometimes you have to get into the trenches Why did people accept your project?: The UK wants to try new things. Our team is super energetic and have people give us a chance Lisa Tse I always thought London had terrible food: In the past, yes. In the last 4 years, the CPG industry has innovated in London. The supply chain got more interesting. Jamie Oliver also was a huge factor of making people more adventurous and health contious My Food Job Rocks: The best feeling is seeing someone with your product walking down the street with someone. What do you look for in your first couple of employee?: Passion matters more. IQ and EQ matters a ton. Lots of varying skill sets. What type of food trends and tehcnologies are exiting right now?: Online commerce. There will be a lot of food that will be sold online. Plant based protein will also be popular because it’s appealing to all eaters. It’s better for your body and better for the world. Cold brew coffee and kombucha is exploding in the UK What is the best social media space for food brands?: Instagram and Facebook. Your website needs to be set up to handle the user experience. Have them “go into the funnel” What is the biggest challenge the food industry has to face?: The food industry needs to understand how the digital world works What is one thing in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: Microbiology! It would help me sleep better at night. We are creating products, they need to be safe. Who inspired you to get into food?: I’ve always loved how brands affect people. I’m excited in how my brand gave impact. What type of brands do you admire?: Hippeas and RXBar What makes a great marketing campaign?: You have to understand the consumer and understand what that consumer’s like Romancing the Brand Favorite Quote: You’re the average of the 5 people that you spend the most time with Favorite Book: The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday Favorite Kitchen Item: Toaster Other books by Ryan Holiday’s Growth Hacker Marketing, Ego is the Enemy, Perennial Seller Favorite Meal: Surprised my mom for lunch at The River Café in London. Jaime Oliver learned to cook there. It’s the people you’re with that matters. Any advice for food entrepreneurs?: Be patient and don’t spend money. Also really think a lot about your brand and vision. Where can we find you?: email me at hugh@uglydrinks.com, @uglyhugh, at linkedin How about Ugly?: We’re launching in the US early 2018! You can find us anywhere. Talk to us at hello@uglydrinks.com. We want to pay it forward.

I met Dr. Sarah Ramirez in my last year in college. She was a temporary lecturer for Cal Poly and she enjoyed learning about the extracurriculars around the department, so I immediately thought she was cool. Soon, I took one of her classes about Food Waste and we’ve been friends ever since. She might be the only professor I had in Cal Poly that I see on a semi-regular basis and that’s mainly because she lives really close to my grandma’s house in the Central Valley! I’ve been keeping tabs on Sarah’s company, Foodlink, an innovative food bank in Tulare county, which is housed in one of the poorest American counties. Sometimes, I’ve helped a few times gleaning kiwis and lecturing about spices. I’ve seen Foodlink grown from a small food bank to a huge facility that has its own kitchen and hosts events to inform people on how to feed the community. Sarah’s drive and mission to feed the world is absolutely contagious. There are A LOT OF emotional truth bombs in this episode and it is just so inspiring listening to Sarah. She has the ability to make you care about the people she’s feeding. A big thing you’ll notice about Sarah is that she likes to break stereotypes no matter what. Whether it’s her life as a child, or rising up the ranks in Stanford, or what she’s current;y doing in the food bank industry! Sarah is a truly inspiring figure with a heart of gold. *NEW* Sponsor - Bakerpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business.  Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods So let me pose this question to you food developers and R and D colleagues out there in Podcast land. Have you even run into a situation where you have marketing breathing down your neck to accomplish the impossible? I’ll bet. This is where my friends at Icon Foods can play a roll. Their ReformulateU initiative is in place and ready to help you reformulate with Clean Label Sugar Reduction in mind. Icon’s CEO Thom King was on one of my podcasts a while back and he literally wrote the book on cutting out sugar. His book Guy Gone Keto comes out in late March. If you are looking to cut down on your added sugars in your formulas and want a reliable supply chain partner in clean label sweeteners and ingredients look no further than Icon Foods. www.iconfoods.com or give them a call at 310-455-9876 Questions to ask How do we elevate the voices of the community we serve? Summary Best thing about your job: A mission driven organization. Putting together ateam that believes food can change the world. Food banks are about 30-40 years old. A time where there was an increased amount of poverty What has been the traditional method for food banks to get funded?: One misconception is that the government thinks foodbanks are completely funded. However, foodbanks still need multiple sources of funding, but still needs sustainable methods of funding. Less than 25%. The Celebrity Champions model works well in cities but won’t work in Tulare County Sara’s history: I never thought I’d be a food bank director. I started with community health and went from there. I saw a lot of people that became ill. I began to ask many questions about how to feed people and began to become an interdisciplinary learner. I became a director of Foodlink due to supporting it in the past and I found I could use all of the skills I learned to impact more people and make a difference. How do you take initiative on things?: Sometimes, when you get so obsessed with things, you have to dig deeper. I was frustrated, and sometimes you get so frustrated, you have to do something about it. There is no other option but there is no place I’d rather be. Problems with food equity: Work with food service directors. Recipe development, buy food in bulk and provide it to schools. There are a lot of barriers to this and it’s a new sector, so we need a solution My Food Job Rocks: I love breaking barriers and breaking stereotypes in the food bank industry What type of Food Trends and Technologies are really exciting you right now?: Social enterprise food trends. For example, youth run cafes are developing their own locally sourced recipes. Or creating cafes that develop job security. I thought I was insane with my ideas before I went to this thing and now I don’t feel alone The biggest challenge the food industry has to face: Food waste. I’ve studied this for several years and it’s been recently put into more important Who inspired you to get into food? Was it a specific person?: I remember asking my mom to make food from magazine but we couldn’t afford or know the ingredients used to create the dishes Favotie Kitchen Item: Food Processor (which I didn’t buy until way later) Favorite Book: Currently Big Hunger Favorite Food: Sometimes I just like what’s fresh and simple The hardest challenge about managing a food bank: Put into a box of stereotypes. I’m learning a lot of new skills to face the challenges in Tulare county What do you recommend people who want to take the non-profit route?: Focus on collaboration. We all try to do a lot with the limited resources that we have What’s been the most rewarding thing about being in a non-profit?: Be thankful for the experiences that you have any time. People will tell you that their dreams came through because of you Where can we find you?: Facebook. sarah@foodlinktc.org. We accept volunteers Other Links SLOW Food LA Kitchen Robert Edgar Closing the Hunger Gap in Seattle Food Sovereignty project in Maine that focused on food got state wide attention Si Se Puede

Back in November, I saw posts from Dino Borri on Linkedin and all this buzz about opening Eataly’s newest location in Los Angeles. Conveniently, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to message him saying if I could interview him at the spot. It turned out, I was able to go to Eataly, take a tour of the fantastic new LA location, interview Dino, and did such a good job, I ate the heck out of their food. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods So let me pose this question to you food developers and R and D colleagues out there in Podcast land. Have you even run into a situation where you have marketing breathing down your neck to accomplish the impossible? I’ll bet. This is where my friends at Icon Foods can play a roll. Their ReformulateU initiative is in place and ready to help you reformulate with Clean Label Sugar Reduction in mind. Icon’s CEO Thom King was on one of my podcasts a while back and he literally wrote the book on cutting out sugar. His book Guy Gone Keto comes out in late March. If you are looking to cut down on your added sugars in your formulas and want a reliable supply chain partner in clean label sweeteners and ingredients look no further than Icon Foods. www.iconfoods.com or give them a call at 310-455-9876 Key Takeaways What Eataly means to Italian food What makes each Eataly location unique How Purchasing vets their 25,000 SKUs Show Notes Eataly is all about Susbtainability What is your official job title?: VP of Purchasing, but titles dn’t matter in Eataly What’s the best thing about your job?: We create a lot of jobs in the United States. We also support a lot of small business products How do you find new vendors? We go out and they also go to us. We have a blind taste for all of our products. They use a simple ranking system. The food has to be Good, Clean and Fair. The History of Eataly SLOW Food Philosophy - a movement Mr. Oscar Farinetti, the founder of Eataly who wants to combine Italy Food and Retail Used to be called Eat Italy Opened in Italy to start (duh) Then the Tokyo Location 5 more stores in Italy New York Location (Aug 31st 2010) 40 stores in 2017. Finally in Los Angeles Possible next locations: Las Vegas, Toronto maybe Phoneix (haha) Launching Eataly World in Bolongna November 15th Eataly world 65 acres of Italian food. Has FICO – Italian farmer production Why do people like Eatlay so much?: We deliver the experience. Every location is different. When you walk, you feel like you’re in an Italian market. Differences in Eataly Every location is a mix of products. What’s different in Japan’s Eataly? We use soy sauce and tofu. Los Angeles has more Vegan and local Fish products Claifornia Wine Flour is sold locally. We want to use local ingredients What is your favorite food event or expo?: The town of Bra, Cheese event in Italian 30000 people. All the cheese mongers in the world for 4 days How did you get into Eataly?: I worked for SLOW Food and my boss Carl Petrini knew the owner of Eataly El Bulli Dino had a dream of going to New York, and he opened the Eataly store in new York El Bulli will create a class Did you have any experience in purchasing or was it all there?: I had to learn it on my own Any advice for quality products versus cheap products?: It’s easy to buy the best product, but it’s hard to afford the best product. I need to find good food for everybody. Our system makes it easier for smaller businesses to get to our market. Our job in Eataly is to deliver good food to the store. Why does your food job rocks?: Food has become cool. In the past, food was a common person’s job. Now food is important. We have to take care of the earth What type of Food Trends are you interested?: We want labels that say “not organic”. Also, the certification is too harsh for small businesses. GMO Good or bad?: Bad Gluten-Free: It depends. I love pasta and pizza but I don’t overeat. We should enjoy food. Clean Meat: We need to eat meat. But we should eat less meat Sustainability: Everything should be sustainable The biggest Challenge the food industry has to face?: Food Waste. We produce food for a lot of people but a million people still go hungry. Eataly is almost 0% waste and we give food away. What is one thing you’d like to know more about?: Other food cultures. Whenever we open a new store, I discover a new culture. What’s a new favorite cuisine?: Whenever ask people what’s my favorite, I tell people I haven’t found my favorite yet. Whatever reminds me about my roots. What do you recognize when you eat your home town food?: Raw meat at my home town Bra. A local cheese from Bra  mixed with tomato. Who inspired you to get into food?: Carlo Petrini was in my hometown and he inspired me. I started working for him at 14 year old. I met people like Michael Pollan Why did the owner like you?: I got lucky. I was born in the right place and met the right people. I was part of the University of Gastronomy. We hire a lot of people there. (is this like food science?) Favorite Quote: We are what we eat, don’t eat sh*t Favorite Kitchen Item: Knife. I eat raw food so I like to cut. I have knives from Japan and Brookyln Any advice for anyone who wants to go into your industry?: When you’re in the food business, you’re feeding people. You’re in the ecosystem. Study a little bit. Where can we find you if you want to be found?: You can go to our website and contact our buyers. We will blind taste your product. Eataly SKU’s: 25,000 in the United States. The Los Angeles SKU has 15-18,000 SKUs.  

In most of my recent interviews, when I ask about technology, I’m always hearing about Clean Meat! So when I saw that there was an actual book coming out on the topic, I used my awesome network to get the author, Paul Shapiro. I have to give my thanks to Ken Botts for kindly hooking me up with this awesome interview. Paul Shapiro is an animal rights advocate who has taken an interest in Clean Meat as a powerful technology to save the world. Think of this episode as a very technical summary for Paul’s book, clean meat, with added science geekiness. After the interview, I bought the book and read it and the topics in this podcast reflect the surface of If you’re really interested in Clean Meat from this interview, I highly recommend reading Shapiro’s book as it goes in depth on a lot of topics we’re talking about. So all of your answers about Clean Meat will be answered in this episode. Including why we’re naming it clean meat, the technology used, opposition to clean meat, and the role you as food scientists can play as this technology scales up. To buy Paul Shapiro's book, Clean Meat, click this link. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods What’s worse than marketing saying, ‘we have to clean up these sugars?’ They want clean label sugar reduction because that’s the trend. So I advise you to skate to where the puck is going. Whether it’s to make your product a bit healthier or following the ever-changing FDA laws, my friends at Icon Foods – formerly Steviva Ingredients – are here to help. They have more than 20 years of R&D experience with natural sweeteners and sweetening systems in a wide range of applications. With a product list of twenty different sweeteners and plug-in sweetening systems that keeps growing, you can’t go wrong. Check out stevivaingredients.com to learn about the newest all-natural sweetener solutions and collaboration opportunities. For more information, visit ICON foods at ICONfoods.com Questions Asked How Clean Meat Started Why the name Clean Meat is used Clean Meat being cleaner than regular meat as Clean Meat is technically going to be very clean ground meat (sterile environment) How clean meat is made and the new technology being used to grow meat A talk on how microbial fermentation is working in this industry Open Source versus proprietary information Opposition on Clean meat Why hardcore vegans don’t like Clean Meat Will Clean Meat be sneaking in or be publicized heavily? How is this different 10 or 20 years ago How can food scientists help the Clean Meat Revolution? What kind of Universities are working on Clean Meat? (not what you think) Can I make Clean Meat in my Garage? You’ve tasted a ton of clean products, how do they fare right now? What is missing? What do you wish to accomplish with your book? What is one statement you’d like to make to convince people to buy clean meat? Other Links Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World $300,000 dollar burger in 2013 Mark Post - Creator of the first lab grown burger Peter Verstrata - Founder of Mosa Meats Sergey Brin – Founder of Google Elon Musk Memphis Meats Bill Gates Cargill #eatfortheplanet podcast with Paul Shapiro GFI - Good Food Institute  Why call it Clean Meat? Other names: In Vitro Meat, Test Tube Meat, Cultured Meat Clean Meat Website Michael Jacobson – Founder of Science and Public Interest. Campaigned about food additives Biopsy Sattellite Cells Fetal Bovine Serum Hampton Creek: Proprietary plant scanning technology using machine learning Geltor – commercialized gelatin Microbial Fermentation and making animal byproducts Microbiol Technology: Collagen, Leather, Egg Whites, Xanthan Gum Company: Modern Meadow Marie Gibbons - MG1 Turkey Cells The more meat you eat, the more likely you’ll like clean meat (or meat analogs) Mixing mushrooms with ground meat Meat Breweries Harvard Cellular Agriculture  Tufts – Cellular Agriculture UC Berkley focus on plant based proteins Smithfield and Sara Lee Israel clean meat startups Perfect Day Yuval Noah Harari – Sapiens Natural Ice versus Artificial Ice Canon vs Kodak. Canon had to transform itself to get ahead Maple Leaf Food Lite Life Field Roast  

So this is kinda cool, if you recall our very first episode, we interviewed Nicole, and now, artistically timed, we interview her after 100 episodes. This episode is a bit different because it’s a return guest, and it’s much more conversational. Especially because Nicole and I know each other well, and talk fairly frequently A lot of podcasts do this, especially those with the same networks. I actually find these episodes really enjoyable because it’s like two friends having a conversation about life. I hope you find the discussion we have warm and inviting. However, we do bring up some really cool topics of discussion. We start off with a discussion on social media, then we reminisce about the growth of both Foodgrads and My Food Job Rocks. However, I would say the most important topic in this episode is about how scientists can communicate better, and what part Nicole and I play in this. Key Takeaways Nicole and I discuss the journey of growing our projects The debate on what to support in science How to get noticed on social media Other Links Linkedin Foodstirs Guelph University 3 to 5 years of industry experience is a good area where people can relate to Young people think they’re either too special or not good enough Imposter Syndrome - Nobody feels like an expert Gary Vaynerchuk Spoon University Lin Carson Bakerpedia Katie Jones Zooey Deschenel Elenor Batalini A blog is not a scientific paper Jessica Gavin

- Canadian actress, choreographer & personal trainer MJ Shaw launches her fitness-based cardio-dance program called #FITPOPdance! Learn more: https://www.fitpopdance.com/ - Author Julie Fitz-Gerald on writing a book about her sister - learn more about #RISE: The Jessica Phoenix Story here: https://www.juliefitz-gerald.com/books http://www.roar-group.com - A Liam Neeson movie set on the #TTC? Film critic Anne Brodie​ may be on to something - don't miss the latest movie/TV reviews every Saturday at Noon on 105.9 The Region​: http://bit.ly/1Plalmw - Aloha! Lifestyle expert Listen to Lena​ on her Disney Aulani​ experience & why you need to go - learn more: http://www.listentolena.com http://www.disneyaulani.com - HR Professional Nicole Gallace tells us how http://www.FoodGrads.com is helping close the gap between recent graduates and the food and beverage industry. - Toronto/Montreal based singer/songwriter Avery Florence performs 'Fly' in our LIVE #StudioSessions - https://www.averyflorence.com SUBSCRIBE to What She Said & never miss an interview! http://www.youtube.com/WhatSheSaidTalk Miss a show? Stream & download full shows for free on iTunes: http://www.apple.co/1U700c0 Follow us on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @WhatSheSaidTalk Website: http://www.whatshesaidtalk.com What She Said! aims to inspire and uplift women by giving them a voice in pursuing their professional and personal goals through showcasing successful women across Canada and by creating opportunities for others to do the same. Tune in Saturdays & Sundays at Noon on 105.9 The Region or listen live: http://www. www.1059theregion.com

