Spotlight: What I Do As a Culinary Scientist
The science and technology required to get food on the shelves of your local grocery store is vast and varied. One little-known area is called “sensory science,” in which scientists conduct tests to ensure the quality and integrity of the foods they produce.
I had never heard the term sensory scientist before and was curious what it could mean. To learn the basics of this area, we spoke to Michael Nestrud, who has a PhD. in food science and works with Ocean Spray.
Tell us about your current position and how long you have been in it.
My name is Michael Nestrud and I am the Head of Global Sensory Science at Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. I have been with Ocean Spray for 25 months.
First of all, what is a “sensorologist”? I guess a lot of your work is about food quality control at a broad level, right?
We mainly do taste tests, but it’s not that easy. Overall, yes, your statement is correct. In the context of a food company, quality means making sure the current products are made flawlessly, and my team backs them up. For this role, we visit our food and beverage factories and teach our partners to taste products to ensure they are produced to our high quality standards.
Another major role relates to new products. We also conduct tests in the US and around the world for products that are under development. Whether we’re creating line extensions or new products, the customer gets involved early and often. Through lengthy taste tests and questionnaires with tens or hundreds of people, either at headquarters or in people’s homes, we are the communication interface between consumers and our product developers and marketers.
At a very specific level, the sensory science toolkit is “the scientific methods used to trigger, measure, analyze and interpret those reactions to foods that are perceived through the organs of sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing.”
What prompted you to choose your career path?
I have always enjoyed cooking and have strong technical leanings and both are very supportive of what I am doing now. When I was in high school, I ran a 2-line BBS system right from my bedroom while creating sophisticated meals for family and friends. At the time, I didn’t know there was nutritional science, let alone sensory science, so it seemed logical to me to study CS. Two years after completing this degree, I studied nutritional science, was fascinated and left the ship. The idea of creating delightful culinary experiences for thousands or millions of people was too strong to resist.
How did you get a job? What kind of education and experience did you need?
I have an associate degree in culinary arts from the Culinary Institute of America, as well as a bachelor’s and a Ph.D. He received his BS in Food Science from Cornell University with a specialization in sensory sciences. After Cornell, I had a short postdoctoral fellow at the Natick Research, Design and Engineering Center, where I received my Ph.D. work to develop Warrior Field Rations (MREs ™) with higher acceptability.
There are many paths to becoming a sensologist – culinary education is unconventional in the field, although it is obviously beneficial when working with food all day long. Most people follow something akin to an undergraduate degree in food or life sciences plus a master’s or Ph.D. in sensory science to access this area; it says that I have a doctorate. a behavioral neuroscientist on my team as well as a BS level nutritionist. If you can follow scientific methods, understand statistics and experiment planning, multitask, and learn quickly on the job, then you can play a role on a sensory science team.
Do you need any licenses or certificates?
You don’t, but if you don’t have a traditional sensory science education and no advanced degree, the University of California Davis has a highly respected continuing education course that many take (and food companies often sponsor the board). About half of the field workers have this unconventional experience, be it a certificate or just on-the-job training.
What are you doing besides what most people see? What do you actually spend most of your time on?
I spend most of my time partnering with other parts of the business (product development, marketing, and consumer insight) to understand their questions and concerns, and use this information to develop appropriate taste tests, or a series of taste tests, to introduce a new product. or reformulating a product to market. After completing this taste test, we meet with the same group to make sure they understand the results and implications for the project in the future. This is a very iterative process between product developers, marketers and consumers, in which hundreds of prototypes can be developed, 15 or 20 versions are taste tested, tweaked and re-tested by consumers before launching a single formula.
As a manager, I also spend a lot of time mentoring my team, which is very important to me.
What misconceptions do people often have about your job?
I think people are misunderstanding the level of science required to conduct best-in-class taste tests. There is a right and a wrong way to do things, and this can have huge business consequences. Sometimes these tabletop feedback cards in a restaurant make me cringe because of a question that is not phrased or I do not understand the vocabulary.
