Name: Rosa Hernández
Age: 29
Job title: NPD manager
Company & location: Humble Foods (Bold Bean Co)
Education: Bachelor’s degree in Food Science and Technology, Master’s degree in Management and Food Safety at The Polytechnic University of Valencia
Why did you decide to go for a career in food & drink? My first love was science. At school, they were my best subjects, especially chemistry. I could spend hours preparing for the exams because my passion made it easy. Around the same time, I discovered my second love: food. I loved cooking, creating new recipes and reading about healthy and sustainable food. As soon as I heard that there was a degree which combined food and science, I knew this was going to lead me to my dream job.
Explain your job to us in a sentence (or two): Our goal as a business is to make people obsessed with beans, and that means we’ll constantly be evolving the range to offer new ways to excite people. My job is to make sure these new products are the most delicious, healthy and, of course, food-safe products they can be.
What does a typical day look like for you? Every day is different, it’s a very creative job with a lot of variety, which means I’m never bored! I’m doing everything from calling a new bean producer in Mexico to working with the production line in a pilot plant trialling new products.There is a lot of problem solving, for example working out what to do when a designer has sent you the wrong pantones for the labels and the print proofs come out in neon orange!
“Our goal as a business is to make people obsessed with beans”
Tell us about how you went about applying for your job: In this case, it seems that it was fate that brought Bold Bean Co and me together. I was looking for a new opportunity, as I wanted to move forward with my professional career and Amelia, the founder, was looking for a food technologist passionate about beans. But this involved several stages. I first met Amelia via an online call and shortly afterwards we went for a coffee and chatted further about my career, the projects I had worked on and what motivates me. Next thing you know I was helping run their projects, visiting their factories and getting to know the rest of the team! Everything went very smoothly and I just knew I was in the right place – we are like two cogs that fit together perfectly. When you are faced with a change it is always hard, but I was very excited and the team made it all so easy.
What’s the best part about working for a food & drink company? I love that it’s not a monotonous job, you never get bored. I’m particularly lucky, as developing new products that you love to eat is a dream for a food technologist. What’s more fulfilling is believing that I’m doing good for the community and planet. By developing products that will make people obsessed with beans, less meat will be consumed, more soils will be naturally fertilised (beans are nitrate-fixers and an essential part of regenerative agriculture), and people will be healthier. They really are the world’s best food.
And what’s the biggest misconception people have about working in food & drink? I think there is a lack of awareness of what a food technologist does. When I mention my profession, very few people understand what I do – it’s not as self-explanatory as a teacher or doctor. The biggest misconception may be the time and effort that goes into every new product they find on the shelves.
What advice would you give to other young people looking to get into the food & drink industry? Before I got my first job, I had many rejections or I was doing internships in places where I didn’t feel comfortable. My advice is to keep looking and widen your search ratio, as there are so many companies in this sector. Among so many, there will be one that fits you (even if it takes a while to find it, when you do, it’s amazing).
What’s your ultimate career dream? My professional dream has always been to be able to be proud of the products I develop, that they are successful and that they help people and the planet.
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