Food Scientist

Reports to: Director of Research & Development

Compensation: $75,000 – 80,000/year (depending on experience)

Location: Lakeville, Minnesota

Benefits: Medical, Dental, Vision, PTO, 401K match

About Us

Sweet Harvest Foods is a global natural sweeteners platform and one of the largest honey packers in North America. A worldwide leader in honey procurement and distribution, we are changing the industry by minimizing processing and improving supply chain traceability and accountability. Nature Nate’s Honey Co. (Nate’s) is the number-one branded honey company in the U.S. and producer of 100% pure, raw and unfiltered honey. Offering relentless quality and ridiculously good taste, we put care into crafting a honey blend with award-winning flavor. Since our merger in 2021, Sweet Harvest Foods and Nate’s have delivered on our promise of providing customers with the highest-quality, purest honey, fulfilling our vision of being the world’s most trusted honey company.

Position Summary

The Food Scientist will be responsible for applying expertise and technological principles to the study of food & beverage products and processes. This role will support the coordinated innovation efforts from development and implementation of new products through quality testing and protocols. In coordination with the Director of R&D, the Food Scientist will support product innovation throughout the entire process from ideation to commercialization. This position will provide insight into the potential and practicality of products in development, performing research activities including ingredient selection, vendor identification, and ingredient efficacy screening.

Primary Responsibilities

• Conduct research on honey composition, properties, and applications to support product innovation and improvement
• Evaluate methods to improve aspects of foods, such as chemical composition, flavor, color, texture, nutritional value, and convenience
• Test new products for flavor, texture, color, nutritional content, and adherence to government, industry and highest quality internal standards
• Develop new or improved ways of preserving, processing, packaging, storing, and delivering foods, using knowledge of chemistry, microbiology, and other sciences
• Study the structure and composition of food or the changes foods undergo in storage and processing
• Maintain accurate records of lab work, documentation of ingredients, and provide statistical evaluations and reports
• Participate in planning, monitoring and documentation of product trials leading to successful commercialization of new products
• Collaborate with the production team to scale up formulations and optimize manufacturing processes
• Build rudimentary examples, culinary prototypes, and/or white papers to compellingly demonstrate the readiness and potential of new ideas to developers
• Collaborate with internal functional and strategy teams, and external innovation partners, to rapidly discern, advance and combine inputs to create differentiated, proprietary ideas
• Provide detailed quality control program of existing and new product
• Participate in HACCP and other food safety and quality training and documentation
• Provide recommendations on the right product formula mixes and technologies used for new products
• Support the creation, validation, and development of claims through research and analysis
• Engage with testing labs for key data and analysis, documenting and communicating relevant findings
• Support co-packer plant qualification, raw material handling and environmental testing protocols
• Maintain understanding of industry trends, scientific advancements, and regulatory changes relevant to honey and food science
• Other duties as needed
  
  

Qualifications And Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science or related field required
• 5+ years’ experience in product development required
• Background in scientific procedure, data analysis, and experimental design preferred
• Understanding of USDA, FDA & US Government regulations, including labeling & nutritional facts preferred
• Microsoft Office experience required; project management software experience a plus
• Strong project management skills with a drive for results
• Excellent technical writing skills
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, capable of fostering strong relationships internally and externally
• Passionate about organization, communication, and partnership
• Analytical, chemical and microbiological knowledge and experience in formulation, laboratory, sensory analysis techniques/methods