As a high school student in Ottawa, Kansas, I was a curious type and jumped at the chance to attend a Kansas State University 4-H camp focused on various careers. There, I discovered food science. This could be a job? Finding the right combination of ingredients in the right proportions to create food that tastes good, fuels people and makes them happy; I knew right away this was my passion. I raced home to tell my mom I wanted to be a food scientist. She didn’t quite understand.
“You want to be a lunch lady?” she asked. But after making and remaking Swedish Tea Rings and various pies with me countless times just to perfect our favorite recipes, my mom got it. This was about more than serving food. With every tiny tweak, we got closer to the perfect indulgence, a recipe to pass down in our family for generations. Today, my work as a food scientist at Corbion is fueled by the same passion, but the complexity in baking excites me more than ever.
Change = Opportunity
The heat is on in the baking industry lately, and for food scientists, every day is an exercise in creativity, innovation, scientific know-how, and intuition. With the use of GLP-1 drugs increasing and consumers focused on nutrition more than ever, people are reconsidering how much room baked goods have in their diets. Sales have been declining, and bakers are searching for ways to adapt. You might expect that, for Corbion’s Functional Systems business, this shift is a threat, but it’s not; it’s an opening.
A key objective under Corbion’s BRIGHT 2030 strategy is strengthening our Health & Wellness portfolio within the functional systems business. While we are still delivering proven solutions in dough conditioning and extended shelf life, we’re also actively investing in the next generation of products that help bakers take consumers where they want to go, toward food that’s more nutritious, and more in line with their intentions.
Making it easy for bakers isn’t easy
When the Keto trend first caused bread sales to plummet a few years back, we developed a complete mix for Keto bread that made it simple for bakers to respond to carb-cutting consumers without building out new scientific capabilities. Now, my colleagues, who just happen to be amazing bakery scientists, are working on doing the same for high-protein breads, bagels, and other bakery applications. Our approach is to provide complete, ready-to-use blends, featuring multiple protein types, that deliver quality results without compromise. We’re also developing additive solutions for bakers who simply want to boost protein in their existing formulas.
Adding a meaningful amount of protein to a baked product without degrading texture or taste is a tough one. Changing just one component in a food matrix changes the whole thing, so getting the new attributes you want without losing the all-important current ones takes a lot of know-how, which our teams have. Traditionally, bakers haven’t needed deep R&D capabilities—but the challenges created by Health & Wellness trends are changing that. For many of our customers, my Tech Service colleagues effectively serve as their R&D department. Our expertise in ingredient functionality, combined with hands-on technical service, means we can take a solution from the lab all the way to real-world production at scale.
The horizon in sharper focus
A really smart, multi-talented team—which includes Corbion’s Global Market Insights group—is conducting a thorough review of our Health & Wellness portfolio. We’re looking at current products, those in development, and the white space that still needs to be filled. High-fiber formulations and emulsifier replacements that create cleaner labels are on the list. Having colleagues dedicated to tracking consumer motivations and predicting where trends are headed gives us an edge in having the right technology ready at the right time.
It’s not just food production
My mom now understands that food science isn’t just about producing food—it’s about solving problems that matter to people. For me, that means focusing our development work on trends our customers need to respond to. That’s what we’re doing in our Functional Systems business. Consumers are asking for bread that works harder for their health, and our team is answering with the science to make it happen. Creating better foods through science is exactly the work I want to do.