11 Feb 2015 Food Explorer #1: A South African food scientist taking on a global R&D role
Lisa Ronquest is one of South Africa’s top young food scientists. After leading the R&D team for seven years with Mars Africa in Cape Town, she’s now ensconced in The Netherlands in a new global food R&D role for the multinational. Keen to to share her impressions and insights with FOODStuff SA readers and her South African food industry compatriots, she’s started writing about her experiences, and we’re proud here to publish the first of her essays on her big move.
IT’S ALWAYS interested me how science can make a difference to people’s lives and our planet. It’s one of the reasons I studied food science in the first place. Who would have thought after walking those halls at the Department of Food Science in the early 90s that I would be heading off to take a global food R&D role in The Netherlands!
It has always been a goal of mine to work internationally and for various reasons along the way, the timing just wasn’t right. Now, with our twins four years old and my partner ready to take a break from her small business, we said an emphatic YES to the opportunity to live and work in Europe. From a career perspective, the chance to experience multiple developed markets, work on various global brands, and manage a culturally diverse team located across the globe, was extremely compelling.
After 15 years at various local and multinational food businesses in South Africa, in positions from packaging, to product development to finally leading an R&D team for seven years with Mars Africa, it was time to spread my wings and explore the developed world of food science and technology.
Over my years working in the South African food industry, I have learnt and experienced so much that has shaped my career and prepared me for this move. However, I have observed that managing R&D talent with clear career goals is not optimal in South Africa. Far too many R&D professionals end up stuck in R&D roles, unable to progress upwards or cross-functionally, as career-planning discussions simply don’t happen, or are not very helpful.
Despite this, we have some wonderful, raw, home-grown R&D talent in South Africa – people who are really making a difference every day in South African food businesses, pushing forward their innovative ideas and ensuring the production of high quality, safe products.
I have observed that when it comes to unlocking innovation opportunities, projects utilising novel ingredients or packaging requiring specific manufacturing equipment often don’t see the light of day. Our scale in South Africa, related to the size of the market, simply doesn’t justify the investment. Thus, our ability to improvise, ‘make it happen’ and still develop innovative products, quickly, is a unique and admirable trait of the South Africa food industry.
When it comes to health and nutrition in South Africa, it’s a delicate balance of developing products that are affordable and accessible; to cater for the masses who simply want to fill their stomaches, as well as the wealthy shopper who is looking to maintain a balanced diet and wants no ‘baddies’ in the products they buy.
If I think of sustainability, a huge global trend, my sense is that we are largely removed from it in South Africa. Until pressure from consumers, government or being part of large multinationals is applied; energy, water and waste-reduction initiatives will be incremental and in the pursuit of operational targets rather than game-changing shifts.
The majority of factories in South Africa are a combination of manually operated and automated processes, with hard-working, seasoned equipment and lots of manually documented records. Most operators are trained on the job and expected to perform against good manufacturing standards, but then return home to townships with poor services and shared toilet facilities. Thus, it’s a real challenge to embed the culture of quality throughout the workforce without ending up in a watch-dog dynamic.
So, as I embark on this journey, these are some of the questions I have: What is the calibre of food scientist I’ll be working with; will there be a different level and quality of science and research applied to innovation and NPD; what will the level of automation and application of novel technology be in food factories and across the supply chain?
In comparison to our country, where price and taste are overwhelmingly the key considerations and about half of all South Africans go hungry, how will innovation opportunities be unlocked in developed markets with their sophisticated consumers? Where health and nutrition considerations are expected and the trend to ‘naturalness’ and ‘wholesomeness’ are already well established? Will the scale of Europe give more room to real breakthrough innovation opportunities?
Join me on my journey of discovery.
About this column
Lisa Ronquest is currently Head of Product Development – Global Food R&D at Mars International, based in The Netherlands. The intention of this column is to be both a personal and professional account of a home-grown South African food scientist exploring life and work in a developed market.
You can contact her at [email protected].