I’ll be talking about this episode in three different sections: One will be about how we produce this podcast, two will be a sort of overview of the most common answers our 100ish guests have given on My Food Job Rocks, and the last part will be about what we plan to do for our future.     Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods What’s worse than marketing saying, ‘we have to clean up these sugars?’ They want clean label sugar reduction because that’s the trend. So I advise you to skate to where the puck is going. Whether it’s to make your product a bit healthier or following the ever-changing FDA laws, my friends at Icon Foods – formerly Steviva Ingredients – are here to help. They have more than 20 years of R&D experience with natural sweeteners and sweetening systems in a wide range of applications. With a product list of twenty different sweeteners and plug-in sweetening systems that keeps growing, you can’t go wrong. Check out stevivaingredients.com to learn about the newest all-natural sweetener solutions and collaboration opportunities. For more information, visit ICON foods at ICONfoods.com I’ll be talking about this episode in three different sections: One will be about how we produce this podcast, two will be a sort of overview of the most common answers our 100ish guests have given on My Food Job Rocks, and the last part will be about what we plan to do for our future. So let’s start with how this podcast was made. Podcasting technology is pretty cheap. You can get an ATR mic for $70 dollars, audacity software for free, MP3 Skype recorder for free, Skype for free,  and hosting for about $10-20 dollars a month. I’ve had this for almost all 100 episodes but we will most likely invest in some other software very soon. One of the things I purchased recently, is wavve.co software which converts audio clips to video clips which I find pretty cool. Again, setup for podcasting is super cheap but it does take some skill to improve. You eventually get into a rut when recording, editing, and publishing episodes and it wasn’t until episode 80ish where I wanted to really analyze how to improve. I paid a radio coach about $100 dollars to evaluate two episodes: an interview and a monologue and I got some really great insight on how my audio sounded and I dunno if you guys have noticed, but the entrances are a bit more dynamic. Speaking of past episodes, I recently listened to episode 000 and it was terrible. I sounded really boring. It’s recently been replaced with a more modern version. Check it out! I also noticed while digging up clips for the intro, that I zoomed through the intros so fast. Wow, I hate listening to my past self! But if you’ve been here since the beginning, then you’ve seen the improvements. In the things I do, I try as hard as possible to get user feedback and this is why I love using surveys. I used surveys to get responses from the Arizona Section IFT and got some very valuable feedback using this method. Giving away prizes helps a ton with getting people to fill out the survey. For those who filled out a survey, thank you! Throughout the podcast, I’ll talk about things I’ve noticed but one very particular one is the audio quality, which scored low and got some interesting comments. Many didn’t like the inconsistency of audio and some people say that it’s not very car friendly. I also got one saying I make too many mouth noises. Haha, I love it! So over time, we’ll be upgrading the sound quality of My Food Job Rocks and this is going to be a learning experience in my end. There are a lot of youtube videos that teach you some cool stuff so I’ll try that. Right now, it’s current episodes, but I wouldn’t mind doing this for all of our episodes eventually. So as everyone knows, I have a full time job and I have to schedule these things before or after work. This isn’t too bad as my job is decently flexible and timezones are awesome. Guests are told to sign up using a free app called calendly.com and then I send them a list of questions about 3 days before hand. When we do the interview, I get them and I warmed up and then we begin with asking the first question, which is a general “how do you introduce yourself?”. As you might have noticed, the episodes are getting longer and longer. The amount of questions haven’t changed, but how I asked questions have changed. I’m sure you realized that I now ask more questions to get a better understanding of the guest and really try to dig up some great advice. This is just a skill I developed with practice but it’s made the podcast a lot better when it comes to getting advice. Or so I think so. Through the survey, I received a lot of feedback that maybe an hour an episode is too long. I’ve debated about this for a while and I’ve decided this: Starting at maybe the 110th episode, we’ll still have hour long podcasts, but it’s going to be segmented into two parts, a general inquiry and a lightning round questionnaire at the mid-point of the episode. I want the most important info at the first 30 minutes and give structured opinions at the end of the episode. So for example, most of the great stories about career advice will happen at the beginning of the podcast and opinions about technology, favorite books, etc, will be at the end. I know this is not ideal for people who want to finish things from start to finish, but to be honest, I am a huge believer of long-form content. We need more long-form sources of content in the world. I think that really separates the people who like to absorb information and actually learn from My Food Job Rocks. Tim Ferriss, Tom Bilyeu, and other interview based podcasts give some amazing insights that take an hour long, but I learn so much and I feel like a 30 minute talk between guests really devalues my time with them, their time with them, and of course, your time with them. So after I get an audio file, I put it on my backup and it’s added to the list of podcast guests, or a google drive. Usually, we have around 5 to 10 episodes in stock because interviewing is really enjoyable for me. Last year, I tried doing 2 episodes a week, but it really killed me doing so. All of my time was devoted doing podcasts! That was when we switched to more article-writing content when I realized my time was being eaten up doing twice a week. So for a 1 hour podcast, it takes 3 hours to do. We first record it, that takes an hour, then I have to edit it, which involves listening to the podcast and through real time, write, pause, and edit the show. I find this a really enlightening process because I’m absorbing the most information through this step. I not only get to learn about my guests, but write notes in which I can eventually apply it to my life. A lot of the advice I’ve gotten from my guests have made me a happier and healthier food scientist. Because it takes 2 months to revisit the podcast, it’s like reviewing a brand new episode. Uploading and copy pasting it on the website takes about 30 minutes of work, and I blast it out on facebook, twitter, and linkedin. I use these platforms because these are where my guests live. A lot of younger food scientists. Or business owners use facebook to share my content. Twitter is great for the people who use it such as Logan or David Despain. Linkedin is my powerhouse and I meet most of my guests there. Most of my viewerships, thank-you notes and things of that nature come from linkedin. And that’s kind of my process on the podcast. Again, doesn’t take too much of my time. So now let’s go to part two. Talking about the most common and interesting questions on the podcast (We go more in depth in the podcast) Questions that were scrappedMore focused on asking better questions in the beginning What’s your favorite food? Something inspiring Where will you be in 5 years? Who inspired you to get into food? Important SkillsPassion Curiosity Emotional Intellegence/Empathy Always keep learning Books I’ve read thanks to my guests The Alchemist Radical Candor A More Beautiful Question Books that are insanely popular On Food and Cooking Anything by Malcom Gladwell Modernist Cuisine Kid’s books: Give a mouse a cookie, swallow a fly, Oh the Places you will go Other Books I Mention So Good They Can't Ignore You Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and a Quest for an Amazing Future Clean Meat Quotes that were popular Crazies by Steve Jobs The Man in the Arena by Theodore Roosevelt Kitchen Items that were popular Kitchen Aid Vitamix Knives (especially chefs) Spoons of sorts Technology that is really popular 3D Printing and then it stopped Alternative Meats Clean Label Super specific: Baking technology and Whole Genome Processing Problems that the industry needs to faceFeeding the World Communication is a big one General Advice on Being in the Food IndustryFind your passion Your Network is your net worth Love what you do Try everything   Let’s talk about the future So base don the survey, the results were pretty cool. I bounced some ideas around about free things we can do, and also some avenues where you would pay for things. For free things, I want to try different media platforms. I’m already experiencing with short videograms that are kinda cool. I also want to try and get an inclusive group going either on facebook or linkedin. I’ve been noticing through my posting on linkedin, a lot of other people are telling their story Thank you everyone for also filling out the daring question on what type of things you would buy from us if given the chance. We’re carefully taking things into consideration and I have an idea where this will go. Ideally, I’d like to launch this mid year. So next year, we have more interviews, and it will be a mix of things you like, things I like, but I’ll be focusing on more technical experts. From the data I’ve gathered, I want to really dive into technology that is really changing the industry. To do this, I’ve tapped into some of my guest’s networks so you’ll be getting some really cool discussions on the topic of let’s say lab grown meat or geospatial technology. It’s thanks to a strong relationship I have with my previous guests, that I have this opportunity, and they will be thanked as the episodes roll out. Other than that, better podcasts, more articles from guests, maybe more services, and perhaps something completely new. Overall, the big question is what does My Food Job Rocks stand for? I think this will change every year, but I’ve always stood by this philosophy. Everyone has a story to tell, and the people in the food industry are no different. My Food Job Rocks is a platform for people in the food industry to not only tell their story, but have the ability to encourage people to tell their story. I’ve been finding this out more frequently as we continue to post consistently on linkedin. People are inspired, and people are talking. This will always be our main focus here, to give you the ability to tell your story and inspire others to do the same.

As some of you know, whenever I’m sent for business, I try my best to meet with people wherever I can. This time, it took me to Chicago. So I took a few days off and asked if I could come into the IFT office in the heart of Chicago. I talked to a few people on staff due to my role as Chair of the Cactus IFT section, but I also was able to get an amazing interview with two IFT employees. Karen Nachey and Jay Gilbert. Fun fact, I worked with Jay as an undergrad in college. So a main theme in this interview is food science, how we all found it, and more importantly, how IFT can help you as a food scientist. As you know, IFT has a variety of tools for food scientist and Jay and Karen break down how to use these resources. We talk about webinars, the best way to take your time on Expos, the Food Evolution movie, the really cool things happening with IFT Next, everything IFT is in this episode. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods What’s worse than marketing saying, ‘we have to clean up these sugars?’ They want clean label sugar reduction because that’s the trend. So I advise you to skate to where the puck is going. Whether it’s to make your product a bit healthier or following the ever-changing FDA laws, my friends at Icon Foods – formerly Steviva Ingredients – are here to help. They have more than 20 years of R&D experience with natural sweeteners and sweetening systems in a wide range of applications. With a product list of twenty different sweeteners and plug-in sweetening systems that keeps growing, you can’t go wrong. Check out stevivaingredients.com to learn about the newest all-natural sweetener solutions and collaboration opportunities. For more information, visit ICON foods at ICONfoods.com   Key Takeaways How Karen, Jay and I found out about food science Info on webinars, IFT's Expo, IFT Next, and plenty of other IFT tidbits Cookbooks, how to get recipes, and how we use cookbooks differently Question Summary Best thing about your job: Jay- Working with experts everywhere in the food industry. IFT has 190 passionate volunteers Karen – Researching and writing about new food ingredients. It’s very interesting to learn something new When was the first time you learn about food science?: Karen – My roommate told me about it. My roommate actually switched into food science. Jay – I wanted to go into culinary school and went on a tour about food science. Went to Massachusetts. For IFT, I was a volunteer since I was a freshman and rose through the ranks thoughout my college career. This opportunity to came up and I took it. How do most people find out about food science?: Most people find that it’s a love of food. But even basic sciences anywhere can be applied to food science. You either find out about it early, fall into food science, or someone tells you about it later in life What is the most important skillset in the food industry?: Curiosity, Willing to learn new things. Food industry is constantly changing. Communication skills, especially now, with the complexity of talking about food, we want to arm food scientists with the power of knowledge. Keep envolving. How you and the work that you do matters. How to have scientists present their research Volunteer Leadership training – Telling your story. Recorded at: http://www.ift.org/community/new-professionals/emerge-live.aspx What other resources does IFT use?: Webinars, IFT expo. You have the opportunity to talk to IFT any time to ask what you want them to do for you. Just contact info@ift.org How can you optimize your IFT Expo experience?: First off, plan ahead. Don’t segment yourself to one specific thing. Spend your day to “taste the buffet”, such as seminars, show floor, and the mixers Online directory, print directory of things Also check out the ELN Emerging Leaders network Also check out the Food Evolution movie On Transparency: Food is more controversial and mainstream. IFT is trying to educate consumers and food scientists to communicate together IFT Next: Startup focused section. Big initiative from Ingredion. We look for startups who will disrupt the food industry and we want to support them. The most beneficial part of the program was for these startups building their network Food Disruptor Challenge – Startups who will be competing Shark Tank style Digital improvements to IFT – Virtual webinars, or 1 page digital pdfs. We’re looking at a bunch of opportunities. Have more TED Talk like opportunities What type of food trends and technologies?: Karen: Flavor trends and Clean Label. It’s everywhere! Clean label tips for Adam Pumpkin Spice Latte might be trending out. Maple might be taking its place S’mores Cold Bew Coffee Flavor House email lists VR and Augmented Reality will change the game.SPIN class changes with Augmented Reality Innova and Fonterra both utilized Virtual Reality The biggest problem the food industry has to face: Social Media and everyone can talk about anything. As scientists, how do we communicate the right things properly? Not to divide, but to collaborate If you want to be a food communicator, contact IFT and we will connect you to a program. info@IFT.org Who inspired you to get into food?: Jay – My Grandma. Karen- I fell in love with food when I was actually studying food science. When I was a kid, I wanted to make soup and I started dumping spices What got you involved in IFT: Jay – As a young kid, I joined my local food science club and my advisor pushed me to get more and more involved in IFT. For Karen, one of her professors got her involved. Shoutout to professors: Dr. Lathrop, Dr. Sam Gugen and Dr. Julie Goddard Favorite Kitchen Item: Karen – Vitamix. Jay – Kitchen Aid Favorite Books: On Food and Cooking, Flavor Bible, Ratio Favorite Food: Karen – What’s the best thing you ever ate?: Lenya Brava Baja California restaurant. Butterflied Striped Bass cooked on an open flame. 4 different sauces. Jay – Phuket Thailand’s Tomyum Penauts and Tomyum Soup. Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to go into the food industry?: Find your passion and take a holistic approach to the industry. Food Science has an opportunity for everyone. Find a professor you can lean on, always be willing to learn something new. What do you think you need to learn to get you more prepared for the workplace?: Try different things, start networking. Who you know is really important. Get out of your shell and just talk to people. They are definitively willing to help. Where can we find you?: Jay Gilbert: Social Media or email: jgilbert@ift.org Karen : IFT flagship magazine food technology. Ingredients Section

Hey everyone, just a quick note before the episode begins. We have a survey up for My Food Job Rocks that will help us plan for 2018. We need your input on how we’re doing so far, and we also have some really cool ideas we want you to approve in 2018. For your efforts completing this monster 40 question survey, we will be offering a chance to win an Amazon Echo. I just got one, they make your life a lot easier. Just go to myfoodjobrocks.com/survey I met David before joining Isagenix during my first meeting in Cactus IFT, the Arizona section of IFT. When I interviewed at Isagenix about a year later, I said “wait, I know you” Over time, David and I have become best coworkers and we talk about food, travel, IFT leadership stuff, and developing cool products for Isagenix. David is passionate about many things. Nutrition, exercise science, traveling, nature and of course, food science. He is a writer, or rather, a writer who manages other writers. However, as an avid learner, David decided to get his Certified Food Scientist certification after being heavily involved in IFT. Whether you’re interested in the CFS certification or not, we talk about the whole process and what it takes to become one including some insider and candid tips for success. Since David is a science writer, we also talk about how to write well, and where to find information to write about. For example, some websites and organizations have more credibility than others, and the source that not many people know about, happens to be nutrition conferences! About David David Despain, MS, CFS, is a science and health writer, a nutritionist, and a budding Certified Food Scientist who is based in Gilbert, Arizona. David has had over a decade of experience being involved in the world of food and nutrition yet he only recently earned his CFS credential from the Institute of Food Technologists in August 2017. He’s currently the Director of Science Communications within the Research and Development Department at Isagenix, a health-and-wellness company. Previously, David has also written for various publications about food and nutrition including Food Technology magazine, American Society for Nutrition’s Nutrition Notes Daily, Outside Online, and Scientific American Online. Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor – ICON Foods What’s worse than marketing saying, ‘we have to clean up these sugars?’ They want clean label sugar reduction because that’s the trend. So I advise you to skate to where the puck is going. Whether it’s to make your product a bit healthier or following the ever-changing FDA laws, my friends at Icon Foods – formerly Steviva Ingredients – are here to help. They have more than 20 years of R&D experience with natural sweeteners and sweetening systems in a wide range of applications. With a product list of twenty different sweeteners and plug-in sweetening systems that keeps growing, you can’t go wrong. Check out stevivaingredients.com to learn about the newest all-natural sweetener solutions and collaboration opportunities. For more information, visit ICON foods at ICONfoods.com Key Takeaways How David became a part-time stock broker The best place to find quality nutrition news How David started to develop a passion for science writing from an English Professor Question Summary Cal Poly Professors: Dr. Amy Lammert and Dr. Robert Kravets Prep course IFT2017 When someone asks what you do for a living: I’m a nutritionist who works for R+D and head a team of nutritionists that educate the consumer Best Thing about Your Job: To learn something new every day Nutrition Conferences Exercise Science Conferences Describe the path that got to where you are today: I studied Biology. Got a MS in Nutrition Science. Found out how Nutrition Science had a lot of conflicting views. Got interested in Nutrition Science first, then Exercise Science, then Food Science! How did David get involved in Food Science?: Chair of the Cactus IFT person asked David to create the newsletter. Then David was hired on as a writer in IFT Notes on the CFS Course Was a 2 year process I attended 2 CFS short courses I read all of the textbooks, and I had a challenge with Food Engineering The test was a lot harder than I thought, but I passed I argued with Adam about the questions I memorized a whole lot of equations and the test didn’t have many equations Most questions had to do with problem solving. You had to know what you knew and solve a problem Some questions all sound correct but one was “most correct” Questions on the practice test were not the same! However, they were useful to getting me to practice. The organizers said to read the questions but not memorize the answers If you were to tell someone who was about to take the test some advice, what would you tell them?: I came from a nutrition background, so it’d be helpful to be in a food science background. Also, a lot of people overthink the test Was it worth it?: Yes! CFS resources: One is always in IFT, there is an online CFS course On writing well: Writing is a learning experience. If you find stuff online, write about it. Even in podcasting, you have to research more When assigning something, ask to write 10 things about a subject Where do you recommend to get more valuable information?: Food Science and Technology. Nielson, Mintel. Scientific American, Outside Magazine As a writer in Nutrition, it’s important to understand that Nutrition is a process My Food Job Rocks: I get to learn every single day Food Technology: Sports Nutrition and segmenting nutritional plans based on activity, Nutrient Timing, New ways of finding ways of having people eat their vegetables in burgers of bars Taking kale and using it in different applications What’s one thing about the food industry you’d like to know more about?: I want to look more into what I read studying for the CFS exam. Also brewery, and dairy Dr. Michael Kolgan Generalist vs Specialist Innovation: combining 2 different topics Favorite Quote: Richard Dawkins: Science writers are the soldiers against Ignorance Best meal you ever ate: I just spent 3 weeks in Argentina. They cook stew in a plow disc. It’s the best feeling in the winter. Lamb Stew on a Disc. Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to get into the health and wellness industry?: A degree in Food Science or Nutrition is helpful, but you can also get it from the Marketing end and the Manufacturing end. David Despain is mostly on twitter: @daviddespain Other Links Certified Food Scientist Product Development Product Education “Waffling” High Pressure Processing Alex Hutchinson Villifying sugar Maltodextrin Aspartame GMOs Omega 3 Omega 6 RCTs Patagonia    

I’m glad after 94 episode we have someone to represent the packaging side of. Derryl Kostynuik lives in a small town north of Calgary and he works with a lot of food companies to bring out the best in their brand. How do you do that? With creative and innovative packaging. Derryl gives some great examples of brands that went to him to get their packaging reworked. So in this episode, we go into a great detail on the creative process of designing a killer packaging design. We also get pretty into things, on how to make your own design firm (if you’re into that) but I think the most valuable lesson in this interview that I got out of it, was a really interesting method on how to be creative. You can sign up for Derryl's newsletter at: pencilworks.com About Derryl There are so many ‘me-too’, ‘blend-in’ and ‘boring’ package designs and not enough ‘stand-out’ package designs in the marketplace. Sadly, a lot of packages are collecting dust instead of ‘selling themselves’. It doesn’t have to be this way. My mission is to change the way packaging presents itself on the shelf by designing packaging that becomes your companies best sales person. This is so your company can truly enjoy the benefits of increased sales and the consumer enjoys the benefits of the products that they purchase. From my early childhood years, I knew that I was more creative than most. In fact, I’ve been playing in the world of creative design before I knew it by that term. As a 6-year-old boy, I just called it ‘doodling’. I’d doodle as I designed hockey uniforms for my imaginary team and I’d doodle while I crafted my own line of muscle cars. Creative and expressive before it was cool to be so. My mission is to create dynamic packaging that becomes your company’s ‘best sales person’ through my 7 Step Best-Selling Packaging Design System. This system analyzes your packaging, then provides a market positioning solution that immediately helps you ‘stand-out’ from the competition and attract more business. So now all your packaging efforts have a unique and strategic story that not only is different but declares your position in a ‘stand-out’, market dominating way. Specialties: Best-selling packaging design, packaging audits, stand-out marketing strategies, corporate and product brand identity design, product naming, product and service positioning/analysis. All these engagements are considered 'In-Frame' context. This means consideration is made to ‘what’ makes you different and then crafting your image and message in a way that appeals to your audience. It’s the only way I can have you stand-out where and when it matters most. Sponsor - FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor - ICON Foods What’s worse than marketing saying, ‘we have to clean up these sugars?’ They want clean label sugar reduction because that’s the trend. So I advise you to skate to where the puck is going. Whether it’s to make your product a bit healthier or following the ever-changing FDA laws, my friends at Icon Foods – formerly Steviva Ingredients – are here to help. They have more than 20 years of R&D experience with natural sweeteners and sweetening systems in a wide range of applications. With a product list of twenty different sweeteners and plug-in sweetening systems that keeps growing, you can’t go wrong. Check out stevivaingredients.com to learn about the newest all-natural sweetener solutions and collaboration opportunities. For more information, visit ICON foods at ICONfoods.com Key Takeaways - It’s hard to tell someone’s baby that it’s ugly - Dealing with rebranding versus brand new products when it comes to packaging - Beef Jerky story – the “Bite Me” slogan changed a brand completely - How to be innovative and think creatively Question Summary Describe yourself in a sentence or less?: I have a design firm that makes packaging pop off the shelves Quick Tip: Your packaging could be causing you to lose sales. If they are not buying from you, they are buying the competitor Beef Jerky story – the “Bite Me” slogan changed a brand completely Dog Food story – Wanted to develop a natural dog food line, developed new packaging. Now sells 1 dog food every 48 seconds How do you go through the ideation process?: I have a 7 step process. Research everything about the consumer. “What does use quality ingredients mean?” Walk around in stores or go to the websites. The last thing you want to do is to have a package that is like everyone else. It’ll blend and disappear Discuss with the brand owners to make a package that will still be familiar with their product based Describe to where you are today: I had a graphic design company, and got a food client. I got really interested in how food was packaged including placement, processes, and material. How did you get into design?: I loved to draw as a kid and when I was going to college, I had to take an entrance exam and got in. A lot of people there were so much better than me. Quick Tip: If you want to be a designer, learn how to draw. You have to keep on practicing How can you learn to be creative: look a lot, read a lot, always look at what everyone is doing. Be observant. Imagine things, dreaming of things. Day Dreaming, blue skying. Spend time doing nothing. Are you born creative or can you learn it?: Everyone is creative in their own way. Was there anything you read or observed or day dreamed that you designed?: A gaming system. Their gaming rig was jungle themed so I made a jungle themed box. Quick Tip: People don’t buy because you’re good or creative, it’s because they need your service. My Food Job Rocks: I get to create amazing packages and creating a package to be their best sales person Food trends and technologies: The science of eye movement to see what packages are more enticing. One thing in the food industry that you’d like to know more about: I’d like to know more about the materials in packaging Favorite Quote: I try to think but nothing happens!  - Bugs Bunny Favorite Kitchen Item: a fork Any advice on going into the packaging/design industry?: Learn the business side of things, people will buy based on your services. Then study EVERYTHING about packaging Business resources used to help you: There are books Society of Graphic Designers: resources about graphic design and how to sell them Quick Tips: Be honest, have integrity, not all things work out. They have to win. Where can we find you for advice?: papercut@pencilworks.com Other Links Arduri Canada – Calgary Alberta Canada Montreal, Quebec RXBar Disabled artists can draw graffiti in the hospital bed Heat map Canadian thanksgiving Ukranian food  

