Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Certification
Timeline
Generic

ERIC SARTAIN

Rockford,IL

Summary

Dynamic Food Scientist and Product Developer with over 13 years of experience in creating innovative food solutions that meet customer needs and drive business growth. Proven track record in product development and successful launches for leading global brands in yogurt, ice cream, appetizers, and quick-service restaurants. Expertise includes a wide range of categories such as soups, sauces, dressings, batters, coatings, and snacks, with a strong focus on formula enhancement and cost reduction strategies. Skilled in leading teams and managing projects that leverage market trends to deliver exceptional culinary products while effectively addressing processing challenges.

Overview

14
14
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification

Work History

RD&A Scientist Coatings

KERRY
01.2023 - Current
  • Manage and execute all customer pilot plant engagements for battered, breaded, or barrel breading including chicken nuggets, tenders, appetizers, onion rings, cheese sticks and curds; including all new product development and matching per customer needs and goals pertaining to flavor, texture, nutritional and labeling needs, and costing.
  • Responsible for direct communication and working alongside customers to deliver customer requests for samples in a timely manner delivering samples for coatings systems with unique development and flavor profiles and textures with predust, batters, and breaders on whole muscle and block chicken, fish, formed and extruded appetizers, cheese sticks and curds, onion rings, coated/battered fries, and dessert bites.
  • Manage and attend internal cuttings for customer samples and development, coordinate and attend “bench reviews” for internal sensory tastings for internal approval on development work, customer samples, and internal and external events.
  • Attending internal and customer factory trials for customer support to ensure quality, execution, analytics and flavor profiles are met. Helping internal partners and customers troubleshoot and determine factory needs and parameters being met regarding batter viscosity, hydration, and solids, par-fry time and temperatures, color, texture, and communicate on any formulation and processing suggestions or changes.
  • Project management from brief to launch; risk assessment, development in lab and pilot plant, coordinating with customers on sample needs, reviewing quality documentation for full plant scaling and trials, coordinating commercialization process with factories and internal partners for smooth transition and internal scale, trial and production. Ensuring analytical testing is accurate for specs needed in commercialization.
  • Expertise in product and formula development utilizing formulation systems, and inspection plan requirements including analytical and data analysis, including micro requirements needed, nutritional needs, finished good labeling, batter viscosity and hydration, color, flavor, texture, density, salt and leavening calculations and inspection plan requirements including analytical and data analysis
  • Set up, operate, plan and execute pilot plant runs and validations using extrusion, co-extrusion, Formax, and multiple pass predust, batter and breading systems, and including completing large blends in pilot plant for large customer samples and pilot plant runs.
  • Responsible for all GMP’s and maintenance requests in coatings pilot plant and lab room ownership.
  • Create and execute “new bakes” to mix, bake, grind – granulation size, and dry new crumbs, for Japanese bread crumbs (JBC), American bread crumbs (ABC) and Crackermelas. Vetting new bakes in lab and pilot plant for customer needs regarding color, texture, granulation size, and nutritional or labeling needs.
  • Responsible for customer presentations including coatings 101, and customer working and ideation sessions
  • Proficient in SAP, Optiva and SharePoint from pilot plant to factory levels, for formula creation, development, and formula maintenance.
  • Delivered bench top testing for raw materials testing and changes for factory approval and new raw material changes for cost analysis and PIP savings.
  • Volunteer days at U of W meat science classes for coatings 101 and coating lab work.
  • Volunteer internal Kerry committees and events: SME internal education and knowledge sharing committee, Summer Picnic, Christmas party, and bring your child to work day.
  • Multiple product launches in both CPG/Retail and Foodservice/Fast Casual including cheese sticks and planks, LTO cheese curds, onion rings, corn dogs, breakfast pancake sausage bites and full stick pancake dogs, multiple matches in batters, crumbs and breaders, and coated pastas that has resulted in national launches and 10+ millions of lbs in volume wins.
  • ADM Wheat School – 2024

Applications Scientist – Research and Development

ZENTIS
01.2022 - 01.2023
  • Project management from brief to launch; assessment and can we-should we, development in lab cooking and formulation creation, texture analysis, coordinating commercialization, procurement, factory teams, flavor houses, and quality for documentation and full plant scaling and trials, ordering materials, and attending and watching trials.
  • Leads product development for new and existing fruit preps including portfolio and formula maintenance, raw material replacement, advisory to processing needs requirements, and documentation.
  • Responsible for multiple accounts in yogurt, including most strategic and highest potential growth customer as well as smaller grow-with accounts
  • Expertise in product and formula development utilizing formulation systems, excel or lab notebooks, including required calculations for nutrition requirements for finished good labeling, dosing, and brix and calcium calculations and inspection plan requirements including analytical and data analysis
  • Expert in hydrocolloid formulations including starch-modified/native (corn, tapioca rice), pectin, locust bean gum, guar, and fibers
  • Expert in sugar reduction and sugar replacement systems utilizing high intensity sweeteners (sucralose, stevia, monk fruit, sugar alcohols, and fiber replacements, including inulin and soluble corn fibers)
  • Proficient in SAP, Qualifax, DMS, and Sharepoint, including Microsoft systems.
  • Flavor development team, responsible for aiding procurement in vetting flavor houses for internal partnership and authorized dealer.

