Bronwyn Hawker
Working as: FOOD TECHNOLOGIST for Frucor
Age: 23
Earning: Starting Salary: $35 000 – $40 000
In a nutshell: “I Work for Frucor and I am a Product Development Technologist. Frucor manufactures cold beverages like waters, juices, energy drinks. I develop drink products from the concept idea through to the manufacturing of that product.”
Why food technology?
"The idea of making food in a laboratory held a great deal of appeal for me, along with the fact there is opportunity to be practical and creative along side the scientific part of this job that really excited me too."
At school
I went to McLean’s College. I studied Maths with statistics, Biology, Chemistry, English and Geography. I took quite a range of subjects and found out about Food Technology through school career evenings. The idea of making up food in a laboratory held appeal for me and fact there is opportunity to be practical and creative along side the scientific part of this job that really excited me too.
I did law and arts in my first year at varsity but I did not really like what I was doing and I thought back to what I liked doing at school. What really motivated me about this degree was that there was a real job at the end of it.
I then went to AUT and did 2 years of a Bachelor of Applied Science degree. I could have done my third year there however I decide to go to Otago University and cross credit my papers and do a Bachelor of Science Majoring in Food Science. This is a 3 year degree. I really enjoyed this degree and one of the main reasons I decided to go to Otago was because they had a product development paper. This really helped me get this job here in their graduate programme at Frucor. I was recruited to this job while I was still at uni.
I think people who do this degree need to think about getting work experience whilst they are at uni. Any thing related to food is a good idea as this will look good on their CV. I worked for a food sensory company and I think this also helped me get this job.
At work
 I take a concept brief from the marketing department where there is an initial idea, this can be really detailed or it may require us to do research on different ideas and ingredients. I develop a product in the lab to meet the brief and then take the product to the factory and scale it up for storage and for production trials. I try and solve any problems that arise from this and then once we have a suitable product we put that product into the factory and follow that through to the packaging stage. We have to make sure there are no issues in manufacturing.
The marketing team get ideas from research of trends here and overseas. We are often looking at brand extensions where we may be looking at a different flavour for an existing product rather than always coming up with something new. If it is a new flavour that is needed we have a flavour library which we can use to develop this idea. We take what we think will work and then we will try them and then we get everyone in the lab to try the samples. At Frucor we always have our drinks ‘True to Fruit’ so they need to be natural tasting not confectionary. It is a really interesting job experimenting with flavours and drinks.
A project I worked on recently was the development of Just Juice bubbles in cans. It was challenging, as we had to work out the right balance of carbonation, fill volume and temperature so as the cans would get pasteurized without exploding.
When food is scaled up there are often issues with flavour variations, mixing, or various problems running the product through our machines. For one product there may be 1-5 product trials depending on what the issues are. This is an important time for the Food Technologist to be on the factory floor watching what is going on.
Why I like my job
It is a job where every day can be different and I am always learning new things. Suppliers are always coming to us with new ideas and this sets us thinking. In this job we always have a personel project of our own the on go. It is often through these projects that we come up with an idea and develop it. These projects are called our “Blue Sky Projects”.
We have about 6 projects on at the same time. It is a great atmosphere to work in here and there are quite a lot of young people. In this job we have a lot of responsibility for solving our own problems with our work so that makes it interesting and is good to have.
What does a good Food Technologist need to be
You need to be hard working and motivated to get things done. You also need good communication skills as you will communicate with a wide range of people for example we have to communicate our ideas with the people in the factory, our suppliers and the marketing people. Being good at time at management and being organized is also important.
Bronwyn outside of work
I play indoor net ball each week but at At Frucor everyone is quite sporty and now there are a few of us who do triathlons’ together. It is fun to do this with others as we do this in a team. I do the cycling.
I also like food. In this work everything has to be so precise but at home I can be very relaxed. Consequently I like cooking easy food.
(Profile courtesy of Futureintech – www.futureintech.com).
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Real people talk about their jobs in food science, technology & engineering (courtesy of Futureintech: www.futureintech.com):
  Simon Loveday, Food Research Scientist for The Riddet Institute, Palmerston North.
 Wendy Robinson, Senior Food Technologist for NZ's largest ice cream manufacturer, Tip Top Ice-Cream, Auckland.
 Harriet Gibbs, Process Manager for multinational dairy processor Fonterra, Edendale, Southland.
 Bronwyn Hawker, Food Technologist with innovative beverage manufacturer Frucor, Auckland.
 Michelle Lucke, Process Improvement Technologist for prepared foods manufacturer, Heinz Watties, Tomoana, Hastings.
 Ben Sutherland, Product Development Technologist for healthy snack manufacturer Mother Earth Foods, Auckland.
 Anna Smith, Development Technologist for milk and dairy foods processor Fonterra Brands NZ.
 Melanie Wong, Food technologist/QA Manager for meat processor and exporter ANZCO Foods Green Island, near Dunedin.
 Rachel Johns, Product Development Technologist for iconic prepared foods manufacturer Heinz Wattie's, Hastings.
 John Evans, Operations Manager for drinks manufacturer Phoenix Organics, Auckland.
 Penny Hosking, Technical Manager for buttercup squash processor and exporter Southmark Quality Foods, Hastings.
 Emily Choi, Product Development Technologist for prepared foods manufacturer Heinz Wattie's, Hastings.
 Tracey Petley-Hibbs, Process Technologist for sweetmaker, Nestlé Confectionery, Auckland.
 Andrew Hutton, Product Development Technologist for prepared foods manufacturer Heinz Wattie's, Hastings.
 Debbie Curtis, Chocolate Technologist for international chocolatemaker, Cadbury, Dunedin.
 Jonelle Taylor, Senior Product Development Technologist for Fresh 'n' Fruity yoghurt manufacturer Fonterra Brands, Auckland.
 Yvette Temple, Senior Product Developer for biscuit manufacturer Griffins, Auckland.
More profiles of careers in food technology at Futureintech: www.futureintech.com. | |
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