I’m a big fan of interviewing small businesses that are rocking it and Pepper North is no exception. For one, I can ask them practical questions on how to get started and I get really grounded and tactical answers. Another reason? I get to try their amazing products. Ana Stevens found me on linkedin and asked to be interviewed. She then sent me some of her amazing products for me to try, big fan of their blueberry barbecue sauce. Canadian listeners, these products are exclusively for you (for now). So a big thing that really surprised me about Pepper North is that not only is it completely family ran, but they are selling at over 200 stores in the Toronto area. I dive in deep to find out how they try to get their products in stores and I found it really informative. Other highlights in this episode includes how important a story is on a label, the huge local movement going around in Canada and a great dissection on what makes these two founders such a great team. About Pepper North Pepper North was born out of a love for growing super-hot peppers and handcrafting delicious gourmet hot pepper products. We believe in using the freshest locally sourced ingredients possible in order to create a flavour experience that will be enjoyable for all.We are a family run business established in 2013 located in Oshawa, Canada. We began our journey into the hot sauce world much like many others, by growing hot peppers in our home garden and turning them into delicious spicy products for friends and family. As demand began to grow, so did our batch sizes. Adding eye catching labels, we started attending local farmers markets and festivals to rave reviews from our customers and fellow hot sauce lovers. Before long, we were making a name for ourselves across Canada with our line of delicious super-hot sauces. Currently our award winning hot sauces and condiments are all natural, free from added preservatives, gluten free, and can be found in over 200 stores across Ontario and beyond. "We are truly excited and humbled to bring great hot sauces and condiments into Canadian households because we put a lot of love, passion & dedication into each hand crafted batch". Sponsor - FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor - ICON Foods What’s worse than marketing saying, ‘we have to clean up these sugars?’ They want clean label sugar reduction because that’s the trend. So I advise you to skate to where the puck is going. Whether it’s to make your product a bit healthier or following the ever-changing FDA laws, my friends at Icon Foods – formerly Steviva Ingredients – are here to help. They have more than 20 years of R&D experience with natural sweeteners and sweetening systems in a wide range of applications. With a product list of twenty different sweeteners and plug-in sweetening systems that keeps growing, you can’t go wrong. Check out stevivaingredients.com to learn about the newest all-natural sweetener solutions and collaboration opportunities. For more information, visit ICON foods at ICONfoods.com Episode Highlights -Why putting a story on your label is really important -Why controlling everything gives you amazing control -Why it’s harder to grow Peppers in Canada (duh!) -The power of local food in Canada -The power of having a creative and administrative founder -A discussion on sales -Why sorting M and Ms Describe your business in a sentence or less: We produced all natural gourmet hot sauce using locally sourced ingredients When someone noticed your sauce first, what do they notice specifically?: The labels first because we do our own labels Romance Panel- describes the panel on a food label Favorite part about your job: Drew: Creating new sauces. Anna: Build relationships What was the hardest thing to learn in making your business?: For Ana, learning the different aspects of the food industry Describes the steps it took to get to where you are today?: Been a long 4 years. Started out selling seeds. People wanted hotter and hotter and we kept on giving them hotter and hotter Where do you get the peppers?: We grow them ourselves but we supply the farmers the seeds. How did you grow?: Food and drink shows, fancy food shows, contacting local stores. We are currently in 200 stores. How do you get into these stores?: Went on Google, typed up specialty food stores, sample to store managers, You have to be there in person Do your research! The place has to sell sauces. Call on phone or email them (if they ask) Ana has a wholesale list that explains the products, ingredients, story, and cost (quantity/case) Why did you decide to start a food business?: Drew always loved cooking and growing fruits and vegetables. Ana loves interfacing with customers. Quick Tips: Walt Disney and Roy Disney’s dynamic is the same as Ana and Drew How do you think of new products?: I think of an idea in bed and create a new product. For example: Blueberry Hot Sauce My Food Job Rocks: It’s never a dull day. There is something to do every day Is your product seasonal?: Different SKUs sell more depending on season Quick Tip: Canadians don’t like pectin What type of food trends are popular?: Hot sauce is exploding. Fermentation is also growing huge such as Kombucha One thing you’d like to know more about?: Food Science, shelf-life things, consumer behavior Quick Tip: A sale 1 to 1 is easy. Selling in a grocery store is really hard because the competition is fierce How did you get inspired to get into food?: Drew: Mother taught him how to cook, his wife encouraged him to start on his own Did you quit cold turkey before jumping into business?: No, Drew did things on a  side for the year. Ana went on maternity leave Favorite Kitchen Item: Slow cooker using Pepper North Sauces. Ana likes to make snacks and whipping up rice krispy squares Quick Tips: Analyze the ways people cook or eat and notice why they are in the roles they are in, Favorite Food: Drew makes sandwiches like Philly Cheese Steaks and Pulled Pork Sandwiches. Favorite food is pizza Starting a Food Business: Ana: Do your research, ask the questions, do the regulations, find the logistics. There’s a lot. Drew: Be prepared that not everyone is going to love what you make. Do you have any advice for starting a food buisness?: Stay true to yourself and your product and yourself will shine. Just keep going, don’t give up. Where can we find you guys for advice?: Pepper North. Facebook. Ana is on linkedin Other Links Stargazer: 75% all pepper based 7 pot primo – Troy Primo in Louisiana Fancy Food Show experience Local in Canada versus local in United States - Half of the people who go up to Drew ask where it’s made Canada’s maternity leave is a year Equifruit interviewUse their blueberry sauce on chicken wings and ice creamAfterglow hot apricot jelly – apricot zuchinni  

Weber Stibolt contacted me on our My Food Job Rocks facebook page and I got him on the show. He is a fanatic in both the coffee realm and the quality realm and I learned a ton about what makes coffee great. Weber shares his passion for agriculture and food science even sharing how he got into food science and how he’ll be teaching the next generation. Being of a very technical mindset, you will also learn some amazing things, such as the art of coffee tasting, how to be analytical and critical of your own work, and why communicating with your peers, is the most important skill in the world. About Weber  Weber Stibolt is a Quality Assurance Specialist for Eight O’ Clock coffee based in the Washington, D.C. area. Eight O’ Clock is a 150-year-old brand born out of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P), a chain of now-defunct supermarkets. When A&P was struggling financially in the early 2000s, the Eight O’ Clock coffee brand was spun off and later purchased by Tata Global Beverages. TGB is a India-based company with a vast array of tea and coffee products under various brands across the world - a perfect fit for a global product like coffee.   At Eight O’ Clock Coffee, the three-person quality team oversees the food safety and quality of 20 million pounds of coffee annually. In this role, Weber plays a large part in the day-to-day operations of the facility by monitoring both the coffee and its packaging. He works with the production team, mechanics, and the rest of the management staff by communicating quality updates and addressing issues that may arise. In addition, Weber designs and conducts experiments with the ultimate goal of re-evaluating specifications to make the best finished product possible.   Weber’s interests while studying Food Science at the University of Delaware primarily resided in food safety. His collegiate internships working with produce food safety at the farm level have launched him into the role he is in today. He is the Alternate HACCP Coordinator at Eight O’ Clock Coffee and is responsible for many programs that the food safety plan at the facility is built upon. Sponsor - FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor - ICON Foods What’s worse than marketing saying, ‘we have to clean up these sugars?’ They want clean label sugar reduction because that’s the trend. So I advise you to skate to where the puck is going. Whether it’s to make your product a bit healthier or following the ever-changing FDA laws, my friends at Icon Foods – formerly Steviva Ingredients – are here to help. They have more than 20 years of R&D experience with natural sweeteners and sweetening systems in a wide range of applications. With a product list of twenty different sweeteners and plug-in sweetening systems that keeps growing, you can’t go wrong. Check out stevivaingredients.com to learn about the newest all-natural sweetener solutions and collaboration opportunities. For more information, visit ICON foods at ICONfoods.com Episode Highlights -The different Coffee Beans Industry Uses -How Weber got into food science -An indepth analysis on how to taste coffee -Acrylamide in Coffee Question Summary Sentence or less: I’m the Willy Wonka of Coffee. I’m a Food Scienitst and work for coffee and I get I’m a Barista East Coast What is the Niche for Eight o’ clock coffee?: Our niche is to be decent coffee. McDonalds, Starbucks, Dunkin Official Job Title: Quality Assurance Specialist – Specifically Packaging, and Food Safety roles Favorite thing about your job: I like sending great products to people Quick Tip: In most manufacturing, Production and Quality are in the same vein, in Eight O Clock, we are separate and work cooperatively How did you get to where you are today?: University of Delaware had a Food Science Exploration Day at the end of the day, I wanted to go into Food Science How did you get your first job?:  Maryland isn’t really known for food. Ended up working with a recruiting chose between the West and Maryland TIC Gums McCormick Gardien Lab Support What is the most important skill you need for your job?: Being analytical and always question everything. People in quality sometimes get into a rut. You have to analyze even your own work to become better the next day. It’ll help you immensely How do you quantitatively approve good coffee?: Good seal integrity. We use both tensile strength testing and  people My Food Job Rocks: It brings me a lot of joy giving out great products to people Do you drink coffee?: Yes, and I do sensory testing, which I love. Example: Columbia versus Original Starbucks’s cupping method The cupping method Ceramic cup, level out a certain amount of coffee, let it sit, have specialized spoons, and vigourously slurp it up. You have to properly aerate it to get the full flavor of the coffee (like wine). You have to be as obnoxious about slurping as possible Same thing about Olive oil What would be your dream job title: Food Scientist for NASA Food Trends and Technologies: Automation. We have installed 3 new case packers. Machine breakdown sucks Biggest Problem in the Food Industry: Food Education. More and more people want to know what’s in our food but there’s a lot of misinformation. Who is doing a good job educating the consumer?: Domino’s Foods. Our farmers know the best for these cows Trix natural colors switching back to artifical Coffee complaints: one of my tasks is to review complaints. A lot of people inquire if their coffee is GMO but there’s no such thing as GMO coffee Quick Tip: You will die faster overdosing on caffeine than acrylamide Favorite Quote: Insanity is doing something over and over again and expect a different results. For quality, challenge the process. Is it hard to invoke change in Quality?: Yes, but you should still try to keep on changing things Favorite Book: The last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Imagineer at Disney Land Favorite Kitchen Item: Hand blender Any Advice for Food Industry? Write a good cover letter What do you think schools should teach you more in the industry?: As someone in quality, I wish I remembered more about statistics. Take writing classes and learn how to communicate effectively. Intro to business class. Public speaking experience: Adam – Podcasting. Weber – 4H Club Other Links University of DelawareDonuts use Premium Coffee. We use Arabica beans 4H Club- House Program. Weber spent 10 years in the program Sodium Alginate Beads Unwrapped Good Eats California lawyer wants to label coffee as a carcinogen Acrylamide

This title was inspired by this article If you’re a fan of this podcast, I talk about taco bell a lot and I finally got a chance to talk to the registered dietician from Taco Bell. And I did not hold back. I talk about pretty much everything from the Naked Chicken Chalupa to the Power Bowl and praised every single item on Taco Bell’s menu. But of course, there’s some takeaways. One huge thing I want you to notice is how Missy carves her path. After working in 6 months in Taco Bell, she said “I want to own Nutrition in Taco Bell”. Not only that, but she continues to learn how to become a better and better employee by finding mentors in different departments. Other than that, we’ll talk about how being a dietitian in the fast food industry works, how to customize your taco bell order, and we share our experiences eating Guinea Pig in Peru About Missy Missy Schaaphok is the Senior Nutrition Strategist for Taco Bell Corp. spearheading the strategic global efforts for nutrition and product development. Within this role, she is responsible for sensible menu development, regulatory compliance, stakeholder engagement, animal welfare, and sustainability. She works closely with executive, legal, brand marketing, and public relations teams to communicate Taco Bell’s commitment to quality and affordable food experiences. Missy plays a big role in how Taco Bell creates food that is fun, innovative and craveable, food you want to eat again, and food that fits customers’ evolving lifestyles. She has been the voice in telling Taco Bell’s “food for all” journey while also leading efforts behind the scenes. Most recently, Missy led the development of the Power Menu, a menu featuring high-protein bowls and burritos under 510 calories. She is also the driving force behind the brand’s commitment to simplify its ingredients, reducing sodium across the menu and removing artificial flavors and colors, high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oil and unsustainable palm oil; bringing customers a vegetarian menu certified by the American Vegetarian Association – the first of its kind in the Quick Service Restaurant industry, and leading the switch to cage-free eggs and serving chicken raised without antibiotics important to human medicine, in all U.S. restaurants. Missy has been recognized for her leadership serving on expert panels and presenting at key industry events like World of Healthy Flavors, Healthy Menu Collaborative, Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior, National Restaurant Association and California Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. While working at WIC, she wrote and published her first cookbook titled, WIC Tested, Dietitian Approved. Since then she has contributed to the book on Recipe Nutrient Analysis: Best Practices for Calculations for Chemical Analysis and co-authored, “Uniform National Menu Labeling: Review of the Regulation and the RDN’s Role in Effective Implementation" for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Food & Culinary Practice Group. Missy is a member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, currently serving as the Chair-Elect for the Dietitians in Business and Communications Dietetic Practice Group. She also holds volunteer positions within the National Restaurant Association's Nutrition Executive Study Group and The Culinary Institute of America’s Healthy Menu Collaborative Protein Working Group. Sponsor - FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor - ICON Foods Big announcement from our friends at Stevivia. They now go by ICON Foods and you’re seeing a rebranding in action which I find really exciting. Their vision is brighter, their strategy is stronger and their all-natural, clean-label product portfolio is ever growing. So why are they doing this? Even though stevia is an amazing product, there are just so many sweeteners coming up and it’s becoming a bit overwhelming. Monkfruit, Allulose, Agave, you name it. This is what ICON Foods is here for: to help you find sweetener solutions so you can focus on other challenges in the product development process. For more information, visit ICON foods at ICONfoods.com Episode Highlights How Missy developed the Power Menu 70% of our businesses is in our drive-thru The challenges to super innovative things like chicken chulupa Important skills you need to be an amazing product developer Missy and Adam compare notes on how Peruvian Guinea Pig tastes like Question Summary When someone asks what you do for a living, what do you tell them?: I’m a Dietician….from Taco Bell Best thing about your job: Eating taco bell every day Soup’d Up Bean Burrito Custom Recipe: Bean Burrito+ Cheese + Pico De Gallo + Grill it + Diablo Sauce Feed Articles on the taco bell website: How to hack taco bell. Vegan, healthy, etc Dietetic Internship: super competitive and grueling How did you got to Taco Bell?: Once was a Food Science Product Development Rubio’s Intern. Past Coworker from Rubio’s told me to apply 6 months into the job: “I want to own Nutrition in Taco Bell” How do you deliver amazing taste but healthy?: We are still trying to figure it out What is the most important skill you need?: A science foundation and how to convince people without scientific knowledge that what you’re doing is the right thing to do Do you feel stigmatized from other dieticians from working in the fast food industry?: I understand, but I stand for my company. I’m doing great things at taco bell. For example, 46 million people a week, reducing sodium means I am reducing millions of pounds of salts My Food Job Rocks: I’m the dietitian in Taco Bell What type of food trends and technologies are you really excited about?: The plant forward trend Do our beans have lard?: No! They are actually certified vegan Mobile Ordering, online ordering, menu boards: You can showcase individual ingredients You can sub black beans and romaine lettuce Make it Fresco Taco Bell needs to be mainstream and Mexican and they use beans as their plant forward options The biggest challenge the food industry needs to face?: There is a lot of problems. Reducing sodium but sodium is very functional (taste and preservation) Animal Welfare and sustainability In terms of corporate decisions, what makes a company decide to commit to health?: The consumers are the ones who have a say. We want to reduce sodium. Taco Bell will reduce sodium by 10% We eliminated the 40 oz soda (800 million grams of sugar from consumer’s diets) Hidden Skills: Quantifying your impact Press Release: Taco Bell New Years Resolutions What’s one thing in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: Finance and numbers. how commodities can change instantly and how big investments change finance I seek out mentors: I meet monthly with a finance mentor Who inspired you to get into food?: My mom inspired me. She had Missy and her brother to make dinner once a week. Favorite Quote: Eat well, Travel Often First Travel adventure in Europe – I found France to be the most unique. We dug for clams Weirdest food I’ve eaten: Guenia Pig in Peru Any advice in getting into the food industry?: Dietitians ask me this. It’s networking and who you know. If you’re just starting out, just start volunteering at anything food related What is one thing you’d like to dispel about the food industry?: There is a dietician in every food establishment so there is always someone fighting for nutrition. Where can we find you?: I’m the only Schaaphok in the world. Also in @workoutwithali Other Links The power menu bowl Quest RDN – Registered Dietician San Diego State University - Food and Nutritional Science Glanbia Foods Jessica Gavin Episode Article about Suddenly becoming the Healthiest Fast Food Chain Naked Chicken Chalupa Chick-Fil-Le – Free breakfast when they download the app Clean Meat – Lab Grown Meat Taco Bell Cantina

This is a special episode where I’ve had the opportunity for some students to ask me some questions. I’ve had many, but I chose these two episodes as great examples of the advice I give to students. So first up is Weslie Khoo, a PhD student who wants to know more about Product Developemnt and stuff like that. I do my best answering them and talk about my experience, but also name dropping a lot of companies that I found If you guys have any problems with the audio, let me know. Weslie’s audio is a bit hard to listen to, and if it bothers you, let me know through podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com or linkedin. I’ll have a replacement episode with my audio switched out. Sponsor - FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor - ICON Foods Big announcement from our friends at Stevivia. They now go by ICON Foods and you’re seeing a rebranding in action which I find really exciting. Their vision is brighter, their strategy is stronger and their all-natural, clean-label product portfolio is ever growing. So why are they doing this? Even though stevia is an amazing product, there are just so many sweeteners coming up and it’s becoming a bit overwhelming. Monkfruit, Allulose, Agave, you name it. This is what ICON Foods is here for: to help you find sweetener solutions so you can focus on other challenges in the product development process. For more information, visit ICON foods at ICONfoods.com Housekeeping If you like what you heard, like us on facebook or write a review on itunes. It helps wonders. I am also inviting you to sign up on our email list at myfoodjobrocks.com. I am doing this new thing called the 5 course meal where I send you 5 pieces of hand picked content and deliver it every Friday morning. Like a meal kit… If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com Questions Asked After you test flavors, do you launch all at once or one at a time? How startups can collect market research When am I sharing too much information before launch? Why would you go with a copacker? How to find copackers? Why do grocery stores private label? Do you argue a lot with copackers? Is there anything between a copacker and a incubator? What is a Pilot? How to get Packaging What startup resources do you like? How do you get a product out there? Question Summary Just collect data for sensory. More data the better How do you know a product is good? Seth Godin: If ten people tell ten friends about your product, it’s a good product Am I sharing too much information before launch?: You should be as transparent as possible, because people want transparency. If you put in more effort, then most people won’t copy you until you get big Legal disputes can be important regarding how products work Why would you go with a copacker?: Upfront cost of manufacturing is huge When do you engage with a co-packer?: When you validate your product will work. One example is getting Whole Foods to demand your product, then you need to get product fast Cottage Industry Permit How to find copackers?: Word of Mouth, Google, some websites do this, Copacker websites suck, go to trade shows, Private Label Manufacturer Association, also friends with someone who sells a lot of things, any book that talks about making your own product Why do grocery stores private label?: It gives higher margins Do you argue a lot with copackers?: Yes, but you have to be competent Is there anything between a copacker and a incubator?: Commercial kitchen or your basement How to get Packaging: Ask the copacker to see what they recommend. Also go to Pac Expo How do you get a product out there?: You have to go there and talk to people. Who you’re targeting, why, what they really want Give away your product for free Taste wins, having it healthy is better You can have a bad tasting product, and be healthy, and it will sell, but you won’t be the best The best Food Scientist have a mix of science or art, and it’s the consumer opinion that matters What startup resources do you like?: Good Food, Great Buisnesses, Conferences, Fancy Food Show Other Links Examples of strategic market launches Halo Top Taco Bell The first "health" bar Hershey Chocolate Bar Examples of Target Marketing Niching – Super specifying your target market Paleo bar – I should only focus on paleo people, nothing else matters Keto bar Quest Bars Soylent Hampton Creek Beyond Meat Airbnb Examples of startup research Susie Wyshak – Good Food Great Buisness Fancy Food Show The Lean Startup by Eric Ries Who Private Labels? Private Label vs Contract Manufacturing Costco Safeway Target CVS  

- Rethink Breast Cancer​ Founder + Executive Director MJ DeCoteau​ on a new campaign that is breaking down myths & misconceptions about #breasthealth - learn more: http://www.Rethinkbreastcancer.com - HR Professional Nicole Gallace tells us how http://www.FoodGrads.com is helping close the gap between recent graduates and the food and beverage industry. - Musicologist Eric Alper​ talks 2018 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame​ Nominees - brought to you by: http://www.roar-group.com http://www.twitter.com/thatericalper - Food Media Specialist Charmaine Broughton talks Weeknight Supper Solutions that will make you drool, brought to you by http://www.Walmart.ca. http://www.whatshesaidradio.com/what-she-said/great-value-chicken-recipes/ - Author Laura Corbeth on struggling to overcome a childhood of psychological and physical abuse at the hands of her brother. Get #MyCourageToTell here: http://mycouragetotell.com - Toronto folk/soul artist Lydia Persaud Music​ performs 'Low Light' LIVE in our #StudioSessions - get her debut EP here: https://www.lydiapersaud.com SUBSCRIBE to What She Said and watch interviews & more: http://www.youtube.com/WhatSheSaidTalk Miss a show? Stream & download full shows for free on iTunes: http://www.apple.co/1U700c0 Follow us on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @WhatSheSaidTalk Website: http://www.whatshesaidtalk.com What She Said! with Christine Bentley & Kate Wheeler airs Saturday and Sunday at 10-11PM ET on Jewel 88.5 Toronto. Listen LIVE on the APP: http://www.streamdb5web.securenetsystems.net/v5/CKDX

