Do you ever wonder why your new bag of Skittles includes flavors such as licorice mint or mustard? Or why the local convenience store sells jam in flavors such as apple maple bacon and cranberry relish with Grand Marnier?
It’s because engineers are working their magic behind the scenes.
Engineers and technologists who work as flavorists, process engineers, and product developers aim to make food taste delicious, irresistible, and memorable. And the job requires thinking like an engineer.
“A big part of my role includes planning and executing experimental designs,” said Amy DeJong, Ph.D., senior process engineer of breakthrough technology at Mars Inc., the world’s largest confectionery maker, known for such brands as Snickers, M&M’s, and Skittles. “This includes everything from hypothesis development to determining variables, figuring out how to measure those variables, and then actually running tests and gathering and analyzing data,” Dr. DeJong said.
Beyond the engineering basics, flavorists and their colleagues source ingredients and blend essences, chemicals, and other elements to create, develop, and modify flavors in foods and beverages. “This is a great field to be in and make an impact, whether it’s in the area of sustainability, quality, development, innovation, new equipment, [or] processing — the list goes on,” Dr. DeJong said.
Dr. DeJong and Daniera Thulin, senior product development manager at Mars, said their jobs also offer fascinating experiences in raw ingredient sourcing, process design details, and overcoming global food supply challenges, which range from local conflicts to climate change and supply disruptions.
“We need to make sure we have the right equipment that can make the new product and flavor the same way every time, so consumers have a consistent, positive experience each time they enjoy that product.”
— Amy DeJong, Ph.D.
Flavor faves
How do these duties translate into a workday?
A typical day for Dr. DeJong consists of a mix of meetings with project teams, meetings with mentors, individual and collaborative work to execute projects, and a healthy dose of time in factories or pilot plants, she said.
Thulin added that another intriguing part of the work involves screening and developing flavors — and working with marketers and consumer researchers to come up with popular blends.
“There are several nuances when it comes to flavor,” Thulin said. “Think about vanilla. What is the characteristic you’re looking for in your final product? It could be a bourbon vanilla or a spiced vanilla or a marshmallow-type vanilla. This is where understanding the concept you are trying to deliver on is important to the final product delivery.
“You also need to know where you’re putting that flavor and how it interacts with the full product,” Thulin continued. “The flavor type and level are also important, and this is where you involve the ‘sensory’ team, who help you screen your product variables with consumers to get feedback on what may need to change and what should stay as is.”
In fact, consumer taste testing is critical. “One of the best ways to capitalize on trends is to ensure you have the right market research,” Thulin said. “At Mars Wrigley [Mars Inc.’s confectionery division], we call ourselves ‘consumer obsessed.’ We want to always be sure we’re listening to our consumers.”
Researchers also collaborate closely with the company’s marketing department, she said. “Together we come up with several potential flavor and texture combinations, leveraging insights from consumer research. The key is to make sure the product that we design meets the concept that marketing is developing, which is why partnership is so important. Once we know we have a winning concept, we can then focus on creating and optimizing the product design.”
“Think about vanilla. What is the characteristic you’re looking for in your final product? It could be a bourbon vanilla or a spiced vanilla or a marshmallow-type vanilla. This is where understanding the concept you are trying to deliver on is important to the final product delivery.”
— Daniera Thulin
Technology’s value
A partnership between research and development and engineering is also key. “When you are designing a product, you must always have your end process in mind,” Thulin said.
Dr. DeJong said her team works hard to keep up with the latest technologies that might work well in Mars’ factories because sustainability is a huge area of focus right now. “Existing processing equipment will eventually need to be replaced, and when we do so, we want to replace it with equipment that uses less energy, less water, and less space to do our part in creating a more sustainable future.”
Having the best equipment also helps the company ensure it can provide a consistent flavor experience at a large scale. “The first phase is making prototypes in a lab or kitchen, and then we scale up to all of the products we make at our facilities each day,” Dr. DeJong said. “We need to make sure we have the right equipment that can make the new product and flavor the same way every time, so consumers have a consistent, positive experience each time they enjoy that product.”
The time frame for accomplishing this depends on many factors, Dr. DeJong said. “If we are working on a new product that is relatively similar to an existing product on the shelf, the time from concept to launch can be quicker than if something is extremely innovative. The latter can lead to more technical hurdles through both product design and engineering.”
Whether it’s product development, packaging development, or sourcing raw materials and ingredients, understanding the engineering side of things is incredibly important, Thulin said. “For example, if you want to change a raw material [to] have the same functionality in the specification as the current one, it’s important to assess how it processes on the equipment,” she said. “I’ve seen things that should work, based on what is on paper, not work due to some aspect of the process design.
“This isn’t a showstopper,” Thulin added. “It’s more about how you employ effective problem-solving, build the right team to address what you’re seeing, and ultimately determine if the adjustments that may be needed are feasible.”
“It’s like reverse engineering. You need to understand which components will give you character recognition, the skeleton of that flavor.”