What’s your average uptime?
I’m usually here from 7:30 am to 5:30 am, or around 45-50 hours a week on a good week. If we have a lot of things to do, there may be more, but if I travel for work, I spend long days on it. The work is rewarded, so I don’t get hung up on the clock too much.
What personal tips and shortcuts have made your job easier?
Two things. First, I strongly believe that technology can provide information faster and more accurately. For example, we use cloud-based technology to conduct our surveys, which allows us to see the results coming in real time from around the world from any web browser, as well as quickly start analyzing. This is the opposite of old paper-based polling techniques or the client / server directional model, which is not easy to scale. The second and perhaps more important thing is that empathy is critical to what we do. Empathy for our business partners, empathy for my team, and most importantly, empathy for our customers. I am constantly trying to understand why they like or dislike this or that formulation, and what we can do better for them.
What are you doing differently from your colleagues or colleagues in the same profession? What are they doing instead?
I am flexible in using scientifically developed “best practices” if everyone agrees on their implications. There is the art of conducting statistically valid tests in a corporate environment limited by cost, money, and human resources. In this confined space, beautiful and elegant solutions can appear. I’m not going to imply that the rest of the field doesn’t do good tests, but I know that some scientists can be very inflexible or, alternatively, break the rules without fully understanding or explaining how it affects their results. Both carry enormous risks.
What’s the worst part of a job and how do you deal with it?
Business needs certainty, and the language of sensory science is statistics and probability. Bridging this gap can be difficult. I spend a lot of 1: 1 time with cross-functional team members building trust and explaining what that means.
What is the most enjoyable part of the job?
Working with people – our producer-owners, our employees and our consumers. I have met hundreds of our owner growers and the knowledge that we are creating livelihoods for generations (for example, 5th and 6th generation cranberry growers) is very helpful to me. I have amazing people on my team, and finally last year we helped deliver over 4 billion customer experiences around the world. Knowing that I have such a positive influence really ties me in with the same excitement I got when I prepared dinner parties in high school, but now the influence has grown beyond the dinner table.
What advice can you give to people who need to use your services? Quite a niche service, I guess!
I’m not consulting anymore, but if you need a sensor specialist on a one-off basis, there are many consulting firms out there. You can check out two industry trade groups – the Society of Sensory Professionals and the Food Technology Institute’s Division of Sensory and Consumer Sciences for a good starting point. In fact, anyone looking to learn more about this area should check out these resources.
How much money can you expect at your job?
The Food Technology Institute published a 2013 food science salary survey . According to their survey, the average salary for a sensory evaluator is approximately $ 76,000. You can imagine that education and experience can move you down or up, and the difference in the cost of living depending on the local climate. I will add that there are very few shots here; it’s hard to find good people (this applies to food science in general). With a few exceptions, during the recent recession, the employment situation was pretty good. Once you have a skill set and are willing to move to where there is work, there will always be more demand than supply.
How are you “progressing” in your field?
Achieve Great Results and Do It Professionally – Good people skills are just as important as providing reliable scientific evidence. Being a good employee is more important than getting your way and leaving everyone in the dust (and more often than not producing better results). Always look for the best ways to do something and communicate how your work relates to high-level strategy. As a manager, my focus was not on my own success, but on how to help my team become successful sensor scientists and contribute at a high level.
What do people underestimate / overestimate in what you do?
People underestimate the complexity of designing, executing, and analyzing a sensory test and, if you’re not careful, overestimate the reach of results to suit specific tasks.
What advice would you give to those who want to become your profession?
We have a relatively small field of activity, and almost everyone knows everyone – take advantage of this. Build your professional network while in school, go to and speak at conferences, talk to experts about what they do, do internships and / or shadow people in different types of roles (government, academia, industry) and never stop being the pinnacle of science. Join one or both of the previously mentioned sensory societies. If you are still in school, then you should definitely go to graduate school if you want to start as a scientist, and you do not need to have a degree in food science to enroll in the program.