  I think this might actually be our first quality manager on our podcast and I am very excited that it’s Bryan. He’s had over 25 years working as a Quality expert in the dairy industry. Bryan is also offering his new book: The New Manager Mindset to our viewers and all you have to do is go to fsmaexpert.com and just pay for shipping. I read this book, as I’m thinking of management, and it really gave me some great tips and resources to not only understand people, but to build systems. We go pretty in depth on food safety, quality, leadership and management so if you are interested in this pathway, pay close attention to this interview. My favorite part of this interview is about 20 minutes in where Bryan explains how to have everyone agree on how to deal with warm milk. Sponsor - FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor - ICON Foods Big announcement from our friends at Stevivia. They now go by ICON Foods and you’re seeing a rebranding in action which I find really exciting. Their vision is brighter, their strategy is stronger and their all-natural, clean-label product portfolio is ever growing. So why are they doing this? Even though stevia is an amazing product, there are just so many sweeteners coming up and it’s becoming a bit overwhelming. Monkfruit, Allulose, Agave, you name it. This is what ICON Foods is here for: to help you find sweetener solutions so you can focus on other challenges in the product development process. For more information, visit ICON foods at ICONfoods.com Housekeeping If you like what you heard, like us on facebook or write a review on itunes. It helps wonders. I am also inviting you to sign up on our email list at myfoodjobrocks.com. I am doing this new thing called the 5 course meal where I send you 5 pieces of hand picked content and deliver it every Friday morning. Like a meal kit… If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com Knowledge Bombs How mentorship brought Bryan to success Why hiring a consultant is a good idea (especially in growth phase), and when to focus on it A really good example of how quality and production can work together (20:00) How to use personality subsets to work together How the FDA works and how to take advantage of it Question Summary How do you introduce yourself: I make sure your food is up to standard (Quality) and make it safe (Food Safety) Quality is making things consistent, Food Safety needs to be in place What do you do?: I’m a quality consultant What’s the best thing about your job?: I love working with different companies Steps it took to get to where you are today: Planned to go to medical school, ended up working in cheese, had to decide between contributor to manager If you want to make a bigger impact, you might need to be a manager A quality manager’s job: to find out why stuff is happening, not fix things right away How to create a great quality system - Examine a process - Talk to the worker - Determine the key attributes - Develop a buffer (red light, yellow light, green light) that production can understand - Make smart decisison on a yellow light situation Best skill you can have in quality: Technical competency and the ability to talk to people How do you do better at talking to people?: See if you can find a person’s philosophy and how they view things. Then communicate in a way they relate to it. Managing versus Leadership: You need both, but leadership is a focus on creating new leaders and trusting people to do their job Exciting Food Technology: Blockchain as a tracking mechanism for food Biggest Issue: FDA will eventually target corporate headquarters. Most corporate HQs don’t have systems in place What’s one thing you’d like to know about?: To keep updated on food safety How do you keep up to date?: GMA through Smart Brief, Bill Marler Food Safety News Report, take the info and cut and paste Favorite Kitchen Item: My mom’s ice cream scoop Best thing you’ve ever eaten: a 7 course meal in Copenhagen, Denmark. Michelien Restaurant Advice for people in the quality realm?: Gather up your technical skillset and find things that really exciting If you were to teach something to a class in college, what would you teach?: How to understand the consumer. (found in his book). You shouldn’t base your opinion on CEO feedback, but fanatic customer feedback. Food Leadership Group.com Bryan’s Book is available for free. FSMAexpert.com. Book a 30 minute convo Other Links Marajuana business in Colorado Boulder Colorado Naturally Boulder Leprino Foods Class 1 FDA sample ENTP ISTJ Darin Detwiler Frank Yannis at Walmart -Walmart is partnering with IBM to blockchain CRISPR Whole Genome Technology Gary Danko

As the title says, this is another Food Safety Fanatic that I just loved talking to! Still young in his career, Ben Chapman does so many things in his field such as being a professor, writing on a blog, and of course, co-hosting a podcast with our previous guest, Don Schaffner. Ben’s focus on food safety is on the food service side as a lot of his work deal with how to have chefs and other people in the food service industry work with food safety, that not only includes teaching, but he also gives people the tools, whether gaget-like or not to mitigate the complex world of food microorganisms. Other than that you’ll get a lot of great food safety resources, a great discussion of how food safety is portrayed in the media, and where Ben takes his kids when they grocery shops. Sponsor - FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should join FoodGrads.  It’s an interactive platform where you can hear about different careers, hear from your peers, have a voice and share your story as well as ask specific questions and get feedback from industry experts across the sector. You can create a profile, add your resume and search for co-op, internships and full time opportunities just for Food Grads. Employers can find you too, they can recruit you for jobs and projects they need help with to give you the relevant industry experience you need. Join FoodGrads today! Just go to Foodgrads.com Sponsor - Steviva Ingredients Has marketing ever asked you to pull a rabbit out of a hat? I know they have with me. They want clean-label sugar reduction because that’s the trend. And in addition to clean label, we need to follow the ever-changing FDA laws, meet low cost parameters AND create a product that tastes EXCELLENT – with no aftertaste issues. They want us to make magic happen. Who do they think we are - Houdini? Let me tell you who the real magicians are. Steviva Ingredients. Steviva has more than two decades of experience in R&D and clean-label sugar reduction in a variety of applications: beverage, baked goods, fillings, frostings, condiments. Give em a call. They’ll create a solution for you. If they can help me, they can help you. Go check them out at stevivaingredients.com. Housekeeping If you like what you heard, like us on facebook or write a review on itunes. It helps wonders. I am also inviting you to sign up on our email list at myfoodjobrocks.com. I am doing this new thing called the 5 course meal where I send you 5 pieces of hand picked content and deliver it every Friday morning. Like a meal kit… If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com Knowledge Bombs How I got my butt kicked my freshman year in college The hidden benefits of podcasting when you’re in conferences How I read Ben’s article before I even knew about it What do you do?: I spend time making people less sick. I give people tools for people to not get sick What do you do if I know a little about the food industry?: Give resources to food production or consumer;s homes to help them find food borne illnesses. 4 reasons why people get sick: Handwashing and poor personal hygiene Cross contamination Temperature – improper cooking Storage temperature These are generally poor decisions. We help track them What’s the best thing you do for your job?: We have the opportunity to make a difference. If it stops people from getting sick, it’s worth it. How did you get to where you are?: In high school, I was super interested in microbiology and diseases. Got a summer job in food safety. Masters degree on keeping salmonella off of tomato’s. PhD thesis:  How much handwashing it takes to get rid of bacteria. Applied to NC State. Been there for 9 years. What do you teach students?: I mentor graduate students, give them the skills to ask food safety questions What type of skillset or personality do you need to be good at your job?: Being inquisitive and critical. Critical of others work and your own work. In science, we have peer review and we have to be critical How did food safety talks start?: I was a graduate school student and I met Don. I got Don to speak at a freshman class and I had to have him stay at my house. Don and Ben signed up for Storycore to talk about Food Safety, and Don kept on inviting Ben to be a panelist and then decided to make a podcast. How do you make your podcast enticing to viewers?: We’ve noticed the least prepared you are, the better your episode might be What makes a Good Podcast: Excellent Story-tellers, they can paint a picture of what’s going on, and harmony between guests. The best podcasts is where we’re sitting on a bar, drinking a beer What kind of Podcasts do you listen to?: Bill Simmons Podcast (BS report). 5x5 podcasts. Back to work - Dan Benjamin. John Roderick - Roderick on the line. Pod Save America. I recommend: Stuff you should know Barfblog: Most memorable article. Michael Jordan Flu game was linked to bad pizza. Barfblog used to be a forum for people to talk about food poisoning. When we launched, nobody did it, so we did it. Since you have kids, where do you shop?: Everywhere. My kid loves to shop and we go pretty much everywhere. Ben knows a lot of people in the grocery industry and can text them to see what’s up. What type of food trends and technology are really interesting you right now?: Chefs are becoming more aware and appreciative of people in Food Safety Why are food safety outbreaks showing up more? Is it just me?: Media now has more space because it’s online now. Foodborne outbreaks makes great stories. More conversations about food safety are good. Chipotle Outbreak analysis: Foodborne outbreaks are scars for life. Chipotle hasn’t done a good job sharing information BBC’s article: 2 years ago. We actually get norovirus outbreaks every day What’s one thing about the food industry you’d like to know more about?: the food industry does a really good job when saying food safety is a priority. However, I’d like to know more about the process for food safety and how people make decisions day in and day out. We don’t do a  good job saying things aren’t perfect. Favorite book?: Vivian Howard, North Carolina Chef Deep Run Roots: My Favorite Recipes from the South. TV show: A chef’s life Favorite Kitchen Items: Thermometer. Cobart PDP 300 Digital Instaread thermometer. Only $20 dollars Any advice for anyone going into the food industry: Don’t do anything unless you’re passionate about i. There are a lot of jobs in the food industry, and it’s growing in food safety Find Ben at: Barfblog, Food Safety Talk,  Twitter: @benjaminchapman, Instagram: @barfblogben Links International Association for Food Protection Collard Greens Norovirus Bluebell Outbreak Chipotle Outbreak Peanut Butter Outbreak Peanut butter Outbreak in Australia

Dr. Don Schaffner is an amazing food safety scientist who’s the best in class. In fact, let me name youa  few of his amazing awards: You can read his amazing biography here What’s also super cool, is that Don and his co-host Ben do a whole lot of extracurricular activities to promote food safety and one of their favorite things to do is podcasting. For over 4 years, they’re been doing discussions of food safety and post them online for everyone to enjoy and they do have quite a following. If you are in food safety or are considering food safety, you have to listen to this interview. Don gives you valuable advice on how to really be a star player in food safety and some amazing resources such as Barfblog, Food Safety News, and the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports About Don Dr. Donald W. Schaffner is Extension Specialist in Food Science and Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University. He has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed publications and educated thousands of Food Industry professionals through short courses and workshops in the United States and around the world. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists and the American Academy of Microbiology. He has served as an Editor for the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology since 2005.  Dr. Schaffner was the president of the International Association for Food Protection in 2013-2014. In his spare time he co-hosts a food safety podcast at foodsafetytalk.com. Sponsor - FoodGrads This episode is sponsored by FoodGrads, an interactive platform for the Food & Beverage Industry, which focuses on closing the gap between students and employers with a broader mission to attract and retain people to a meaningful career in food. From Food Scientists to Farmers, Chefs to Plant Managers, QA Technicians to Dieticians, or Marketing and Sales, no matter what your passion--there's something for everyone in Food—and they will help you find it. Join FoodGrads for support, mentorship and guidance to start your career. Just go to foodgrads.com Sponsor - Steviva Ingredients Has marketing ever asked you to pull a rabbit out of a hat? I know they have with me. They want clean-label sugar reduction because that’s the trend. And in addition to clean label, we need to follow the ever-changing FDA laws, meet low cost parameters AND create a product that tastes EXCELLENT – with no aftertaste issues. They want us to make magic happen. Who do they think we are - Houdini? Let me tell you who the real magicians are. Steviva Ingredients. Steviva has more than two decades of experience in R&D and clean-label sugar reduction in a variety of applications: beverage, baked goods, fillings, frostings, condiments. Give em a call. They’ll create a solution for you. If they can help me, they can help you. Go check them out at stevivaingredients.com. Housekeeping If you like what you heard, like us on facebook or write a review on itunes. It helps wonders. I am also inviting you to sign up on our email list at myfoodjobrocks.com. I am doing this new thing called the 5 course meal where I send you 5 pieces of hand picked content and deliver it every Friday morning. Like a meal kit… If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com Knowledge Bombs What is an extension specialist? What are extensions? If you want a career in food science, think about Food Science and Quality because boy we have a lot to do How Don met Darin Detwiler Official Job title: Distinguished Professor – Distinguished Professor and Extension Specialist How long have you worked in Rutgers?: Over 25 years! Extension course: they’ve always existed, but not widely visible What’s the best skill can you have in Food Safety and Quality: You need to keep learning. The knowledge you have today will be outdated by next year Don’t think what you know today is going to necessarily be known tomorrow. You always have to keep up with new outbreaks and keep on changing your mind What resources do you use to keep you up to date?: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports published by the CDC Barfblog: Doug Powell and Ben Chapman. What’s making people barf! Food Safety News by Bill Marler Food Safety Talk with Ben Chapman. 2 PhDs in Food Safety talk about food safety. A director’s commentary of what’s in the food safety news How did Food Safety Talks start?: Howard Stern Terrestrial Radio 100th anniversary of IAFP. NPR people came over and Don met Ben and then they talked and then they made a podcast Dan Benjamin: 5 by 5. How to do podcasting articles How long has Food Safety Talks been on?: 5 years! Why Does Your Food Job Rocks?: I love everything about my job. (Literally everything) What advice can you give a 24 year old on having the achievements that you have?: Give it time, You don’t get ahead on focusing on regrets on the past. It’s just not relevant Don’t focus on the past, focus on the present. Don’t let setbacks set you back. Food Technology: Whole Genome Technology. The radar the CDC is using is getting more sensitive. Also, mimicking norovirus What do you think the biggest challenge the food industry has to face?: Integration of FSMA What’s one thing in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: Why people aren’t complying to rules Favorite Quote: Prediction is very difficult especially about the future. Favorite Book: DiscWorld by Terry Prachett Favorite Kitchen Item: Digital Scale What kind of advice would you give a fresh graduate?: Do the right thing. Life is too short that don’t take food safety and quality seriously. Where can we find you?: Food Safety Talk podcast. Don Schaffner from Rutgers. Bug Counter on twitter. Emails (don’t do emails) Other Links Penn State Ice Cream Course Texas A and M Extrusion Course Better Process Control Course Cyclospora Norovirus Preventative Controls Rule: a training is required Produce Safety Rule Supplier Verification Programs Irrigation of Water Provisions of the fresh produce rule Foreign Supplier Training University of Georgia American Greed: Peanut Corporation Story Core (never launched, but we have them at Food Safety Talks) Dr. Darin Detwiler FSMA webinars

This episode is a bit different, and it acts more of a conversation, but it’s a darn good conversation. I met Ronald talking on Shapr, a swipy-like app for business people and just to let you know, I get a lot more meetings on Shapr than the other ones and they’re productive as well. Ronald has been on TEDEx, he was an ex-magician, has done several media expenditures, web design work, and has a huge passion and curiosity in food So we talk a lot of cool stuff about food, but also take this as just a casual talk with two very creative people. We try and understand each other, and we do quite well I’d say. Think of this episode a bit differently, not just about the job Ronald has, but also his mindset, or his ability to create, pivot, and entertain. I’m excited for what Ronald has in stock for us and I hope after your interview, you do too. About Ronald Food tech entrepreneur. Online Marketing and Launch Event Specialist & Amateur Magician. ;) Former Creative Marketing Strategist for The Red Group, LLC. In my consulting efforts I helped build brands online. More specifically, I consulted companies and coached experts on how to get started in creating their following online through education based marketing. Some past projects include TEDxCalicoCanyon, MagicMez, The Last Formula, and most recently The Foodbox. I've been given the opportunity to work with some amazing people over the years. If you'd like to contact me, please don't hesitate to reach out. Sponsor - FoodGrads This episode is sponsored by FoodGrads, an interactive platform for the Food & Beverage Industry, which focuses on closing the gap between students and employers with a broader mission to attract and retain people to a meaningful career in food. From Food Scientists to Farmers, Chefs to Plant Managers, QA Technicians to Dieticians, or Marketing and Sales, no matter what your passion--there's something for everyone in Food—and they will help you find it. Join FoodGrads for support, mentorship and guidance to start your career. Just go to foodgrads.com Sponsor - Steviva Ingredients Has marketing ever asked you to pull a rabbit out of a hat? I know they have with me. They want clean-label sugar reduction because that’s the trend. And in addition to clean label, we need to follow the ever-changing FDA laws, meet low cost parameters AND create a product that tastes EXCELLENT – with no aftertaste issues. They want us to make magic happen. Who do they think we are - Houdini? Let me tell you who the real magicians are. Steviva Ingredients. Steviva has more than two decades of experience in R&D and clean-label sugar reduction in a variety of applications: beverage, baked goods, fillings, frostings, condiments. Give em a call. They’ll create a solution for you. If they can help me, they can help you. Go check them out at stevivaingredients.com. Housekeeping If you like what you heard, like us on facebook or write a review on itunes. It helps wonders. I am also inviting you to sign up on our email list at myfoodjobrocks.com. I am doing this new thing called the 5 course meal where I send you 5 pieces of hand picked content and deliver it every Friday morning. Like a meal kit… If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com Knowledge Bombs Ronald and Adam’s connection to San Luis Obispo Two tribes in the world of eating: Live to eat, and eat to live The twists and turns for Foodbox Why food farmers are switching to growing more "special" crops Question Summary What is Foodbox.tv: We took a pivot and will be focusing on telling the stories and technologies of local food TEDex: Ronald presented at TedEx: Calico Canyon the Human Connection What has magic taught you?: Magic taught me to learn fast. Magic shows a raw emotion that we don’t see often. Magic violates a preconceived notion Favorite Quote: Pain of regret weighs ton, while the pain of discipline weighs ounces Do you have any advice for people who want to do what you do?: You have to love what you do, but you have to be strategic Where can we find you?: fdbx.tv Other Links TEDEx Runa Free Conference Call Shapr University Las Vegas San Luis Obispo Cal Poly The Restaurant Coach Blue Apron Plated Soylent Meal Replacement Ketosis Diet 1000 True Fans Articles Book: Sapiens Book: Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation The Magician’s Code – Kindle book Vegan Wrestler makes vegan stuff in Arizona Singh Farms and Meadows Sous Vide Marajuana Herb Water Growth Mindset Luck + Preparedness = Success  

Anton found me randomly through linkedin, found my website, and scheduled an interview all in a span in 2 weeks. Oh, did I mention he’s from Israel? It was absolutely amazing talking to someone my age from across the country and learning about the differences and similarities between how the food industry works. You’ll learn a little bit about the pros and cons of the Israeli university system, a lot about the daily life of a food engineer, and why Israeli's love guacamole. About Anton Anton Slavkin is a cheese product development engineer in the Israeli company Strauss Group. He has worked as a krill oil extraction process engineer in the nutraceuticals company Enzymotec Ltd and as a chocolate and cereal snacks product development engineer in Unilever Israel. He earned his B.Sc. in Biotechnology and Food Engineering from IIT (Israel Institute of Technology – The Technion). In his spare time, he enjoys playing the guitar, inventing new homemade recipes (a.k.a cooking) and hiking. Anton is passionate about making our world a better place by promoting environmental awareness and using current research data for the development of better products. About Strauss Group Strauss Group is an international Food & Beverage company that strives to improve people's lives, headquartered in Israel, where we are the largest food company. The company's portfolio includes four businesses: Strauss Coffee B.V., Strauss Israel, Strauss Water, and PepsiCo – Strauss Fresh Dips & Spreads International aligned with two global consumer trends: Health & Wellness and Fun & Indulgence. Strauss Group is active in 20 countries worldwide in our diverse fields of activity through partnerships with multinationals. The company brings its know-how in Coffee, Water, Chocolate, Dips & Spreads to diverse markets and cultures, making them accessible to people just the way they like them, adapted to local tastes and habits. Sponsor - FoodGrads This episode is sponsored by FoodGrads, an interactive platform for the Food & Beverage Industry, which focuses on closing the gap between students and employers with a broader mission to attract and retain people to a meaningful career in food. From Food Scientists to Farmers, Chefs to Plant Managers, QA Technicians to Dieticians, or Marketing and Sales, no matter what your passion--there's something for everyone in Food—and they will help you find it. Join FoodGrads for support, mentorship and guidance to start your career. Just go to foodgrads.com Sponsor - Steviva Ingredients Has marketing ever asked you to pull a rabbit out of a hat? I know they have with me. They want clean-label sugar reduction because that’s the trend. And in addition to clean label, we need to follow the ever-changing FDA laws, meet low cost parameters AND create a product that tastes EXCELLENT – with no aftertaste issues. They want us to make magic happen. Who do they think we are - Houdini? Let me tell you who the real magicians are. Steviva Ingredients. Steviva has more than two decades of experience in R&D and clean-label sugar reduction in a variety of applications: beverage, baked goods, fillings, frostings, condiments. Give em a call. They’ll create a solution for you. If they can help me, they can help you. Go check them out at stevivaingredients.com. Housekeeping If you like what you heard, like us on facebook or write a review on itunes. It helps wonders. I am also inviting you to sign up on our email list at myfoodjobrocks.com. I am doing this new thing called the 5 course meal where I send you 5 pieces of hand picked content and deliver it every Friday morning. Like a meal kit… If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com Knowledge Bombs Clean Label and communication all over the world A discussion about food science and perspective and engineering The difference between US and Israel food education Will clean meat be kosher? Well, religion is not science, right? What the heck is red label? What do you tell people what you do?: I develop new cheese product. I don’t usually use the word Food Engineer unless someone knows what a food engineer is What is a food engineer?: A food scientist who understands engineering and processing concepts Strauss Group: Milk products, cheese products, cold filled dips Do you think people think food scientists get a lot of negative press?: Yes, even in Israel. Steps to be a food scientist in Isreal: All people in Israel must serve in the military. Anton served in the navy. Then studied food engineering in IIT Israel Institute of Technology. Product Developer in Unilever, Food Engineer at Enzymotec (Krill and fish oil) but the company was too small, couldn’t advance. What’s the most important skill you need in your job?: Flexibility. Try to see the bigger picture When you entered your first job, did you feel prepared?: Absolutely not. 90% of the things, you don’t know how to do. You just know a little bit more. What would have been better?: Faculty should be more involved in industry. But it might depend on the institute, or even country. My Food Job Rocks: I can eat, I can eat new things, I can be proud of what I can make What would be your dream job title?: CEO. You get to set the direction of the products Do you have any CEO’s you look up to?: Richard Brandson of Virgin. Steve Jobs of Apple (duh) What do you look for most in a job?: A sense of mission. How do I make the world a better place? Kosher Food Trends and Technology: Lab Grown Meat Clean Meat Biggest Challenge the Food Industry has to face: Negative image of the food industry Are there any companies that are doing a good job at improving food image?: Strauss does a bit Favorite Quote: Hippocratus- Let Food be Thy Medicine and let Medicine be thy food Favorite Food: Avacado – I’m making Guacamole weekly. You can actually grow Avocado in Israel. Any advice for anyone to go into the food industry: Don’t be afraid of following your dreams If you were to tell your freshman self something, what would it be?: Take more engineering classes. Not just food, but more complex chemistry. Why do other disciplines synergize with food engineers?: If you understand both sides, it’s great Anton asks me a question: How did you do this? Other Links Frutarom IFF Givaudan Symrise Quark Clean Label and Cost Reduction CE 300 – Ascorbic Acid Job Hopping Red Label – Implemented in Chilie, Israel, USDA Added Sugars delay