— Marie Wright
Cross-category flavors
Marie Wright is the president of creation, design, and development and the chief global flavorist at Archer Daniels Midland, or ADM, a global human and animal nutrition provider based in Chicago. She has created more than 2,500 flavors in her 30-year career and oversees 1,000 scientists, including flavorists, product developers, food engineers, chefs, color scientists, mint experts, botanical extract experts, biotic specialists, animal nutritionists, and even veterinarians. She says her chief goal is flavor authenticity.
“I love to create flavors that, when you smell and taste them in a simple solution, feel very real,” she said. Wright likens being a flavorist to serving as a “perfumer for food,” creating flavors from scratch or re-creating flavors using all of one’s senses.
Wright said extracting even a simple flavor like strawberry involves understanding the molecules, which, when combined, form “character recognition.”
“You need to understand the individual components of a strawberry flavor,” Wright said. One simple exercise to notice all the parts of the flavor is to chew a strawberry while holding your nose and, while chewing, release the hold. When you release the hold, you experience the aroma of fresh strawberries, Wright said.
“We want to extract that flavor, understand what those molecules are,” Wright said. “It’s like reverse engineering. You need to understand which components will give you character recognition, the skeleton of that flavor.”
She said the four molecules behind the strawberry taste offer:
- A peachy/creamy flavor note
- A guava note
- A general fruity note
- A cotton candy note
“Each molecule taste has its own aroma, but none resembles strawberry,” Wright said. “Yet when you put these four molecules together, that’s a start.” She said chemists can extract the flavor and analyze it using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and other types of instrumentation to understand the molecular composition of the aroma.
Several chemical and instrumental methods are useful in flavor analyses, including solid-phase extraction, solid-phase microextraction, gas chromatography, and gas chromatography-olfactometry.
In fact, several chemical and instrumental methods are useful in flavor analyses, including solid-phase extraction, solid-phase microextraction, gas chromatography, and gas chromatography-olfactometry. “I’m fascinated by creating,” Wright said. “I just created a flavor for peanut butter, even though I dislike peanut butter. But I felt I had captured the essence of true peanut butter. Equally, I love to create savory flavors. Recently, I focused on varietals of peppers. The sweet red pepper is a favorite. It’s hard to capture the true authenticity, but it’s a great challenge.”
Wright also appreciates that trendy flavors in foods and beverages are much more complex than in past years because so many more food choices exist. “Many years ago, you could predict the next great flavor or the flavor of the year — such as pomegranate — but now people have so much more choice,” she said. Global trends tend to drive flavor decisions, she said.
Citrus, for example, is currently taking off because, Wright said, “it tends to be brightening and has a health halo.”
Less authentic flavors are popular, too, she said, such as pickled peach in a beverage or salty snack; rainbow sherbet and bubble gum in energy drinks; and “ice pop” and “meta moon” — a combination of blue raspberry, bubble gum, and cotton candy — in hydration drinks.
Wright said examples of up-and-coming flavors include:
- blood orange
- lavender (“Very calming, a good blend with fruit and citrus.”)
- tamarind combined with pineapple
- salted plum (“The fruit itself boasts great nutritional value,” and it is a popular snack in Hawaii, Japan, and China.)
Wright said she is also seeing customers becoming more open to combining opposites, such as espresso with martinis and orange juice with coffee. And consumers now appreciate more sophisticated flavor varietals such as Alphonso mango and Bartlett pear.
Teamwork focus
Flavorists at ADM work closely with the company’s customers to determine the right product for their target audience. Customers meet with flavorists at ADM’s Customer Creation and Innovation Centers and become part of the creation process.
Sometimes customers will reference a beverage or gummy flavor they like, and the flavorists can build from that. If not, the flavorists have a wider berth to be creative.
It’s especially exciting when a customer wants a solution quickly, Wright said. Flavors used in sports drinks, for example, can be created within 24 hours, she said. Others take longer to develop. “It depends on the complexity and the customer’s request.”
And the work is engaging, she added. “What we love about being a flavorist is that every day is different, and you never stop learning. We enjoy creating flavors, tasting with colleagues, learning new processes, and working with innovation and research and development.”
Future flavorists
“I’ve been very lucky in my career to live in different countries, travel the world, and be involved in different cultures,” Wright said.
She credits her parents’ Turkish and Italian backgrounds with launching her interest in flavors. She grew up in the United Kingdom but enjoyed her parents’ homemade national dishes. Her father made meals from scratch, stuffing eggplant with lamb, mint, and fresh tomatoes from the family garden. Her mother made her own pastas and spiced bulgur with cumin, cinnamon, raisins, and pomegranate.
Wright founded the Academy of Future Flavorists in 2013 for ADM employees who aspire to the grueling mentorship program that leads to a flavorist certification. The academy covers 3 1/2 years of the 7-10 years it takes to become a flavorist.
She screens candidates for resolve because it’s such a long road. “I look for candidates who’ve shown perseverance and grit in other areas,” she said. “It’s a little bit humbling at times. You’re going to feel not very good at it for many years until you are good at it.”
