Core purpose of role
Core purpose of role The role is to support the delivery of innovation across nutrition and health focussed NPD in the food and drink manufacturing arena. With a focus on nutrition and health, the role will give support to partner food and drink manufacturing businesses looking at both developing or re‑engineering safe and legal products to meet nutrition and health targets. Delivering support to businesses in Wales via Welsh Government funded projects and via ZERO2FIVE Food Industry Centre mechanisms, processes, and project management requirements.
The role provides an opportunity for knowledge transfer and mentoring to the FIC team, food manufacturers and stakeholders as well as keeping abreast with current and emerging health policies, nutrition targets and initiatives.
To contribute to the development of high-quality, nutrition-focused food and drink products, meeting product safety and legal compliance requirements in a dynamic food and drink manufacturing sector environment.
Key responsibilities and contributions
1. Collaborate with the food and drink manufacturing business partners and the ZERO2FIVE product development team to influence new and re‑engineered food and drink products by setting nutritional requirement briefs for best practice and/or alignment to targets set by Government, retailers, or other stakeholders
2. Act as the key nutrition point of contact for new recipe formulation reviews, ingredient changes, collaborating with the business partners and the wider ZERO2FIVE team to assess suitability and transition of products into scale up production
3. Undertake diagnostic assessments, review and communicate information on nutrient profiles, nutrition targets and portion size information across multiple product categories to aid continuous improvement across the sector
4. Maintaining information on compliance with industry regulations, legislation, guidance, codes of practice and other standards or requirements relating to nutrition, health and product category.
5. Maintaining and implementing mechanisms and procedures to review and manage development data, including nutritional data i.e. per 100g and Back of Pack (BOP) product data, across a range of product categories
6. Provide ad hoc support with customer queries, recipe planning, and other nutrition related business needs including the use of digital solutions and industry support software such as nutrition calculation programs i.e. Nutricalc.
7. Implement an efficient holistic approach to re‑engineer food and drink recipes to meet specific nutrition, shelf‑life, and safety requirements in partner companies, identifying areas of development and improvement in line with national guidelines and recommendations
8. Co‑ordinate project meetings as required in line with university protocols, communicating key information to senior managers and clients in a variety of formats
9. Willingness to develop training materials and deliver content via mentoring, workshops, presenting at events and conferences to a wide variety of audiences and through multiple delivery mechanisms
10. Undertaking practical and robust kitchen‑based recipe development, co‑ordinating and / or attending taste panels, preparing customer nutritional reports, and supporting factory scale up trials at client manufacturing sites as required
11. A keen passion for food and wellbeing is essential along with an ability to keep up to date with latest nutrition research and legislation at Wales, UK, and international level
12. Any other duties commensurate with grade, skills and abilities as may be required from time to time
13. Ability to travel to partner company sites including a full UK driving licence, and willingness to potentially stay away from home occasionally.
Person specification
A degree in an appropriate, relevant science discipline (i.e. Food Science, Food Technology, Food Nutrition or equivalent).
Essential experience, knowledge, and skills
1. Previous working experience within a food and / or drink manufacturing business in areas of Nutrition, New Product Development, R&D, and managing products from concept to launch
2. Working knowledge of developing products in at least two food / drink product categories.
3. Working knowledge of current social, economic and market drivers in the food & drink manufacturing sector (UK) relating to nutrition, health and new product development (NPD)
4. Have working knowledge and understanding of nutrition, nutritional guidelines and special dietary requirements including HFSS, nutrient profiling models, and food and drink product traffic light labelling in a food manufacturing environment
5. Working knowledge of product safety risk assessment methods and review of HACCP principles aligned to product design and development
6. Knowledge of raw material risk assessment, novel foods, and ingredient sourcing
7. Working knowledge of functional ingredients and their uses in product re‑design / development, including permitted usage and application rates
8. Working knowledge and previous experience of digital solutions and application in the field of product design and development e.g. Nutritional calculation software
9. Previous experience of product specification generation and label / artwork generation and approval
10. Effective communication and interpersonal skills.
11. Accomplished with MS Office, general IT competencies including the use of Excel spreadsheets and other applications.
12. Ability to work in a flexible pro‑active approach managing multiple projects/enquiries at any one time and in line with project management procedures as stipulated by ZERO2FIVE.
13. Excellent attention to detail and ability to generate reports and information to agreed timescales, and for presentation to a wide audience.
Desirable
1. Have worked within, and have practical knowledge of, the UK drinks sector / drinks product development.
2. Have a formal Nutrition qualification i.e. BSc Food Nutrition.
3. Registered with the Association for Nutrition as Registered Associate Nutritionist (ANutr) or Registered Nutritionist (RNutr), or hold a similar relevant (nutrition based) professional membership.
4. Have a formal Food Safety or HACCP Level 3 qualification or above.
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