How can I describe Michael McDonnell? He is transparent, technical, and full of energy. Not bad for a 25 year old running his own recruitment company. His job is to reach out and find what food companies are looking for and I have some good news for those of you listening, these people are looking for experts. I grill Michael on all sorts of crazy questions that I felt like when I looked for a job and Michael answered these like, really well. And I ask questions such as how companies look for rockstars, the benefits of using a recruiter, what an ATS system is and why does everyone use it, and my personal question: how long should someone be in their job? Michael answers all of these with short and direct honesty and I just learned so much from this interview. So sit back and relax as we look into how recruiting works and how that will benefit you. Sponsor - FoodGrads This episode is sponsored by FoodGrads, an interactive platform for the Food & Beverage Industry, which focuses on closing the gap between students and employers with a broader mission to attract and retain people to a meaningful career in food. From Food Scientists to Farmers, Chefs to Plant Managers, QA Technicians to Dieticians, or Marketing and Sales, no matter what your passion--there's something for everyone in Food—and they will help you find it. Join FoodGrads for support, mentorship and guidance to start your career. Just go to foodgrads.com Sponsor - Steviva Ingredients Has marketing ever asked you to pull a rabbit out of a hat? I know they have with me. They want clean-label sugar reduction because that’s the trend. And in addition to clean label, we need to follow the ever-changing FDA laws, meet low cost parameters AND create a product that tastes EXCELLENT – with no aftertaste issues. They want us to make magic happen.  Who do they think we are - Houdini? Let me tell you who the real magicians are. Steviva Ingredients. Steviva has more than two decades of experience in R&D and clean-label sugar reduction in a variety of applications: beverage, baked goods, fillings, frostings, condiments. Give em a call. They’ll create a solution for you. If they can help me, they can help you. Go check them out at stevivaingredients.com. Housekeeping If you like what you heard, like us on facebook or write a review on itunes. It helps wonders. I am also inviting you to sign up on our email list at myfoodjobrocks.com. I am doing this new thing called the 5 course meal where I send you 5 pieces of hand picked content and deliver it every Friday morning. Like a meal kit… If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com Knowledge bombs How job hopping is disrupting all the industries How to squeeze things out of people and get really valuable information (through kindness) Mike’s opinion on Whole foods and Amazon Adam’s special gift: getting free food What do you tell people about you?: I partner with organizations or I make things. I build partnerships and deals. We really work with the company What do you consider a finalist for a search?: Whatever the company specifically wants, but also questioning their initial requirements. We want to exceed those expectations How do you find clients in the food and beverage industry and how do you communicate with them?: It starts with being on the phone. It requires a lot of cold calling. Maybe 100 phone calls to connect with another company. Who do you contact when you cold call?: Our best way is to connect with the Hiring Manager so we can find the right service to find the right people Does everyone want a Rockstar or do they not want a rock star?: Depends. Sales people want a Rockstar. For QA or data based, you might not want someone super extraverted. Job search tips Usually, people want the best of the best. Job boards might actually show the best of the worst “It’s better to be employed than not employed” most people think this but sometimes good people get in unfortunate circumstances A recruiter has a genuine conversation with a hiring manager and really focuses on getting the best fit and exploring options ATS system- automatic tracking system which is a vetting system that looks for 5 key words. Your resume might not even be looked at another person Cultural fit is absolutely critical for job success It takes seconds for people to look at your resume Job hopping: It’s so easy now and you can increase your salary faster. We don’t know what will happen 10 years from now, but now it’s 2 years. How long should you stay at your job?: I’d say 5 years. How did you get you to get to you where you are today?: I’m 24, I’m the youngest owner in my recruiting network. Worked for ConAgra brands (Territory Sales), Shanghai university of finance and economics, military active orders, disctrict manager in training for truck stops. Mentor told me to open a recruiting firm. Basically I had conversations with the right individuals. I have always wanted a job in CPG and in the food industry. What is the most important skill you can have in the food industry?: Flexibility and adaptability. Things are moving so fast that you’ll be left in the dust Common themes between excellent candidates: People who strategically plan their future. This might be through their resume or by just talking to him. My Food Job Rocks: I get to speak with amazing, unique individuals What’s the most interesting conversation you have?: I cold called a famous TV person and gave value. Food Trends and Technology: Adaptable Experts and not so much specialized experts Biggest Problem in the Food Industry: Lots of “foo-foo” going on un terms of claims. Consumer needs to educate themselves. There’s a lot of documents that involve claims What is one thing in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: I’d ask a question: where is the largest need? I’d ask this to 100 people and gather the responses. Favorite Quote: Help enough people to get what they want and the world will give you what they want There are no problems we can solve together and very few problems we can solve ourselves I listen to hour motivationial quotes on youtube Favorite kitchen item: knife. You can change things around and it’s dangerous Favorite book: The Maxwell Daily Reader Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to go into the food industry?: Ask questions. You can open so many doors by asking questions to people. Ask people why do they eat what they eat. What do you eat?: I eat it all. I research a lot on diets but then I eat a lot sometimes. I eat a lot of protein.  What are the common myths about job searching you’d like to dispel?: “There’s no jobs”. As of now, there are tons of jobs. “I’m over qualified” It’s pretty easy to downgrade Where can we find you?: Linkedin McDonnellm2 GRN Columbia.com Other Links 5 Whys ask Why 5 times Sweets and Snack Expo  

Lin Carson is one of those amazing people who will give away knowledge for free. In this case, her amazing technical expertise in the bakery industry has made her able to share this on an awesome website called Bakerpedia. Think of it as Wikipedia, but for bakers! If you are into bread, especially in a commercial sense, you will absolutely love this interview. So get ready, for an exciting segment about baking, along with the tips of finding and joining high growth companies, the latest amazing technology in the baking industry, and maybe this episode will inspire you to make a wiki site on your own. About Lin Carson A passionate trailblazer who constantly challenges current ways of thinking when it comes to innovation and sustainability in the field of grain science, Dr Lin Carson’s love affair with baking started about 20 years ago when she earned her BSc degree in Food Science & Technology at the Ohio State University. Keen on deepening her knowledge in baking, bread and grain product texture, she went on to earn her MSc then PhD from the Department of Grain Science at Kansas State University. In 2007, she started the R&D program and baking lab at Wendy's New Bakery Company in Ohio where she managed the team responsible for product development, ingredient and equipment sourcing, analysis equipment and procedures, specification development and commercialization. Opportunity came knocking in 2013 and Dr Carson took up the position of Director of Technical Services at Dave's Killer Bread (DKB) in Portland, OR. There, she oversaw food safety, quality, co-manufacturing and R&D procedures. Her experience heading the R&D departments at two of America’s leading food brands was invaluable and was how she discovered a huge gap in technical information sharing. When she’s not running BAKERpedia, Dr Carson serves as Treasurer on the Board of Directors at the American Society of Baking, a role she has held since 2007. One of her notable achievements is spearheading the Product Development Competition that aims to identify and reward innovative thinking in commercial baking processes. Aside from all things bakery, Dr Carson is married with three boys and is a self-proclaimed health nut. She trains regularly for Triathlons as a hobby with a transition goal of under 1 minute. About BAKERpedia A year later, armed with knowledge, conviction and sheer guts, Dr Carson launched BAKERpedia with the ultimate aim of strengthening the entire baking ecosystem, allowing ideas to thrive, improving efficiencies and encouraging opportunities for growth. Today, as the world’s only FREE and comprehensive online technical resource for the commercial baking industry, BAKERpedia is used by commercial bakers, ingredient sellers, equipment suppliers and baking entrepreneurs who have easy access to the answers they need to make informed decisions daily. This Episode is Sponsored by Foodgrads This episode is sponsored by FoodGrads, an interactive platform for the Food & Beverage Industry, which focuses on closing the gap between students and employers with a broader mission to attract and retain people to a meaningful career in food. From Food Scientists to Farmers, Chefs to Plant Managers, QA Technicians to Dieticians, or Marketing and Sales, no matter what your passion–there’s something for everyone in Food—and they will help you find it. Join FoodGrads for support, mentorship and guidance to start your career. Just go to foodgrads.com [New] This Episode is Also Sponsored by Steviva Ingredients Hey everyone, we have a new sponsor on the podcast and I am happy to introduce you guys to the wonderful people at Steviva, a sweetener company in Oregon. If you want to hear more about this amazing company, listen to episode 72 with their CEO Thom King. What’s really cool about Steviva is that they are changing their whole company into something bigger and better and I love telling the story of how this will happen. As we progress, we plan to go through the process of Steviva’s transformation and inform you on what this amazing company can do for you. For more information about Steviva, go to http://www.stevivaingredients.com/ Housekeeping If you like what you heard, like us on facebook or write a review on itunes. It helps wonders. I am also inviting you to sign up on our email list at myfoodjobrocks.com. I am doing this new thing called the 5 course meal where I send you 5 pieces of hand picked content and deliver it every Friday morning. Like a meal kit… If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com Knowledge Bombs Why baking is complicated versus other areas of food Being in Operations versus in the Lab A discussion about clean label and skilled labor Question Summary One sentence: I’m the CEO of Bakerpedia.com . A free resource on baking technology How Bakerpedia happened: Food Science Degree, Grain Science Degree, running technical teams in the bakery industry, had an idea, found a gap, worked 2 years without any pay to get it off the ground What do you consider a growing company?: To be really aggressive, have double digit growth percentage a year. Can any company at any size be a growing company?: Great people make growth happen. Big companies just have a harder time getting great people What have you taught your team to be great at their jobs?: Mainly technical skills and basic knowledge of the baking industry. Be open to learn more and more Where do you gather your technical knowledge?: On the job training, courses, AIB, etc. You have to be on the job. Was it hard to make Bakerpedia?: Not at all. Launching is really easy. The most challenging thing: How to monetize My Food Job Rocks: I get to learn something different from different bakers every time and bake amazing bread. Consulting arm: Lin works with 2 high growth clients. That’s enough for her Food trends and Technology: Rapid Hydration. A high seed sprayer. Patent: Rapido-jet When can we expect these new bakery innovations to happen?: Biggest factor is cost. Equipment can last a very long time. Some mixers can last 30 to 40 years. What is something in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: Why aren’t companies cleaning up their labels? Why are they fighting to change their ingredients? The technology is there. Job Hopping: You can’t change that. You have to identify good leaders How do you identify good leaders?: Your network needs to be large. Many years of experience. Do you have a question on how to identify good leaders?: No Who inspired you to get into food?: My father owned a food brokerage and I hung out in their kitchen Favorite Quote: The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond the limits and test the impossible. Arthur C Clark: Scifi Writer Favorite Book: David and Goliath – Malcolm Gladwell also does Revisionist Gladwell Favorite Kitchen Item: Table Top Hobart Version Favorite Food: Bread. I am on this 90 loaves in 90 day journey. Check eatbread90.com Favorite bread: An imported Australian bread with a peral flour Do you have any advice for people wanting to go to the food industry?: Go ahead, we need you! A lot of startups do not have food scientists on their teams. How do we contact you?: If you want inspiration as a working mother, connect with me on facebook. You need to be passionate about what you do. Once you have enough passion, it doesn’t feel like work. Links AIB facility in Kansas Cracker Training Course Kansas State University Grain Science Wendy’s Dave’s Killer Bread Bakeryconcepts.net Why are manhole covers round? eatbread90.com

An Overview of Ideation to Commercialization This episode is going to be a bit different than other episodes. Most episodes were reflection based or stuff about my life but I guess I might have ran out of things to talk about in my life. At least for now. So in this episode, I’m going to talk about the life cycle of a product, how an idea forms, goes through the gauntlet and then commercialized to make tens of thousands of something you've created. Along the way, I’ll give you some tips on how to make this process faster, or who you have to deal with to succeed in this aspect. Most people in a food company don’t know the whole process. Those that do either learn from a startup or force themselves to get involved. I’m the latter. After a recent project where it’s finally launching, I now have full confidence in how a product is made. There are a ton of moving parts and I hope that this episode will break down and show you how to actually make a food product from idea to selling it to millions. This Episode is Sponsored by Foodgrads This episode is sponsored by FoodGrads, an interactive platform for the Food & Beverage Industry, which focuses on closing the gap between students and employers with a broader mission to attract and retain people to a meaningful career in food. From Food Scientists to Farmers, Chefs to Plant Managers, QA Technicians to Dieticians, or Marketing and Sales, no matter what your passion–there’s something for everyone in Food—and they will help you find it. Join FoodGrads for support, mentorship and guidance to start your career. Just go to foodgrads.com [New] This Episode is Also Sponsored by Steviva Ingredients Hey everyone, we have a new sponsor on the podcast and I am happy to introduce you guys to the wonderful people at Steviva, a sweetener company in Oregon. If you want to hear more about this amazing company, listen to episode 72 with their CEO Thom King. What’s really cool about Steviva is that they are changing their whole company into something bigger and better and I love telling the story of how this will happen. As we progress, we plan to go through the process of Steviva’s transformation and inform you on what this amazing company can do for you. For more information about Steviva, go to http://www.stevivaingredients.com/ Housekeeping If you like what you heard, like us on facebook or write a review on itunes. It helps wonders. I am also inviting you to sign up on our email list at myfoodjobrocks.com. I am doing this new thing called the 5 course meal where I send you 5 pieces of hand picked content and deliver it every Friday morning. Like a meal kit… If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com Transcript Ideation There are two types of areas where ideas come from: external or internal. External ideas are based off of market research, or what’s currently selling, or even as simple as “this product exists, but it has x problem, let’s invent a product that doesn’t have x problem”. Most of the time, people in the marketing department develop something called a competitive or gap analysis which lists 5 to 10 of the top selling product’s strengths and weaknesses. An easy way to develop an idea is to just look at a competitive analysis and increase the positive attributes by like 20% and then also remove anything negative. One example is if I did a competitive analysis about protein bars and I see that the max protein bar is 20 grams  of protein and uses sucralose, I could probably be “innovative” and sell a protein bar with 24 grams of protein and no sucralose. Though most companies would balk at the idea that this is the way they “innovate”, when you boil it down, it’s pretty much that. Another method of ideation is internal and this takes a high amount of intuition and out-of-the-box thinking. This is an extremely hard type of innovation that is based off of finding the cutting edge of innovation and thinking differently. Only a few people have the talent of connecting the dots, but if you feel like you do, then go for it. Again, I want to stress how hard and risky this is. The bigger the company, the more people are going to think you are insane for even bringing it up. But what do they know? They don’t know food as much as you do right? The best example I have in this situation is Apple (of course). Innovation doesn’t have to be completely new, but it has to be so out of the box people think you’re insane. For example, no headphone jack? That’s insane! Why would they do that? I’m not a tech expert, but that is one example, of an internally inspired innovation. Another food related example is taco bell. In my podcast, I talk about the naked chicken chalupa a lot because I am so amazed that taco bell made a taco shell out of fried chicken. No average company would ever think about doing that. So ideas are great but convincing a whole team that an idea is great is the fun part. Most ideas come from founders or marketing. Depending on the company, research and development is involved, but not as often as you think. They’re the experts and they know their customers, so they are in charge with their ideas. As a product developer, you should respect that. But idea approval is messy and there are several ways of doing this. So how do you validate an idea? The biggest toolset in your arsenal is data. Collecting data that your idea will work out is the best way to prove that this idea is legit, but event that has its downfall. Most really innovative ideas might not even come to fruition because it’s so ahead of their time, or the method of collecting data is wrong. In all due respect, the best way of having an idea be approved by a body just takes a charismatic person who knows how to push the right buttons and convince someone that their idea will make a lot of money. I know this isn’t what most people want to hear, but that’s the way most crazy ideas happen, and also the most terrible mistakes. This is a really specific type of company culture: the culture of accepting ideas. Most companies say ideas come from anywhere, but most companies don’t implement it. All that is true is that the chain of command is really long and eventually, a product has to reach someone at the top and they have to stamp their mark of approval. Good luck! Pre- Commercialization So an idea gets approved and then what? You have to then do the work to make the product tangible to the manufacturing team, whether this manufacturing team is a copacker or owned by your company. This includes a variety of steps which mainly includes making optimal prototypes and gathering documentation on what the ingredients are. Again, different companies have different methods but the big idea is, you have to develop a good recipe that is easily reproducible and make sure it doesn’t kill or sue anyone. So for me, developing a prototype is the fun part and there are tons of ways to do it. If you are under nutritional barriers such as it has to be under this amount of calories or must have this much protein, then it’s best to start doing the nutritional data analysis first than to go in the kitchen and go to town. A good prototype has to go through a vetting process and there are many ways to do it, but all of them involve having someone taste your product. In small companies, maybe you just need a couple of people who like it. In big companies, maybe 20 to 50 people have to like the taste before validating your product can be brought up to a higher being. This higher being is what I liked to call, a judge. Someone who has the authority to approve or disaspprove your hard work. In some cases, this is the marketing department, or the executive, or the founder of a company. The more data you have where people actually like your product, the more you can convince the “judge” to approve your product. Most rational people will approve something if the majority of people like it, even if he or she doesn’t. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes, the judge will say “I don’t like this, I wish it has this, this this, and you have to go back to the lab and try again. Barely anyone gets it right the first time. Some ideas go through 100s of iterations and still get scrapped. But that’s the life of a product developer. So let’s say you convince marketing and the “judge” that your prototype is awesome? It’s going to be very important to eventually get documents of all of these ingredients and archive them. For me, this is the worst part of the job, but it is a necessary evil. There are some innovations in the pipe line to make this easier, like RogoHub, but it will be a very long time before everyone is on board. Getting documents usually involves getting proof from a sales person about the ingredients you put into your food. For example, you need the nutrition facts. If your product is gluten free, then you need a certificate verifying it’s gluten. If it’s Non-GMO, you have to get a statement, but maybe you even need a certificate. Ideally, your boss should have a good system to gather, sort, and archive docuemtns so in case of any outbreak, you’ll be ready to pull out the source. If you don’t have something like this, start one. In some companies, this task is shared among product development, quality assurance, and regulatory or maybe just one of them. This is serious stuff and is going to be super important in the future. Do note, in most companies, this is the sole purpose of a product developer, or a person in research and development who develops new products. If you had to focus on one thing in the corporate behemoth, this is where you should be the expert at. Commercialization Once pre-commercialization passes, then you go into the complex world of commercialization which now involves almost every department working together to complete a timeline. This includes planning, inventory, transportation, packaging, labels, product marketing, procurement, product development, regulatory, and quality assurance, oh, and generally, a Project Manager is in charge of it too. So it works like this: the “Judge” approves of a product in pre-commercialization, and then the company has to make a huge investment to actually make the product. Planning has to make the forcast oh how many will sell, inventory has to make sure there’s enough room in the warehouse and develop systems to track the product, transportation has to coordinate moving the product everywhere, packaging has to develop or confirm the packaging used is correct, labels has to design something pretty and compliant, product marketing monitors if everything’s ok, product developers get blamed for everything, regulatory makes sure we have all of the doohickies to pass it thoggh the boarders (if necessary), and quality assurance makes sure we have all of the specs necessary to document in case we get into trouble. You see this sort of ecosystem sprout out that depending on the company, is either treated as a harmonious beautiful, collaboration, or like Game of Thrones in which a lot of unexpected drama happens either internally in the company, or externally say, a factory mishap or a communication error. So commercialization takes a tremendously long time just because of so many people and professions are collaborating together. Technically, you’re going to do the least amount of work here but that might not always be the case. You now take on the role of someone who verifies things such as factory manufacturing reports, and how labels writes things on the level. If you have the confidence, you also become an authority figure on the product (though marketing might fight you for it). The best way to handle commercialization is not only be an expert at what you do (creating great products) but also be a great communicator with all of the clashing personalities, and the clashing professions. In general, the time frame from commercialization starts with a forecast which goes into motion. If you don’t have a forecast, then well, better just throw money in the pot and see what happens. A Label file gets circulated around departments that all departments confirm around. Your job here is to verify they are using the right ingredients, the right claims, and the right label. That’s about all. Marketing copy or what ugly color they use to represent your products has nothing to do with you. During this time, we communicate with the manufacturer. The manufacturer sends replicate samples of the formula to cross check if communication between formulas is ok. Usually, a triangle sensory test is used to make sure no one can statistically tell the difference between the two products. between corporate and procurement gets a pilot protocol in motion. A pilot is a test run with the manufacturer to make sure they can actually run the lab sample. A pilot is a big step for a small investment. It tests everything about communicating with the contract manufacturer. It tests their mettle in gathering ingredients, communicating with the corporate team, and most importantly, confirms that the product can be made and tastes relatively the same compared to your formula sheet. Packaging is also important, and are usually packaged in blank film or white stocked depending on the product. After the pilot sample is approved (byt the way, you’ll have 100s of samples to give away), procurement initiates the production run which takes about 6 to 10 weeks at minimum before starting production. Post- Commercialization For a product developer, not much goes on here. Quality assurance usually takes the reigns and deals with some check list stuff. However, it is important to keep track of how well your product is doing. You can always ask planning or marketing for the digits. However, now since your product has launched, there are so many other things that can go wrong and all of them focus on either cost reduction or raw material issues. Things that are very hard for a product developer to predict. Cost reduction involves changing one ingredient with another, usually cheaper ingredient. Cheap doesn’t mean lower quality, over time, things get cheaper due to technological advancements. Low cost projects are usually due to high volume and a bunch of other stuff I don’t really focus on. Raw material issues involve a supplier completely running out of a material and everyone panics. Issues like this are terrible because sometimes the material is so unique or there is a shortage in the world in general. Purchasing will hound you to find a replacement and then there is no replacement because there is no substitute! Whatever. So what separates good product developers from great product developers? Well, it’s a simple answer. How far do you want to understand the process? Do you just want to do your thing? From the people I’ve interviewed, and the people I’ve asked for advice, understanding the complexities of turning your idea into something people buy and eat is one of the keystones to becoming a great product developer. But you actually can’t be an expert at everything. The best product developers are the ones who can communicate and understand the process, and have the confidence to convince people that they know what they are doing. They are the ones who can convince marketing on the challenges of making something, or can work with a manufacturer to make their formula a reality. It’s getting info from various sources on what’s running out so you can prepare to kake changes or subsitutution. To summarize, a good product developer knows not only their role, but how to communicate their role to others. The more you understand the process, the more autonomous you can be, and the more you know what you’re actually talking about. Yes, it’s a daunting step to know how all of this works, but you don’t become great in your own bubble.  

