About Flora Food Group
We offer consumers a compelling choice in four growing categories: butters and spreads, creams, liquids and cheeses. We hold leadership positions in many of the 100 countries we operate in, with iconic brands including Flora, Becel+ProActiv, Blue Band, Country Crock, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, Rama, and Violife, together with our local brands and Professional business.
Global branded food champion Flora Food Group, offers the next generation of delicious, natural, nutritious food. Our products are more affordable and more sustainable than their dairy equivalents.
Location: Wageningen, Netherlands
Onsite
About the role
As Senior Product Scientist Fermentation (enzymes and cultures), you will:
- Build expertise on enzymes and cultures for dairy, plant-based and hybrid substrates to deliver flavour and texture into Flora FG products
- Support product design teams with commercial enzyme and culture solutions across product categories: cream cheese, cheese and spreads (dairy/ hybrids/plant-based)
- Continuously build understanding of commercially available dairy and plant-based enzyme and culture solutions for dairy and dairy alternative space
- Build plant protein substrate fermentation expertise in-house: off-flavour removal, dairy note generation (fresh dairy, maturation), building structure
- Combine fermentation with other technologies as enzymes and process solutions cross-expertise to deliver flavour and texture solutions across product portfolio
- Set-up high throughput lab-bench fermentation screen set-up, test processes on pilot plant with process team
- Improve/ optimize analytics to monitor fermentation and sample characterization
- Run sample sensory evaluations with internal tasting panel and/or product application teams
- Build database of enzymes and culture solutions
Your first projects to deliver:
- Support teams cross-functionally with “commercially” available dairy and “plant-based” enzyme and culture solutions
- Plant cheese maturation study: flavour development during maturation
- Plant-based fermented cream cheese
So, what does it take to be successful in this role?
You are a highly skilled professional with an MSc or PhD in Food Science & Technology, specializing in areas such as biotechnology, microbiology, enzymology, or a related field. You have 3–5 years of hands-on experience in the dairy industry, particularly in cream cheese or cheese fermentation, and potentially in the development of plant-based dairy alternatives. You possess a solid understanding of fermentation fundamentals, including acidification, proteolysis, exopolysaccharide (EPS) production, and flavour formation. Your expertise extends to commercial dairy enzymes and culture solutions, and you bring valuable knowledge of dairy proteins, with familiarity in plant proteins being an added advantage. You are experienced in lab-scale fermentation and are well-versed in monitoring pH and titratable acidity (TA) kinetics. Additionally, you have a sound grasp of enzymology, including process development and methods for characterizing outcomes. With a hands-on mindset, strong attention to detail, and a critical yet proactive approach, you are pragmatic and unafraid to take bold, practical decisions when needed.
What’s Next?
If this position sounds interesting, please hit the apply button now! The deadline to apply is June 19th.
We understand your resume might not be up to date and recommend that you apply with what you have or your LinkedIn Profile. Flora Food Group is dedicated to building an inclusive and diverse workplace, we understand that you might not meet all the requirements stated in the description, but we encourage you to apply anyway. You might be the right candidate for this role or other roles.
Flora Food Group is an employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace and equal opportunities for all. We recruit based only on values, qualifications, performance, skills, behaviours, experience, and knowledge. We ensure job advertisements are free from unintentional bias.
No personal characteristics should be a barrier to joining Flora Food Group. We prohibit discrimination and harassment based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or other personal characteristics.
