New award scheme created for future flavour experts

The scheme is the ideal of V. Krishnakumar, managing director of consultancy Giract, to tackle the shortage of flavour experts by encouraging a new generation of researchers and ultimately lead to advances in flavour technologies.

Aug 11 2010 --- Kerry Ingredients & Flavours, along with eight other companies with business activities in or relating to flavours, has agreed to support a new scheme offering bursaries and an award to PhD students who choose flavour as their area of research.

The scheme is the ideal of V. Krishnakumar, managing director of consultancy Giract, to tackle the shortage of flavour experts by encouraging a new generation of researchers and ultimately lead to advances in flavour technologies.

The research scheme hopes to attract new students into the area of flavour by offering two types of awards to researchers at the start of their careers:

• The PhD candidate who produces the best PhD thesis on flavours will be awarded 5,000 Euro
• Six bursaries of 3,000 Euro each will be awarded to first-year PhD students whose PhD proposals are deemed most deserving. This will fund expenses relating to their research.

Professor Andy Taylor of the University of Nottingham, UK, is the independent judge who, in consultation with academic colleagues, will select the winning submissions.

In addition to Kerry the eight other companies supporting the scheme are: DSM Food Specialities, Frutarom, Givaudan, IFF, Kikkoman, Lesaffre International, Nestlé and Unilever. They will provide the sponsorship required to enable the scheme to go ahead, however in order to keep the judging process fair and in no way influenced by any of the individual companies, they will not be involved in the selection process.

Commenting on the scheme Adam Anderson, Research & Development Director, EMEA, for Kerry Ingredients & Flavours said: “As leading innovators in the area of ingredients & flavours, Kerry is delighted to be involved sponsoring this new initiative.

“The science of flavour is complex and incorporates all aspects of taste, its perception and the components which affect it. The various parameters and ingredients affecting taste can be manipulated to give the consumer a desirable experience. Kerry is in a unique position with its breadth and depth of technologies which allow us to manipulate our products in finished food applications to achieve the desired result. At Kerry we are continually looking to grow our flavour knowledge. This new scheme will hopefully encourage new researchers into the area of flavour science and help to keep the field at the forefront of innovation.

“By working with universities and supporting initiatives such as this, Kerry has an opportunity to gain insights into new research which could then be exploited via our technology and application expertise into the marketplace, and also to develop relationships with future PhD students at the beginning of their careers who hopefully go on to become future key members of our technology teams”, concluded Adam.