Elliot Begoun is the Principal of The Intertwine Group, which a practice focused on helping emerging food and beverage brands grow. He works with clients to design and execute customized route-to-market and go-to-market strategies that build velocity, gain distribution, and win share of stomach. His articles appear in publications such as the Huffington Post, SmartBrief, and FoodDive. Elliot has had a lot of experience in the food industry. 25 years to be exact and he knows what makes good companies tick. His knowledge about marketing, supply chain and retail management astound me and I hope they do for you too. In this episode, be prepared to learn how to be a successful food company, our predictions in the grocery space, and the common obstacles brands struggle with, and how to over come this obstacles Sponsor This episode is sponsored by FoodGrads, an interactive platform for the Food & Beverage Industry, which focuses on closing the gap between students and employers with a broader mission to attract and retain people to a meaningful career in food. From Food Scientists to Farmers, Chefs to Plant Managers, QA Technicians to Dieticians, or Marketing and Sales, no matter what your passion–there’s something for everyone in Food—and they will help you find it. Join FoodGrads for support, mentorship and guidance to start your career. Just go to foodgrads.com Housekeeping If you like what you heard, like us on facebook or write a review on itunes. It helps wonders. I am also inviting you to sign up on our email list at myfoodjobrocks.com. I am doing this new thing called the 5 course meal where I send you 5 pieces of hand picked content and deliver it every Friday morning. Like a meal kit… If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com Knowledge Bombs - When to share information versus asking for money - What Elliot describes as being a food lifer - Why entreprenuers should focus on what the grocery industry will become in 5 years Question Summary Sentence or less: I help emerging food and beverage brands grow How do you network?: It’s more about establishing relationship. How do you establish trust?: Go all in and help someone when asked What do you do?: I’m a principal. I understand and analyze emerging businesses and make them grow How did you get to where you are today?: Almost went to law school, so he got into general management at a small restaurant franchise, Bon Vorong, Graduate School, Shamrock Foods for 18 years, Foster Farms, then Intertwine Did you find an MBA useful?: I got more self-confidence and I absorb information better, but it’s debatable What skill do you need to be a successful food company?: You have to learn how to listen. You also have to learn how to be a problem solver My Food Job Rocks: I get to be part of a lot of companies and I love seeing them in stores Food Trends and Technology: Meal kits and how to bring amazing foods to busy families The biggest challenge the food industry needs to face: How are we going to feed 9 billion people? Are there any companies that are changing the food system?: There are lots of companies doing it in different ways. For example, dairy farms collecting methane and ugly fruit What is one thing in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: After 28 years, I still have no idea what it’s about Who inspired you to get into food?: Restaurant management job: it was offered to me. On my next job, I got a mentor and she taught me everything. Then I got into retail and it was like a real fun puzzle. Favorite Book: A More Beautiful Question My Quote: The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your questions. — Dr. John Demartini What do you think new brands struggle with the most?: Distribution philosophy. Build a compelling argument for your consumers to buy your products again and again and again to build velocity What is your advice for funding?: Make money first Do you have advice for anyone who wants to go into the food industry?: Run! Just kidding: The food industry is enormous. Go somewhere where you can make a difference. Also. Learn! How to reach Elliot: www.theintertwinegroup.com ; elliot@theintertwinegroup.com Other Links (we link Elliot's Articles Here) Food Dive Huffington Post Aldi’s Lidl Fancy Food Show  

While scrolling through some linkedin folks I found Jessica Goldstein’s lecture she did at the RCA. About a week before, one of my friends sent me a link to her and said she might be good to interview. So I did. Jessica is part of the Nu Spice family business, with her partner in crime being her father. She’s grown up in the food industry all of her life but she first decided to work in an electronics firm’s marketing company. But after a few weeks, she hated it and decided to go all in for the food industry. That means hustling small buisnesses, reading the USDA Standards and Labeling guideline page to page, and enjoying and analyzing every part of her food. One of my favorite things about Jessica is her ability to describe flavors in such a way, that both the technical minded and the culinary minded would just melt. You’ll hear a couple of great food descriptions within this interview such as when I ask her what she had for dinner yesterday. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Sponsor This episode is sponsored by FoodGrads, an interactive platform for the Food & Beverage Industry, which focuses on closing the gap between students and employers with a broader mission to attract and retain people to a meaningful career in food. From Food Scientists to Farmers, Chefs to Plant Managers, QA Technicians to Dieticians, or Marketing and Sales, no matter what your passion--there's something for everyone in Food—and they will help you find it. Join FoodGrads for support, mentorship and guidance to start your career. Just go to foodgrads.com Housekeeping If you like what you heard, like us on facebook or write a review on itunes. It helps wonders. I am also inviting you to sign up on our email list at myfoodjobrocks.com. I am doing this new thing called the 5 course meal where I send you 5 pieces of hand picked content and deliver it every Friday morning. Like a meal kit… If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com Knowledge Bombs How Jessica went from marketing to food The dynamic between Jessica and her father in the family business How Jessica learns and keeps learning about food science Question Summary The influences in how to where you got to where you are today: Grandfather owned food business in New York, Grandpa sold it, father worked in food industry and then bought it. Jessica decided to step in and modernized the business after she hated her marketing job Popular in Cuba: no Cubano's, after the age of seven, people don’t eat dairy What do you tell people when you first meet them?: I play with your food, I design flavor profiles for food manufacturers Education: Jessica has a masters in food science and bachelors in creative writing and psychology Nu Spice’s niche: medium sized meat manufacturers who want to develop new flavors Important Skills for developing: Know the customer’s consumer. Whole foods customer has a different perspective than Food City How did you learn food science vocabulary?: My suppliers educate me. Also learning to educate people on this vocabulary Important skills for selling: It’s a people business. People buy from people that they like Food Trends and Technology: Veggie Burgers, Safeway launches Beyond Meat burgers Who is feeding the world?: Monsanto (despite their controversy) is feeding the world in poor places Food trends: Northern African flavors, stews, Horesus hue – Paprika paste, savory, fermentation such as sriracha and miso Favorite Book: Modernist Cuisine. You can download it on a tablet Be creative and innovation is everywhere What was the most amazing thing you ate last?: Stuffed Artichoke Butterflies Advice in the food industry: You need to love food Other Links RCA Conference James Calvetti Meats Nu Products Seasoning Company or Nu Spice – Family owned business Hoboken, New Jersey LG Electronics Marketing Department Thai Basil Sweet Basil Red basil USDA Standards and Labeling Guidelines book Bone Marrow and bread Bone Marrow in Hawaii where you take a shot in the bone Life is too short to eat the same thing twice Standards of Identity Top-Note

This episode is all about Fair Trade, you’ll not only learn about Equifruit’s focus on bananas, but also what other products can be fair trade, awesome resources in the fair-trade industry, and things of that nature. Kim herself is an expert salesperson. Ever since she was 18 years old, she learned to go out and sell, and we talk over her expert techniques and here’s a secret… it’s all about perspective. Also to note is Kim’s philosophy in life. She’s had so many jobs but because she loved what she did, and that opened more and more opportunities in her life. Something to think about. So in this episode, you’ll learn where bananas come from, how a diamond ring can be fair trade, and how to be an amazing sales person About Kim Kim is a native Montrealer with a passion for all things food.  She graduated from Concordia University with a degree in Psychology and pursued further education at St. Pius X Culinary Institute, where she attained a diploma in French cuisine.  Kim has worked in sales from the start of her career: restaurant, retail, spa industry, catering and now, Fairtrade bananas! Kim joined Equifruit as sales manager in late 2014.  After nearly 15 years of sales experience, she wanted to be more connected on a social justice level.  She loves the challenge of convincing Canadian customers to put farmers first.  Kim brings to the table relentless optimism, contagious enthusiasm and an irrevocable passion for fair trade. Sponsor This episode is sponsored by FoodGrads, an interactive platform for the Food & Beverage Industry, which focuses on closing the gap between students and employers with a broader mission to attract and retain people to a meaningful career in food. From Food Scientists to Farmers, Chefs to Plant Managers, QA Technicians to Dieticians, or Marketing and Sales, no matter what your passion--there's something for everyone in Food—and they will help you find it. Join FoodGrads for support, mentorship and guidance to start your career. Just go to foodgrads.com Housekeeping If you like what you heard, like us on facebook or write a review on itunes. It helps wonders. I am also inviting you to sign up on our email list at myfoodjobrocks.com. I am doing this new thing called the 5 course meal where I send you 5 pieces of hand picked content and deliver it every Friday morning. Like a meal kit… If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com Knowledge Bombs Where fair trade bananas come from How everything can be fair trade How fair trade funds farmer’s kids with money Question Summary What do you tell people you do?: Exotic fair trade fruit saleswoman. A light intro on fair trade Fair Trade: Doing business on fair terms. The producer gets paid properly. When I was 18 years old: Sales as B2B. Cold calling. Selling a product from door to door How did you put yourself out there when finding your next gig?: Social media How to be a good sales person: A really good salesperson reads people well. Everything from the tone of your voice to the language Does good sales people come from books or experience?: It might be more innate than you think. You can develop a salesperson, but you have to be perceptive. An introvert can be a salesperson Food Trends and Technologies: Purchasing habits of Bananas. People are buying products because of the value of the products Where do you find your sales research?: Canadian Government Websites Who inspired you to get into food?: My family Career path: I study the things I find interesting. You have to love what you do, but there will be challenges. Ask the questions: what would you do for free? Or what excites you? Kitchen Item: I’m a knife snob. I have to carry my knives for vacation Advice for a Sales Job: Ask to be paired to an expert salesperson Favorite Food: Salad and fresh fruits. I would wait for the seasons to enjoy my fruit Advice about life: It’s more important to love what you do because it opens up amazing opportunity. You’ll be a happier human being. Equifruit.com Equifruit Twitter Equifruit Instagram Equifruit facebook Equifruit linkedin Other Links Fairtrade Canada Fairtrade.net Canadian Fairtrade network Guelph Organic Tradeshows Canadian Produce Marketing Association Fair Trade Chocolate, Sugar, Tea Fair Trade cotton shirt Fairtrade Diamond Ring Farm and Food Care BA Psychology Concordian University Saint Pious the 10th – Culinary School Catering Company Fighting the Banana Wars Harriett Lam Social introvert Good survey about personalities Neilson  

Food Law is one of those topics I fell asleep at in college. But it wasn’t until working in the industry did I find just how important it really is. If you’ve been a fan of this podcast, you might have heard my frustrations learning about how the Europeans deal with GMOs. If you’re a first time listener, I’ll talk about it again. But Ceasare Varallo is the man when it comes to making me excited about food law. He’s a lawyer in Italy who focuses on such things as food fraud, regulatory compliance, and communicating crises. This is an amazing interview all about being a food lawyer. You’ll learn how to get a job in regulatory, how to get people to trust you as an expert and the amazing food technologies Cesare’s really into. One in particular that I haven’t heard of until recently… block chain technology Sponsor This episode is sponsored by FoodGrads, an interactive platform for the Food & Beverage Industry, which focuses on closing the gap between students and employers with a broader mission to attract and retain people to a meaningful career in food. From Food Scientists to Farmers, Chefs to Plant Managers, QA Technicians to Dieticians, or Marketing and Sales, no matter what your passion--there's something for everyone in Food—and they will help you find it. Join FoodGrads for support, mentorship and guidance to start your career. Just go to foodgrads.com If you like what you heard, like us on facebook or write a review on itunes. It helps wonders. I am also inviting you to sign up on our email list at myfoodjobrocks.com. I am doing this new thing called the 5 course meal where I send you 5 pieces of hand picked content and deliver it every Friday morning. Like a meal kit… If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com Knowledge Bombs Ceasare’s work is three fold: food safety, regulatory, and managing communication How Ceasare found his niche in food law Why regulatory is getting more and more important The interesting things about food marketing How to learn more about food regulatory Question Summary Introduction in a sentence or less?: I’m a food lawyer. I help food companies to reach the compliance Cesare started with commodities at first and then went to more complicated things later Steps it took to get to where you are today: Criminal lawyer, switched law firm and found food clients. Noticed about the specific type of advice Foodlawlatest.com Blogging advice If you have good content, it will be successful Avoid scandal or “fake news”, give useful facts Interacting with your audience is super important What’s the most important skill you need for your job?: How you communicate and interact with people How do you get people to trust you more?: A blog with good content is a sign of trust, facts are a sign of trust, showing that you really know what you’re talking about. Keep on delivering good content and make them comfortable.The customer today is much more informed Customers are reading more food labels and are willing to spend good, safe, tasty and authentic food. Food Technology: Smart Agriculture, Drones, Artificial Intelligence to spot food safety issues, block chains, Block Chain: Technology used to secure the financial transactions: bitcoins/ cryptocurrency. Will help food fraud a lot. Biggest Challenge the food industry needs to face: Fraudulence and trust. Big companies are not trusted. Local is more trusted. A small minority has a lot of power What is something you would like to know more about?: Marketing. How much work it takes to do marketing campaigns. How do you make things Viral? Favorite Book: Lord of the Rings Favorite Quote: Winston Churchill: success consists of going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm Favorite Kitchen Item: My favorite dish is risotto so I like a really big wooden spoon If anyone wanted a job in regulatory, what should they study on their own?: You can find many courses in food law in United States. California and New York has plenty Study the objective official source depending on countries. Common websites. FDA website, Code of Federal Regulations Not so simple in Europe: 26 countries with deviations Independent blogs can work too Advice getting into the food regulatory industry: Get your hands dirty. You can’t imagine the complexity with regulatory issues. It’s more about how you approach the problem Where can we find you?: Foodlawlatest@gmail.com Other Links Foodlawlatest.com Baby formula scandal Olive Oil Book: Extra Virginity Anti-Vaxxers “We don’t trust science but everyone is eating supplements” Viral Marketing Coca-cola put names on the cans, and they monitor and test everything Food Marketing Nerds Podcast

What’s the point of a food industry podcast if I can’t help you with your careers? That’s why I’ve actually taken a liking on interviewing recruiters because recruiters know the best way to get a job. Bob Pudlock is one of those people. He is an independent recruiter who knows his stuff. Taking an unconventional route, Bob went into recruiting because companies would pay him top dollar to recruit. Yep, one sentence solidified his career. Bob has a lot of practical advice in the show such as how to make 100% use of job interviews when you have to pay for your own flight, the power of long-term networking, and one of my favorite topics, which is better? Factory experience or a master’s degree? Shownotes: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/075Bob About Bob Pudlock Bob Pudlock is the owner and President of Gulf Stream Search, an executive search firm that works with companies in the food and nutritional supplement industries to identify, assess and capture top talent for their organizations. Bob has been in the search industry for 17 years - he has placed individuals all throughout the US and Caribbean at all levels - most of the positions he fills are in R&D, Quality, Sales/Marketing, and Plant Operations throughout the US - he works with venture capital firms that focus on the food industry, start-ups, as well as established brands in the food and supplement industries. Bob grew up in Cleveland, OH and attended John Carroll University where he played on the golf team.  He moved to South Florida in 2011 and is active outdoors with running, swimming, stand-up paddle board racing, fishing and bicycling. 5 top reasons My Food Job Rocks 1. I can work from anywhere - I conduct nearly all of my work via phone, email, and video. 2. I choose what companies, searches, and candidates I work with. 3. I make my own hours - I work as much or as little as I like - although my business demands a lot of my time, I still have the flexibility and control over my schedule to do the things I enjoy outside with the people close to me. 4. I control my income. 5. I get to work with up and coming talent in the food industry and I also get to work with companies that are changing the way we look at nutrition and health in general.  I get to work with people that are truly making a difference in the world. Sponsor This episode is sponsored by FoodGrads, an interactive platform for the Food & Beverage Industry, which focuses on closing the gap between students and employers with a broader mission to attract and retain people to a meaningful career in food. From Food Scientists to Farmers, Chefs to Plant Managers, QA Technicians to Dieticians, or Marketing and Sales, no matter what your passion--there's something for everyone in Food—and they will help you find it. Join FoodGrads for support, mentorship and guidance to start your career. Just go to foodgrads.com   If you like what you heard, like us on facebook or set a review on itunes. It helps wonders. If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com Knowledge Bombs How to make the most of paying to fly to a job interview Why you should go to hiring managers and not HR How even the smallest talks can be impactful The value of factory experience The many factors about the lack of free labor Question Summary Sentence or less: I identify or recruit top talent in the food industry What do you do specifically?: 2 things: companies go to him to find people and he finds great people I focus on relationships and connecting What was the time you talked to someone who didn’t accept the job at the time?: I try to open up to people to imagine the possibilities. I try to set more expectations. What’s the best advice for growing your network?: Throw your net wide, not deep The best thing about your job: The journey of hiring Steps it took to get to where you are today: Ohio, Private schools, good at sports, underachiever, didn’t think what would happen when he grew up, golf coach, training salesmen, “Bob, we will pay you top dollar to find salespeople”, pet food recruiting, then expanded to more - Sometimes it’s ok not to know what you’re going to do What’s the most common theme between excellent candidates?: For young people: curiosity for learning and getting to really understand all the different steps on the product development cycle What is more valuable? Masters experience or Factory experience?: Factory experience. It can’t be replaced or supplemented at a later date. For many people, most people want to do different things Why Does Your Food Job Rock?: It’s all about the journey. Also, I work for myself and I get to have control over who I work with What is Bob’s Win Rate (Hired versus not hired): Average is 10-15 interviews for one hire. Bob has had impressive numbers. The secret is understand what the company is looking for Food Trends and Technologies: The blurred lines between mainstream food and nutrition What is the biggest challenge the food industry needs to face?: Skilled labor. Some reasons: we put our manufacturing plants in the middle of nowhere, lobbying to reduce regulations for hiring skilled labor. Favorite Quote: The Man in the Arena. Favorite Book: Oh the Places You’ll Go Favorite Kitchen Utensil: Utensils that are not utensils Advice on the food industry: If you’re going technical, get a degree. Think of other degrees like Masters or MBAs What is a common myth that you’d like to dispel about job hunting?: The best resume doesn’t always win Where can we find you?: Gulf Stream Search. Email: bob.pudlock@gulfstreamsearch.com Phone number: 561-450-9490 Other Links Hiring Manager – Someone who requests a new employee H1B Visa

