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Education Lifestyle

Sara Lavergne: Scientist, Mondelez Canada

At Mondelez, I work in research and development in our bakery segment. I deal with savoury products and have been here for just over a year.

I act almost like a technical project manager. My responsibilities range from working on new product development in the lab – making up new samples or new flavours – to running plant trials across the country and bringing new products up to scale for either the Canadian or U.S. market. I work with a cross-functional team to turn ideas into products that are on the shelves.

Recently, I helped develop the Ritz snowflake, a Ritz cracker with a snowflake impression. That might seem like a simple thing, but a lot of work goes into making sure it’s a sturdy cracker and that it looks nice. 

I did a bachelor of science in food science at the University of Guelph. In my co-op year, I worked for both Maple Leaf Foods and Canada Bread. I wanted to get more hands-on experience and a closer connection with actual food and food handling, so I decided to take a one-year culinary skills certificate through continuing education at Durham College. 

Working with foods hands-on gives me a better mental picture during plant trials, when we might need to adjust a process or formula to make sure the product can run on the line.

For example, in our cooking classes we did baking, so we worked with dough. If you’ve ever done that, you know that dough gets stiff and you can’t stretch it out, which is why you allow it to rest. Now, when I’m in a plant or facility and we’re having issues with tight dough, I realize that maybe we need to allow a resting period. So the skills from the course help me solve problems faster. The solutions come to me much more clearly.

My job moves at such a fast pace. It’s a worldwide company, and even with our focus on Canada, everything is go, go, go. I’ve got 30 projects on the go, so it’s about managing my time and the volume and speed at which the products are coming. 

The best food scientists can change their focus on a moment’s notice. You go from one meeting to another with an entirely different focus and then to a technical meeting and do some paperwork for a different project. Success comes to people who are resourceful, able to problem-solve on their own or work with others to figure out solutions.

In high school, I always loved food and enjoyed science, but I didn’t know food science was an option. Being a chef wasn’t right for me, but when I found the food science program at Guelph, I took a leap and enrolled. Through my co-op, I discovered the R&D product development route, which I find really satisfying because you get to work on something from an idea, see it in markets and then hear your friends talking about it.

There was a mix of people in the Durham class: some right out of high school, others who’d been working for several years or who had families and wanted to try a different career path. I was surprised by the diversity. People had different plans going forward: some for additional education, some to open their own business or work in the food industry. 

I still don’t think being a chef is necessarily right for me, but the Durham program did open my mind to potentially developing my own business, perhaps something like private catering. Coming out of university I didn’t have an entrepreneurial urge, but many people in the Durham program do have that mindset, which is how I got the idea that starting a business could be in my future. 

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