Senior Product Developer – NPD Dairy-Danone

AGRANA FRUIT
01.2020 - 01.2022
  • Worked and Developed launches in fruit prep for existing reformulations, new business and innovation launches for rescued fruit flavors, Greek, Greek non-fat, plant based non-Greek, fruit on bottom and stirred yogurts and yogurt drinks, resulting in millions of pounds in fruit prep volume launches for Danone brands.
  • Project management from brief to launch; risk assessment, development in pilot plant, coordinating with flavor houses and quality documentation for full plant scaling and trials, coordinating ordering materials with factories and procurement for trial and launch, and attending trials on a case-by-case basis both internally and customer
  • Proficient in SAP and SharePoint from pilot plant to factory levels, for formula creation, development, formula maintenance, and the creation and maintaining inspection plans according to customer specification
  • Responsible for maintenance on all current Danone portfolio (multiples of SKUs and millions of pounds of product) in production regarding formula adjustments due to changes in performance in viscosity, pH, and Brix targets, changes in fruit lots and shortages, and or other ingredient changes or shortages
  • Responsible for approving, testing, or developing ingredient changes for fruit, color, flavor, stabilization changes, cost savings, supply chain needs for new vendor approvals
  • Coordinating nutritional testing with factories and 3rd party lab for nutritional and analytical testing according to customer nutritional specification or labeling requirements
  • Factory visits to internal and customer factories for trials to support troubleshooting, discuss fruit prep performance and give assistance on optimal performance
  • Team Lead with one direct report for dairy development in both US and Canada from April 2020-March 2021
  • Starch development tool for internal development with starches regarding analytical attributes needed, starch type, and labeling requirements to point the developer in the right direction on what starch(s) to use in formulation for fruit prep in ice cream, bakery, stirred and fruit on bottom yogurt

Senior Product Developer – Bakery, Ice Cream, and New Business

AGRANA FRUIT
01.2019 - 01.2020
  • Developed bakery and pie fillings for fast food and fast casual suppliers
  • Developed and launched Oat Milk Oatgurt for fruit on bottom flavors
  • Developed Salted Caramel, Chocolate, and Raspberry variegate flavors for retail Oat Milk frozen desserts
  • As a part of the New Business Development team, worked to identify new customers, and supported newer customer visits with ideation and capabilities presentations.
  • Worked with internal teams and factories to identify new processes and packaging to meet customer solutions

Research Chef

TATE AND LYLE
01.2012 - 01.2019
  • Product development and project concepts and prototypes for customer meetings, lunches and trade shows to generate business, from soup, sauces, and dressings, bread, bakery and sweets, batters and breading, snacks, beverages, coatings and candy
  • Worked with jelly candies and gummies related to filling starch boards, scaling cooking, depositing jelly candies and gummies for in house confections, related to gelatin replacement, sugar reduction, and texture enhancement
  • Worked with top CPG and Foodservice customers on new and existing product development regarding flavor, texture/stabilization enhancement, innovation, troubleshooting, sugar replacement and cost reduction.
  • Collaboration with multiple teams to resolve product development problems, utilizing expertise to advise on ingredients, techniques, and equipment
  • Maintained the corporate kitchen and oversaw a part-time chef, intern, contract chefs, to assist on projects, to meet deadlines, customer lunches and events, hosting board of directors, investors and all internal trainings, meetings and events
  • Developed and administered training sessions on culinary and baking techniques and theory, as well as knife skills trainings and safety
  • Completed research experiments to validate starches in retort soup applications
  • Developed prototypes for pilot plant applications using retort, UHT, and Kettle cooking
  • Managed internal building-wide trainings regarding food safety, product applications, and technical product knowledge in addition to administering customer trainings on product portfolio, technical make-up, functionality, and applications of Tate and Lyle portfolio
  • Led culinary lunches for clients, developing menus that utilized and showcased Tate and Lyle and customer products and ingredients, directing cooking procedures and kitchen staff, and overseeing the meals’ administration to enhance customer satisfaction and experience
  • Conducted market research to identify different culinary trends regarding the restaurant industry, menus to translate into culinary innovation for ingredient solutions to the customer
  • Served as chef and culinary expert, collaborating with applications, technical service, sales, and marketing to provide culinary expertise

Baker, Prep and Line Cook

Kirschbaum’s Bakery, McMae’s Tavern & Grill, Nordstrom Café, La Sardine
  • Baker | McMae’s Tavern & Grill-Bartlett IL – Prep and Line Cook | Nordstrom Café-Schaumburg IL – Baker | La Sardine-Chicago IL – Prep and Line Cook

Education

Bachelor of Science (BS) - Culinology

Dominican University
River Forest, IL
05.2018

Skills

  • Proficient in product development from bench to factory implementation
  • Full lifecycle project coordination
  • Hydrocolloid formulation expertise
  • Sweetener system expertise
  • Culinary and baking skills
  • Process validation in pilot plants
  • Culinary menu design

Certification

  • Culinary Arts Certificate, Bread & Pastry Arts Certificate: Harper College-Palatine IL - 2010
  • Certified Research Chef (CRC) Research Chefs Association (2017-2022)
  • Tharp and Young ice cream course 2019
  • PCQI Certification 2023
  • CPR & FIRST AID Certified

Timeline

RD&A Scientist Coatings

KERRY
01.2023 - Current

Applications Scientist – Research and Development

ZENTIS
01.2022 - 01.2023

Senior Product Developer – NPD Dairy-Danone

AGRANA FRUIT
01.2020 - 01.2022

Senior Product Developer – Bakery, Ice Cream, and New Business

AGRANA FRUIT
01.2019 - 01.2020

Research Chef

TATE AND LYLE
01.2012 - 01.2019

Baker, Prep and Line Cook

Kirschbaum’s Bakery, McMae’s Tavern & Grill, Nordstrom Café, La Sardine

Bachelor of Science (BS) - Culinology

Dominican University

Similar Profiles

CREATE PROFILE