Steve Gendel has worked in the FDA for 25 years and this guy has had an amazing career doing so. He’s been involved in the latest and greatest technologies ranging from early stage GMOs, Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act, and of course, our favorite one right now, FSMA. The best part of this episode is the very practical and real advice he give son how to get a job at the FDA. Of course, it’s a special mix of fiscal year luck, and who you know. He tells you the best places to meet people in the FDA, where the FDA usually works at (which of course, it’s not easy find), and when to start asking your contacts if there are positions open.  http://myfoodjobrocks.com/074Steven About Steven M. Gendel, Ph.D. Dr. Gendel works to ensure safe food for everyone through education, consulting, and support of food manufacturers and organizations of all sizes as the Vice President, Division of Food Allergens, IEH Laboratories and Consulting Group. This includes facilitating compliance with the rules issued under the Food Safety Modernization Act, and supporting the development of Hazard Assessments and Food Safety Plans. He applies a scientifically sound approach to allergen control and testing, and to resolving compliance issues.  He is a Food Safety Preventive Control Alliance Preventive Controls Lead Trainer, a Certified Food Scientist, and an experienced speaker.  Previously he was the Food Allergen Coordinator for the US Food and Drug Administration where he lead policy initiatives, the development of regulatory documents, and assisted in enforcement activities.  He has over 25 years of experience in food safety science and policy and over 90 techincal publications. He held postdoctoral positions at Harvard University and the University of Toronto and was on the faculty of the Department of Genetics at Iowa State University before joining the FDA. Sponsor This episode is sponsored by FoodGrads, an interactive platform for the Food & Beverage Industry, which focuses on closing the gap between students and employers with a broader mission to attract and retain people to a meaningful career in food. From Food Scientists to Farmers, Chefs to Plant Managers, QA Technicians to Dieticians, or Marketing and Sales, no matter what your passion--there's something for everyone in Food—and they will help you find it. Join FoodGrads for support, mentorship and guidance to start your career. Just go to foodgrads.com Knowledge Bombs Steve talks about why he stayed in the FDA for 25 years How the FDA is funded What the FDA controls What Steve thinks has the best food safety programs The best advice on how to get into the FDA When to start looking for a FDA job Question Summary One sentence or less: I’m a food safety scientist. My job is the next thing you eat will not kill you Best thing about your job: I feel like I’m really making the world safer Step to get to where you are today: Undergraduate degree in engineering in KS Western reserve , Graduate in UC Irvine in biology, Department of Genetics in Iowa University, met someone at FDA which was now Institute of Food Safety and Health, stay with the FDA for 25 years, now a consultant What is the difference between the FDA then and now?: A lot of external factors shape the projects such as consumer, laws and regulations, and new congressional turnover The hot topic before you left: FSMA is coming into effect (well…. Maybe not anymore) Most important skill you can have in food safety: Flexibility. Food safety is a very integrative type of field. There are a lot of pieces in Food Safety. Projects Steve was involved in: Potential allergens in GMOs (back when it was new) Risk analysis modeling Joint project between FDA and Health Canada about Soft-cheeses and L.monocytogenes Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act. Thresholds for Allergens Lead author of an allergen threshold report Helped with FSMA’s preventative control New Food Trends and Tech: Advanced Genome Technologies. Can be a great tool to understand pathogens. It helps you understand where they come from and then we can do that Biggest Challenge the Food Industry has to face: Transparency. Mainly asking “why” One thing you’d like to know more about: How companies invest in food safety and food safety program Favorite Quote: To err is human but to really mess up, you need a computer Favorite Food: Grilled Cheese Sandwich. Sharp Cheddar, Swiss Cheese, Artisanal Food What Advice Would You Give TO Work In The FDA: At this particular time in history, it’s hard to say. However, meet people in the FDA. It’s who you know. How to meet FDA people: Scientific Conferences. Local meetings at IFT and IAFP, American Chem Society, Society of Toxicology, talk to them, they will know others who do. USAjobs.com Office of Regulatory Affairs. There are District Offices. Contact the Deputy Director of that office Commissioner’s Fellowship ORISE- Oakridge CIFSAN – Centers for Food Safety in Universities that work collaboratively. Can get graduate or postdoc positions Fiscal Year for the Federal Government: Begins October 1st, ends October 1st. But start looking now How to find Steve: linkedin Other Links Ep. 031 - Tiffany Lau Myrian Zboraj – Quality Assurance Magazine GATTACA Walmart Costco  

Darin’s son died of an E.coli outbreak and he has spent the last 25 years devoting his life to making the world a safer place. Within the last 25 years, he’s become a Doctorate in Law and Policy where his main focus is to implement Food Policy. He’s talked with doctors, scientists, law makers, and graduate students into fighting for food safety. In his spare time, he comforts people who have gone through the same troubles as he has, and shares their stories. Darin does a great job weaving intricate stories to give you the sense of importance in Food safety, which includes aspects of history, humanity and Chipotle. A serious note for this interview: This is a very dense and emotional conversation of food safety. Darin really cares about what he does, and by the end of the episode, I hope you have a renewed sense of importance in food safety. About Darin  Dr. Darin Detwiler is the Assistant Dean and a Professor of Food Policy at Northeastern University College of Professional Studies, Boston, MA.  He is a food industry consultant, columnist, and frequent speaker at events across the country and beyond.   He is coincidentally going to be on American Greed (yes, that's his voice) this week  Sponsor This episode is sponsored by FoodGrads, an interactive platform for the Food & Beverage Industry, which focuses on closing the gap between students and employers with a broader mission to attract and retain people to a meaningful career in food. From Food Scientists to Farmers, Chefs to Plant Managers, QA Technicians to Dieticians, or Marketing and Sales, no matter what your passion--there's something for everyone in Food—and they will help you find it. Join FoodGrads for support, mentorship and guidance to start your career. Just go to foodgrads.com Knowledge Bombs Why deadly foodborne illnesses spikes during the summer months, which causes a bad experience in Thanksgiving The stories behind statistics. Focus on the stories. How the FDA has changed in the last 25 years How people being lazy can cause massive damage How history impacts food policy Everyone has a role to play in food safety Understanding the cause and effect in food safety Why Darin chooses Academia to do Food Safety How Darin balances out food industry stories and family stories and the differences between them How Darin’s perception of food safety has changed over time The lack of Ethics in the Peanut outbreak We talk smack about Chipotle I’m as old as Chipotle Key Summary How Darin has improved Food Safety: 1992 – operating a nuclear reactor, supported the USDA on food safety, went back to university and taught for 15 years in forensic science, Doctorate in Law and Policy and focus was on implementing food policy, Two reasons why food safety fails: They don’t understand or they don’t care. Maybe we need to teach people earlier. Most Food Safety folly is based on greed My Food Job Rocks: Food affects everyone and we connect to it on all aspects of life What advice do you give people to excel at what they do?: If you see things and you don’t take action, or won’t eat your own product, ask questions. Be a self-advocate. Why did Chipotle fail their food safety protocols?: Failure to invest in safety. The system needs work, but their response is textbook What should Chipotle should have done to be better?: They can’t fix the past Other Links Stop Foodborne Illnesses Jack-in-The-Box E.coli outbreak 1993 Food Fraud: Big in Europe Bioterrorism Upton Sinclair – The Jungle Peanut Outbreak Chipotle Outbreak Contact: d.detwiler@neu.edu Quality Assurance Magazine

  Thom King is probably the best CEO I’ve ever had the chance to talk to. He’s fun, innovative, and he just loves his job and the people he works with. I had a great hour and a half talk with him on my lunch break and had to find an excuse when I got back to work. This interview is that good. Where to start from this interview… whether you’re a young professional, an old soul, or a struggling entrepreneur, Thom will give you advice on all aspects of your career. You’ll learn how to deal with conflict in the work place, the touching reasons why Thom loves his job, the amazing first stage of stevia and the growth of the brand, and at the end of the segment, the power of having a good idea and working hard so that everyone knows you’re the best. Remember: I am currently recording this at my hotel at IFT. Just saying, I’ll be there until Wednesday. If you’re available, I’d love to meet you. Just email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com If you like what you heard, like us on facebook or set a review on itunes. It helps wonders. If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com Sponsor This episode is sponsored by FoodGrads, an interactive platform for the Food & Beverage Industry, which focuses on closing the gap between students and employers with a broader mission to attract and retain people to a meaningful career in food. From Food Scientists to Farmers, Chefs to Plant Managers, QA Technicians to Dieticians, or Marketing and Sales, no matter what your passion--there's something for everyone in Food—and they will help you find it. Join FoodGrads for support, mentorship and guidance to start your career. Just go to foodgrads.com   About Thom King Part CEO, part personal development wonk and part biohacker info geek, Thom is a self-confessed serial entrepreneur. While his favorite book list contains many success-oriented and personal-development classics, the classic definition of achieving success (e.g., making a lot of money) is not what inspires or motivates Thom. He follows more of a “you aren’t doing well unless you’re also doing some good” line of thinking. Thom’s company has been built around the simple principle of “do the right thing.” Knowledge Bombs - How to deal with conflict in the work place - Literally the birth of Stevia - How to get triple digit growth 3 years in a row - Some methods to understand people - Thom’s interesting hobby and how he makes them - How to validate a good idea Question Summary Elevator Pitch: A sweetner that doesn’t affect blood sugar levels that became an ingredient company Favorite thing to do as a CEO: Make my employees cry with tears of joy; Be appreciative with your employees What do you think you do in a day?: Manage personalities How many people are in your company?: 32 people How do you deal with conflict?: Clashing is a function of a breakdown in communication; I learn about the problem, and get to a common ground People who get under your skin: Imagine them as a six year old child Steps it took: Thom met Jim while doing radio, he tasted Stevia, made Stevia extract in a  garage Steviva was born in 1992 2008 – Stevia was given provisional GRAS status, moving Thom’s company to Food Ever since 2015, Steviva has experienced triple digit growth Metabolic disease: Obesity, diabetes Why did you start a food company and what keeps you going?: Getting rid of metabolic disease is my why Most important skill you can have in the industry: integrity. Constantly improve your product. Integrity is a service to makea  good product. Food trends and technologies: Probiotics and fermentation Thom makes his own probiotics and uses an 11 strain fiber What is one thing you’d like to know more about?: Hydrocolloids, thickening agents Example: thai chilli sauce, jam, etc Favorite Quote: Tony Robbins: Anything is possible and it’s up to you to make it probable Favorite Book: Right now is Tools of Titan Favorite Kitchen Item: Sous Vide Favorite Food: Spaghetti and Meatballs Any Advice for starting your own business: listen to Gary Vee’s Podcast. You grind and grind and grind and grind some more This is the best time in the world ever to start a business Low entry points for validating your idea: social media and crowd funding One thing you’d like to know about starting your business: more knowledge about Accounting What’s next for Steviva: Moving to another facility. Quadrupalling the size of our R+D lab Steviva: twitter, Instagram, etc info@steviva.com --> direct it to Thom! Other Links Steviva Nextiva brand – Stevia infused agave nectar Marrakesh Spice Provencal Anise Maple syrup Masala Chai Spice DE 42 High fructose corn syrup Jim May – Founder of Wisdom Naturals DISC test – Analyzing human needs for all employees Polyols/Erythritol FDA rulings on fiber Jerusalem Artichoke Chicory Root IMOs Custom Probiotics Glendale Los Angeles Flowbee- vaccum haircut Ketogenic diet Exogenous ketones

I am fortunate to interview Steve MacIntyre, as he brings a new perspective compared to the standard guests we interview here. He is the first Human Resource professional, and the only one I know who is really passionate about his industry. Like many of our guests, Steve’s career path involved a lot of twists, and turns, and ultimately, a lot of leaps of faiths. From the army, to health and safety, to eventually, human resources, you can really feel how Steve has kind of gone with the flow in his career. As a HR professional, Steve brings some amazing advice in this interview which will help you become a much better professional. We give you some tricks on how to take advantage of networking, make the most of taking an expert to coffee, and igniting your intellectual curiosity About Steve MacIntyre An energetic, results-focused HR professional who directly contributes to a high performance culture by creating an employee oriented climate and implementing progressive and consistent people management practices that emphasize engagement, integrity, productivity and consistency. Provides sound advice and guidance on human resources issues to leaders enabling our business to attract, retain, and engage great people who are inspired by superior results. About Vibrant Health Products Our story finds its humble beginnings in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, where Brad Brousson began using his mother’s recipe to bake sprouted grain bread for guests at a wellness resort. In 1989, Stan and Kathy Smith partnered with Brad to form Vibrant Health Products, sharing Brad’s passion for health and wellness. Over the years, the company has expanded to include three brands: Silver Hills Bakery, One Degree Organic Foods, and Little Northern Bakehouse. But the company remains family-owned and operated. And the same homemade quality that began in Brad’s kitchen is still present in each loaf of bread, bagel, and bun we bake. Sponsor This episode is sponsored by FoodGrads, an interactive platform for the Food & Beverage Industry, which focuses on closing the gap between students and employers with a broader mission to attract and retain people to a meaningful career in food. From Food Scientists to Farmers, Chefs to Plant Managers, QA Technicians to Dieticians, or Marketing and Sales, no matter what your passion--there's something for everyone in Food—and they will help you find it. Join FoodGrads for support, mentorship and guidance to start your career. Just go to foodgrads.com If you like what you heard, like us on facebook or set a review on itunes. It helps wonders. If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com Knowledge Bombs - Why being a HR professional in the food industry is different compared to any other industry - How to be transparent and getting into the culture of transparency - How Steve used networking to excel at his job - Why Steve left his first job because of the products they made - How to get the most value out of a coffee interview - How to encourage people to demonstrate intellectual curiosity Question Summary Sentence or less: Senior level HR practitioner for the food industry Why do you like the food industry: Food is something we all share. It's more intimate What is the best thing about your job?: Hiring people, and give young professionals their first opportunity Describe the steps it took to get to where you are today: I was in the army, electrician apprenticeship, laid off, food business is hiring electricians, health and safety committee, HR director asked him to take over and he loved it Required HR: Chartered Professional in Human Resources (Canada)  or SPHR (US) What should more people do to be good at their job?: Network with people who do what you do and do what you want to do.  Be intellectually curious My Food Job rocks: I get to be part of this movement Food Trends and Technologies: Sustainability, Whole Foods One thing in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: Marketing. How do we influence you to buy our stuff? Advice Going Into The Food Industry: Call me! But seriously, I love talking to passionate people. How do you find good candidates?: I’m looking for energy How can we reach you?: Through linkedin Other Links Gardeen Flexitarian Give and Take

  If you like what you heard, like us on facebook or set a review on itunes. It helps wonders. If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com Manuscript Looking at my calendar, I saw that this podcast actually started in June. It’s felt like a long time. A lot of things have happened while creating this podcast. I met some incredible people, collaborated with geniuses, and made my connections with my friends unbreakably strong. Other than that, a total of 15,000 people have downloaded the podcast, averaging 215 listens per episode. For me, I’m happy with this. So in this episode I just wanted to really flesh out the events that made this podcast for what it was today, and how it slowly transformed. From the independent website, graduate student series, to why I am changing some of my questions, I want to tell you just how fun it was making this thing and where we’re planning to go next. Let’s being Beginnings Have I told this story before? Maybe only to my guests, or with my friends. When I first moved to Phoenix, I became obsessed with Podcasts, almost about the same time I started hating my job, which you can listen about in episode 60, which was around the time I wanted to find a way out. I noticed that sure, listening to music was fun, but it wasn’t productive. So I started listening to audio books which I borrowed form the Phoenix library. Soon it evolved into podcasts. My first podcasts I listened to often were Smart Passive Income and Entrepreneur on Fire. I’d consider these entry-level because they are indeed inspiring stories with a little bit of tactical knowledge. This went on for about a year. In maybe January 2016, I read an article by Tim Ferriss about how he started his podcast. Through his write up, I found it was pretty easy to do. For example, the equipment was dirt cheap, and the barrier to entry is pretty good. About a month later, Nicole posted the fated article about how the food industry is hiring people at a declining rate and everything kind of clicked. The lesson here is really about this simple equation, that opportunity + preparedness = luck is something that resonates with me when I do projects. If I didn’t listen to podcasts, or read how to do them, I would never had had the opportunity to work with Nicole. There are many other factors in how this started up that made it worked as well. For example, Foodgrads was a startup, so they were flexible and willing to support me in this venture. Though they didn’t give me initial capital, the power of just getting a thumbs up is more than enough justification to get started with the podcast so I set aside $1000 dollars and went to town. I would provide the episodes, and they would provide the website that I could post on. I bought equipment recommended by Tim Ferriss including this microphone. I downloaded Audacity, and then I bought a course called Podcaster’s Paradise. This course was created by John Lee Dumas from Entrepreneur on Fire. I subscribed for about 3 months and learned a lot of technical tidbits in not only on how to use Audacity, but how to structure my podcast from getting guests to sending thank you notes. It also gave me some amazing tools such as calendly.com and libsyn. I also found the facebook group they had extremely supportive and that’s also where I met Kim from Peas On Moss, who started her podcast the same time as I did. So starting that, I now had to get guests. First up was Nicole and Juliette from Foodgrads as they were the ones hosting it on their website, so it just seemed right. Then I got Trevor Fast, Brian Chau, and Taryn Yee, while on a work trip to California. I literally scheduled time to meet and record. It was really fun! I remember doing the dumbest thing while doing Trevor’s interview. I thought the room was too noisy so I thought we could do it in the office. We ended up doing the interview in a cramped, noisy room where chocolate was being refined. Editing that was a pain. So you keep going. Episode 6 was my most valuable guest being Dr. Howard Moskowitz in more ways than one. This one was a stroke of luck I had no idea how I got him on the show. I just connected on linkeidn, he sends me a bunch of stuff and I asked him to be on the podcast. That’s so cool! I realized then, that the ability to ask someone to be on a podcast is an extremely valuable tool. For one, it gives you a very legitimate excuse on inviting, and talking to people you want to talk to, and I would say about 70% of my podcasts have guests I personally contacted, 10% are from people who sign up to be interviewed randomly and another 20% are referred to by either previous guests or friends. My biggest tips for finding great guests is pretty simple, especially for people on linkedin. For one, if they post a lot, it’s more likely they would like to be on the show. There are only a few exceptions I’ve had with this. People who are going to launch something, whether it’s a book or new product, are especially willing to talk about it as well. This is how I got Ali Bouzari on the show, for instance. Connectors, whether self-proclaimed are not have their perks too. Rochelle Boucher, for example, knew a ton of people and supported me in huge amounts getting guests that came to her Miele location. I returned the favor with my own resources. After my recent talk with Alex Oesterle from Food Marketing Nerds, I found that he has a very different way of contacting. A bit more professional, which I might want to dive in the future. He goes through PR firms or PR departments to get amazing guests from the marketing department. I’ve only had a couple of guests been blocked by denying permission, which I actually find kind of, a strange and outdated practice, but I understand. But the method I use works, I have absolutely no problem finding guests and I actually realized that I don’t need big shots on my podcasts. I actually really enjoy interviewing fresh, inspiring graduates. Some recent examples like Jon Weber and Louis Edmond, who both just got their jobs, were extremely satisfying to talk to just because of their passionate outlook in life and I wouldn’t have it any other way. So this brings me to another topic about what you want your podcast to represent. This means knowing your audience, and catering to that audience. Overall, the message and structure for My Food  Job Rocks is a pretty simple one: explore different food jobs, dive in a little bit of their history, and explore their viewpoints on current events such as technology or current events. At the end, we cool down and talk about books, quotes, and favorite foods. The questions we’ve designed for our show is pretty standard, but testing certain questions has made the process a lot of fun. One of the questions I’ve changed was “what is a standard day like?” I used this question in the beginning, but all I got was “every day is different!” So I changed this question and worded it in multiple different ways. Sometimes I say “what’s the most exciting part of your job?” or “what’s the worst?” some of my personal favorites include asking the process of how to make a certain food such as with Jocelyn Ngo or Haley Richardson. By diving into a subject filled with enigma versus a standard routine, in usually generates more excitement. One of the other questions I’ve had a good time playing around with is “what do you think are the important skills you need in your job?”. My favorite answer to this question is from Tiffany Tong from Canada’s Smartest Kitchen, where she said adaptability. After she did a beautiful explanation of the word, I dug deeper. “How do you become more adaptable?” I guess the trend and evolution of the questions I ask is more about “how can I make this podcast more exciting/unique, and what type of tactical and actionable advice can I give to my audience?” Next topic is in regards to why we split off from Foodgrads initially, around episode 16: Well, I wanted more control and a certain person who was there at the time didn’t want that. Eventually, they had to approach to let me go. I’m bad at assuming things, so I’ll leave it as: I grew too big for their nest so I had to leave. With a mix of disappointment, support from my friends, and admittedly, utter rage, I decided to make my own website to host my podcast. I still had a weekly podcast so I had to make a website fast. Luckily, this wasn’t just a start-from-scratch bang my head against the wall. Ever since I started hating my job, I dabbled into website design. I made my first “successful” website called Az Asian Food Review. Where I reviewed Asian food in phoenix. I had to pay for a theme dedicated to podcasting (which in hindsight, I never used that feature) and a pretty good front page function. Building the website was actually one of the most exhilarating I’ve done for this project and I am really proud of the website I made. Using my skills from Canva, and my website experience, I made a website for maybe under $150 dollars that I could use as my playground. And looking back, I used it as a playground very well. Evolving the shownotes, making a blogging section for my own personal use, and recently, hosting another person’s content made this website a proud accomplishment. Eventually, I made a deal with Foodgrads to work with them. Yes, it was awkward at first, but both Nicole and I supported each other. I actually had a huge internal debate not to do it because of an ego issue on my end, but that was a dumb, childish reason. The main reason is really, we can’t do this alone. If we’re split now, there is no way to conquer the industry. I need Nicole to be a powerhouse distribution force in the future, and she needs my high quality content to satisfy her readers. Two lessons appear from this: don’t burn bridges, and don’t give up. I could have easily been extremely hot headed and aggressive in this scenario, and let my ego do the talking, but I had to bite my tongue. It’s paid off. Another thing is consistency. If you really want to make this not a hobby, you need to be consistent with your episodes. Too many people get burnt out or just lose motivation on doing a weekly podcast. What actually happened was I liked interviewing so much I ended up having so many episodes, I had to open the flood gates and launch 2 episodes a week. I was so hard to switch to 1 but I realized that two episodes a week really took a toll on my life. Luckily, I had Veronica Hislop save me with her willingness to provide awesome content with her blog posts. So I want to wrap this whole thing up into a lessons learned scenario. Both podcasting and website design were once small interests, that later became hobbies and then actually became revenue generating. Yes, I made my initial investment back 5 times over. Some were direct requests, others were from referrals from guests. Not only that, but certain guests have contacted me for other projects and what’s coming in the next couple of years is really something. At the end of the day, the biggest lesson I have for you is to just start doing something an hour a day. It can be researching, or reading, or just gathering information. Eventually, a seed will be planted into your mind. When the opportunity strikes, you’ll be prepared. As maybe you could tell from this episode, most of the opportunities I was given was So the best place to invest a minimal amount of skill? I’ll give you two resources where you can find a skill and then have the opportunity to dig deeper. Entreprenuer Podcasts The SPI podcast by Pat Flynn is probably the best resource to find a collection of people who are making income in unconventional ways. This was actually one of the avenues I’ve used to another area of interest which ended up being a bad investment but that’s another story. You can probably find things similar to SPI by typing in entrepreneur podcast in your favorite search engine. Other search terms you can use is Bootstrapping, and built. Recently, Reid Hoffman’s Masters of Scale has been one of the best things I’ve ever listened to so if you’re going for it, you gotta listen to his stuff. And Facebook sponsored webinars If you’re like me, a bunch of people are now pitching their “free webinar” facebook ad on my feed constantly. Maybe it’s because I like stuff that attracts those adds to me… Anyways, you should try it out. You’ll only invest one hour of your time. But be careful! These types of webinars will always try and sell you something. It’s just their design. Whether you buy or not, is up to you. However, as a disclaimer, I buy maybe 20% of products that I see in webinars. The point in exploring different avenues is to eventually find something where you can utilize the skill. The demand or timeline will be your bridge from interest to skill. The power of having your back against the wall, you’ll be surprised in what you could get done. Have a website to build in a week when someone lets you go? Time to get serious. This is actually what I’m kind of missing now, the stuff I’m doing is awesome, but I need a sense of urgency to kick me in the butt. Apparently, it’s just my personality. So where is this podcast heading in the future? I don’t know. My goal is 100 episodes. Judging by the rate of this, we’ll be there in January. With more than 50 interviews under my belt, I think it’s time to push a little bit on wrapping up the content in a nice little bow and send it to people who would find value in it such as professors, career consolers, or whatever. I think I can put a little more oomph in sharing the content to others who might want to take the food industry as a career path. Overall I have to tell you, I’m in this for the long run. Not just the podcast, but the connections I’ve made with every guest on the show is extremely valuable and every time I see their names or faces, I remember of the pieces of gold within their interview. Every podcast guest has taught me so much about just how passionate people are in their job. Whether it’s young professional’s eagerness to learn or the startup CEOs who hustle and works her butt off 24/7 but are fueled with endless energy, those are the guests that keep me going. The next set of episodes are absolutely amazing. And there’s a lot more variety too. More food safety guests thanks to Marian Zboraj, editor for a Food Safety magazine. She gave me some absolutely amazing people in that sector. What else, more sales reps, where I go more into what makes a good salesman, and the best CEO I’ve ever met. There’s just so much coming up, that I always look forward to trying something new. Thank you to everyone who’s been with me this past year. Thank you to all of our listeners, to all of our supporters, whether financially or emotionally. I don’t know what’s coming next, but things are building and as long as we’re in this together, we can do anything.  

