Taste. A simple word that encompasses an awful lot. Spices, aroma, texture – it’s all at play in the phrase “taste”. So imagine what an average day looks like for Scott Glennon, Vice President of Taste for Kerry Group North America.
The Kerry Group’s North America headquarters is in Beloit, Wisconsin, where “mad scientists” are creating unique flavors that you and I enjoy in partner food companies every day. Maybe it’s a tangy pizza sauce – perhaps that yummy coffee you need. Whatever food or flavor you’re seeking, both in the store and through food service providers – you can probably thank someone at Kerry Ingredient for helping develop the sophisticated tastes you look for.
Glennon tells Pam Jahnke that the “taste” you’re looking for is always changing. As you might guess, judging by menu trends, heat is in big demand right now. Glennon says the trick is not just getting the heat, but also getting the texture, correct. Bitterness is another challenge faced with some of today’s flavor profiles. There’s also the nutrition side of “taste”. Kerry Group NA covers all the bases with today’s special need diets, as well as investing staff, time and money into the next phase of ingredients – cell nutrition.
Glennon says sourcing some of the spices and extracts has gotten increasingly challenging with supply chain issues and changes in global weather patterns. There’s always new requests coming in too, that force the food scientists at Kerry to experiment with new components. Figuring out ingredient interaction, temperature response, storage options, are just a few of the first obstacles that have to be addressed.
One area of expanded interest and development is plant based proteins. Glennon says it’s some very complicated food science and flavor design that goes into creating that taste of beef, grilled at that, through a plant based product. Since it’s basically a new category of food, Glennon says they’ve had to rethink not only recipes but where they’re able to source some of their flavor influencing spices.
Glennon admits, there’s never a dull day when you’re in charge of “taste” for the Kerry Group NA.
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