Today we have Shyamoli Gramopadhye a food technologist at Dairy Concepts where she solves the technical problems of her clients in the cheese and cheese powder industry. Shyamoli is actually a very supportive writer for Foodgrads and writes articles on the site. This episode has a lot of info about India’s food scene. Not just the culinary aspect, but the industry aspect as well! Shyamoli is highly passionate in this aspect and is learning as much as she can in the United States, where she will hopefully bring it back to India some day. Other tidbits in the episode include: the power of creative freedom, curiosity, and we sprinkle in a few great book recommendations throughout the episode. About Shyamoli I'm a Food Technologist in the Innovation Department at DairiConcepts. I'm extremely passionate about all aspects of food and my latest achievement in the food world is being an Elite Squad Yelper! About DairiConcepts As a comprehensive solution specialist, DairiConcepts offers an extensive line of cheese- and dairy-based powders, seasoning blends, concentrated pastes, flavor enhancers and hard Italian cheeses. With industry-leading expertise in clean label formulation and manufacturing, our custom ingredients can accommodate your specific flavor profiles and label claims, as well as broaden dairy-flavored ingredients into new dimensions of taste and functionality. Sponsor This episode is sponsored by FoodGrads, an interactive platform for the Food & Beverage Industry, which focuses on closing the gap between students and employers with a broader mission to attract and retain people to a meaningful career in food. From Food Scientists to Farmers, Chefs to Plant Managers, QA Technicians to Dietitians, or Marketing and Sales, no matter what your passion--there's something for everyone in Food—and they will help you find it. Join FoodGrads for support, mentorship and guidance to start your career. Just go to foodgrads.com If you like what you heard, like us on facebook or set a review on itunes. It helps wonders. If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com Key Takeaways - Research versus business and how it works in industry - Shyamoli’s experience with her mother’s food business - Shyamoli and my discussion about farming Question Summary What do you tell people in a sentence or less?: I’m a food technologist What specifically do you do?: Food technologist for Dairy Concepts. They are a support system and test flavors Dairy Concepts: Cheese and cheese powder company Favorite thing to do at your job?: A mixture of science and business. I can see both sides and see how my research affects the money Career Path: My mom is in the food industry, undergraduate degree in biotechnology, subject that talked about food industry, went to get a masters Reason why I went to the US: To study food science and bring it back to India. There’s no food innovation in India The most important skill you need for your job?: Curiosity How should you spark your curiosity?: You definitively have to be in a field that interests you. Read more, keep your eyes open My Food Job Rocks: I can learn so much about food and use it to start something new What Business would you want to start?: A farmer space where people can come see what it takes to farm. The Future of Food: The Third Plate by Dan Garber What do you look for most in a job?: Creative Freedom Is it a cultural thing?: Yes Food Technology: Plant Based food such as lentils Biggest Challenge: How broken the food system is Who is doing a good job fixing it?: Hampton Creek, Kashi, Larabars Favorite Kitchen Item: Muffin Mold for portion control Favorite Book: The Voluntourist by Ken Budd Favorite Food: Pani Puri Food Media: Food Dive, Food Rush If you were to tell a food science class right now, what would it be?: Talk to people and don’t hesitate to talk to experts The more people talk to people, the more we can dismiss miscommunication Other Links Foodgrads.com Procurement Indian Organic Farming Chef’s Table Fair Trade Chocolate Beard Wine Chocolate by Simran Sethi Endangered Species Craft Chocolate

We have quite a unique guest today. Alex Oesterle co-owns his own creative agency, Blue Bear Creative in Boulder, Colorado. His client base is food companies where he creates marketing campaigns for food companies that target the good old millennial population. What’s great about Alex is that he also hosts his own podcast. He created Food Marketing Nerds, a podcast focusing solely on food marketing professionals. So of course, we talk a lot about podcasting and how it benefitted our professional lives. We also discuss what makes a good podcast and how to get guests. If you want to get started with Alex’s podcast, I suggest checking out these three episodes. Episode 29 with Jersey Mike’s Chief Marketing Officer and Technology. Episode 37, how Sooja uses influencers to build their brand Episode 38, which features Wendy’s Chief Marketing dude Brandon Roten, is my personal favorite as he talks about his viral teweets and what it takes to manage that. I loved this interview personally. Other than that, if you are interested in marketing, or branding, this podcast brings a lot of really good strategies on the table. For example, so many different marketing strategies including snapchat, Tasty videos, and choosing your niche If you like what you heard, like us on facebook or set a review on itunes. It helps wonders. If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com Sponsor This episode is sponsored by FoodGrads, an interactive platform for the Food & Beverage Industry, which focuses on closing the gap between students and employers with a broader mission to attract and retain people to a meaningful career in food. From Food Scientists to Farmers, Chefs to Plant Managers, QA Technicians to Dieticians, or Marketing and Sales, no matter what your passion--there's something for everyone in Food—and they will help you find it. Join FoodGrads for support, mentorship and guidance to start your career. Just go to foodgrads.com Key Takeaways Why Boulder, Colorado is an amazing food entrepreneur place Why mellenials don’t like “Why mellenials” articles Why Alex and I love Podcasting How snap chat is used in the food media space? Really interesting discussion about Wendy’s social media strategy Question Summary What is Blue Bear Creative?: We are a creative agency that focuses on millennials in the creative agency What is the best thing about your job?: The creative work What is the worst thing about your job?: The admin work Steps: College at CU Boulder, various job and internships at Qudoba, worked at restaurants in college, went into Finance, did Finance in startups, met cofounder and their skills aligned How do millennials like to be marketed?: They don’t like to be in a statistic. Example: Pepsi Ad Why Did you Make A Podcast?: To capture knowledge in how to make us better than our job How has podcasting benefitted you and your brand?: Personally, it’s shown me how to be successful and I get to see different marketing strategies How do you usually contact guests?: We reach out to brands that are really cool (I use linkedin) What do you think makes a great interview podcast?: Being able to spitball and roll with ideas and knowledge in the industry. Have the hosts do their research. I look for tactical information What Brands are Killing it Right Now?: Justin’s Nut Butter, all of Alex’s guests, Chick-Fil-E, Taco Bell What Food Technologies are Really Exciting you Right Now?: Messaging and tracking data Tasty Style Videos Rogue Wendy’s Account As a business, what is one thing in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: How a big food company without outside help made it Favorite Book: Malcom Gladwell’s Blink Favorite Quote: Man in the Arena It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Any advice about starting a Creative Agency: Start small. Have a specialty or expertise What’s next and where can we find you?: Continue to grow. We’re growing. Other Links Blue Bear Creative Website Denver Colorado Boulder is the Silicon Valley of Natural Products Boulder Chip brand Expo West Naturally Boulder Time Article about Millennials Fat Burning Man Podcast Throwing Shade Audible Food Marketing Nerds Denver Convention Center: Blue Bear Statue

Today we have Jonathon Weber on the show, a young professional who works at Herbaland Naturals, a gummy company in Vancouver, Canada. Jonathon just graduated but he’s worked for so many companies! He also has chef experience, and now he’s a food technologist. This guy is really passionate on what he does. If you are currently in college. Really listen to the part about how he gets internships Other gems in this episode, is that you learn a little bit about the gummy industry, learn how to hustle in college and do internships for small companies, and Jonathon and I geek out about ethnic food which includes talking about Dominican food, Banh Mi sandwiches, monte cristo sandwiches, and my spring fling, gochujang Sponsor This episode is sponsored by FoodGrads, an interactive platform for the Food & Beverage Industry, which focuses on closing the gap between students and employers with a broader mission to attract and retain people to a meaningful career in food. From Food Scientists to Farmers, Chefs to Plant Managers, QA Technicians to Dieticians, or Marketing and Sales, no matter what your passion--there's something for everyone in Food—and they will help you find it. Join FoodGrads for support, mentorship and guidance to start your career. Just go to foodgrads.com Key Takeaways - Why Jonathon changed his route in food science - How Jonathon got 3 internships while in college - Jonathon and my talk about ideation to commercialization - Our discussion on a lot of different ethnic food Question Summary Pitch Question: I’m a food technologist in the gummy industry What’s the best thing about your job?: I solve problems Did you learn about gummies in school?: No, I learned it at work Pre-gel How would you tell a freshman how to make gummies?: It’s simple: a matrix, a sugar and water. Everything else can alter it like pH or other sugars can change it When finding these internships, how did you find them?: I had to cold call them and ask to join, and asked to grow together Most Important Skill Do You Need For you Job?: Organic Chemistry and people skills What Would Be Your Dream Job title?: Culinary Cowboys What do you look for most in a  job?: Room for growth, is there support? Are they open minded? Small Companies are cool because you wear so many different hats Food Trends and Technology: Plant based everything Biggest challenge the food industry has to face?: The food we’re making is sustainable Who inspired you to get into food?: My mother Favorite meal from my mom: Braised beef and beans (recipe here) Favorite Book: The Count of Monte Cristo Favorite Quote: Keep growing, exploring, have fun, learn something new every day, and above all, be yourself Favorite Kitchen Knife: My mercer Tips for sharpening knives: practice. Use a sharpening stone Favorite Food: Banh Mi Weird stuff in Banh Mi Any advice to get into the food industry: Work hard, never give up, be active, network, try new things, taste everything If you were to tell one thing about your freshman self, what would it be?: follow your instincts, ask more questions, spend more time with professors, and you have to be having fun Other Links Soda Scientist Haley Richardson Niagara College culinary and food technology Culinary Scientists Provisions Food Company Savory Cookies and Condiments Black River Juice Co – Ontario Ideation to Commercilization Pea protein gummy Plant based burger that bleeds Plant based fried chicken Monte Cristo Knife sharpening stone Vancouver Hoisin Sauce Gochujang Siracha

I am so excited to have Sapna Thottahil join me today. Sapna has an amazing background. From her early days in food waste to her fullbright scholarship Indian Organic Farming, Sapna is very passionate on the current issues in food that are just starting to get our attention. With a  good heart, she now has a job as a Supply Chain Specialist at School Food Focus where she manages the supply chain for all ingredients that goes to feed schools in California. So not only do we discuss one of the most important (yet not well talked about) careers in the food industry, but we also get into a lot of other really cool things such as whether to buy local, or fair trade, the cool things happening in the school food space, and an excellent tip on how to make your own vanilla extract. hat’s the end of the show everyone, if you like what you heard, like us on facebook or set a review on itunes. It helps wonders. If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com Sponsor This episode is sponsored by FoodGrads, an interactive platform for the Food & Beverage Industry, which focuses on closing the gap between students and employers with a broader mission to attract and retain people to a meaningful career in food. From Food Scientists to Farmers, Chefs to Plant Managers, QA Technicians to Dieticians, or Marketing and Sales, no matter what your passion--there's something for everyone in Food—and they will help you find it. Join FoodGrads for support, mentorship and guidance to start your career. Just go to foodgrads.com About Sapna This excerpt was copied from her website Sapna E. Thottathil, PhD is a first generation Indian American and the author of India’s Organic Farming Revolution: What it Means for Our Global Food System. She is passionate about finding solutions to global health and environmental problems and has over 10 years of experience in international development, environmental resource management, and food and agriculture. Sapna is currently a Supply Chain Specialist at School Food Focus, where she develops opportunities with food companies interested in supplying better K-12 public school food. She has worked on environmental policy and climate change for multiple organizations, including the Environmental Protection Agency and Health Care Without Harm, and has contributed to several articles on sustainable meat procurement, featured in Civil Eats and the American Journal of Public Health. She earned her BA from the University of Chicago, where she was awarded the Udall Scholarship for environmental leadership, before going on to receive an MSc from Oxford University and a PhD in Geography from the University of California at Berkeley, where she was the recipient of a Fulbright fellowship. She currently sits on the Board of Pesticide Action Network, serves as a Council Member for Oakland Food Policy Council, is on the National Advisory Council for the Women, Food and Agriculture Network, and is a Health Equity Expert with the Center for Global Policy Solutions.  In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, gardening, hiking, identifying wildflowers and birds, and relearning how to play the piano. She is also working on another book. Sapna lives in Oakland, California with her husband and son. Key Takeaways What Supply Chain does Our discussion on buying local versus buying fair trade Why cafeterias are starting to cook raw chicken Sapna’s top 3 spices Question Summary What is your definition of Supply Chain?: Logistics between production and consumption Do you buy fair trade or local?: Farmers all around need our support Steps to get to where you are today: Office of Solid Waste to Oxford University in England, UC Berkeley PhD, Fullbright Scholarship to India, published a book, School food procurement What Claims do you look for on School Food Focus: Healthy ingredients, ingredient guide is posted on school food focus What should young people be doing for their job?: Never stop learning What unusual class did you take to help you at your job?: Science and Environmental Issues My Food Job Rocks: I work for a mission focused organization with people who want to change the world Food Trends and Technology: Cafeterias are buying raw chicken and cooking it in house. Transparency in food Challenges in the Food Industry: Food Waste and ironically people are hungry. Supply Chain is full of inefficiencies Who is doing a good job fixing this?: Plant based food companies How do you get on Non-Profit Boards?: It’s like applying for a job. Networking and know the right people Who Inspired You to get into food?: Consumers and my mother Favorite Kitchen Item: Spices. Spice Cabinet Top 3 Spices: Coriander, basil, vanilla Vanilla extract tip: Cheap vodka, great vanilla beans Any advice for anyone going into the food industry: Read on the sector, Check out these really cool podcasts (MFJR), Network, What’s next?: Sapna is making a new book Sapna kerala at wordpress.com Other Links School Food Focus Raw Materials Distributors Pesticide Action Network Food Miles Fair Trade Cal Poly Chocolates Value-added goods Kerala India Southern Indian Cuisine Civil Eats Comfood  

In this episode we have Dan Follese, the owner of Follese Culinary Consulting, where he goes to clients with the latest trends and brings new innovative concepts to life. Dan’s main clients are fast food companies and we go through a lot of talk about how he views new trends and his opinion on certain fast food restaurants. For example: a debate on which is better: taco bell or Chipotle. But this is a really fun episode. Dan is a wealth of knowledge and we talk about amazing resources to make you more innovative. For example, he’s told me research programs I’ve never thought of, how to communicate better as a food science person, and just his experiences as a chef, food photographer, and consultant were really a treat to hear. Sponsor This episode is sponsored by FoodGrads, an interactive platform for the Food & Beverage Industry, which focuses on closing the gap between students and employers with a broader mission to attract and retain people to a meaningful career in food. From Food Scientists to Farmers, Chefs to Plant Managers, QA Technicians to Dieticians, or Marketing and Sales, no matter what your passion--there's something for everyone in Food—and they will help you find it. Join FoodGrads for support, mentorship and guidance to start your career. Just go to foodgrads.com About Dan With nearly 30 years in the business of preparing food, Chef Dan has forged his own path to create a robust background unlike any others. Chef Dan brings vision of collaboration, innovation and on trend concepts steeped in classic culinary ideology that will make your consumers crave more. An extremely motivated and detail-oriented culinary professional with diverse and progressive experience in multiple environments. Chef Dan has prepared white cloth gourmet meals for celebrities, appearances on “Best of Wine & Food” TV Food Network, collaborates alongside food scientists, converts recipes to formulas for mass production, leads nationwide food trend tours, directly supports onsite sales & has created some of today’s biggest LTO’s. Having worked directly with some of the largest food manufacturers he understands the necessities in food production. A Minnesota native Chef Dan has worked and traveled his way around the globe. Spending nearly thirty years in South Florida where he met his wife. They have settled down for the simple life of Green Bay, Wisconsin where they raise their family. Chef Dan’s passion for food and beverage will translate into your Gold Standard of success Key Takeaways - The Big 3 Fast food empires - Olive Garden used to make their own pasta - Why we need Cheese Experts - The sad story about people stealing steaks in restaurants - Dan’s opinion on taco’s à Taco Bell versus Chipotle Question Summary What do you tell them in a sentence or less: I create concepts out of food products for mass or restaurant chains. I work for all sorts of companies including start ups and kitchen manufacturers Background: Chef, Johnson and Wales, Food Styling and Photography How long did you get into full-time consulting?: Most people in the culinary field don’t know about commercialization. Culinary schools are now teaching food science How to Start Consulting: Answer good basic, culinary trade information Most food has already existed, but you have to evaluate how the customer will react to it What should young people do to be good at their job?: You have to do what you love Why are restaurant fail rates so high?: The dream and glamour can go to your head Staff steal steaks from restaurants all the time My Food Job Rocks: I get to experiment with new food ideas and implement them to large companies How to Find and implement new trends: Look at local markets See the hottest restaurants on yelp and see what they do More importantly, what appeals to me? How to train sales people on new products: Demonstrate the simplicity of the product. The top 3 items comparing why it’s different, very basic applications Most Food Scientists don’t want to be customer facing Food Trends and Technology: Health and Wellness: Gluten-Free Biggest Challenge the Food Industry has to face: Food Safety One thing in the food industry you’d like to know about?: Food Science!; Cannabis in the Food Industry Inspired to Get into Food: A Restaurant Job in high school How do you get promoted?: Be someone to show up for any task asked for them. The spirit. Favorite Book: Le Repertoire De La Cuisine Favorite Quote: If there's time to lean there’s time to clean Favorite Food: My wife says pizza but I say Chimichanga Taco Bell vs Chipotle Any advice for anyone in the food industry?: Love food What’s Next? Where can we find you?: Trade Shows Expo West IFT17 I go and represent customers Kitchen Aid stand mixer Data-Central Technomics Mintel Smoked Gouda Arby’s Smoked Gouda special Snacking Innovation Summit – Food Navigator McDonalds Burger King Wendy’s Big Mac into 3 different version Culinology Cargill American Cheese Jackfruit Sunflower Seeds and Butter Pea Protein Whey protein Naked Chicken Chalupa