Exploring Cultural Differences in Flavors and Food Practices

Today we have Marie Wright, President, Creation, Design & Development and Chief Global Flavorist at ADM Nutrition

That’s a long title, but Marie knows literally everything I just mentioned. I think the best part about Marie is just how easy it is to talk to her about the complex world of flavors.

The bulk of the interview is a break down on how we as food scientists collaborate to talk about what flavors we want in our products and the best practices to convey this information effectively. The best way to do this is to perhaps meet with them face to face which in our current climate is a bit hard, but we go through a lot of strategies.

Marie resonates a sort of raw passion when it comes flavors and it shows in how driven she was in her career and how she doesn’t let the corporate ladder drive her for doing good work so we have a great discussion about this and about the reputation you have in the industry might actually matter more than the title you get.

We also get into a bit of interesting talk about food trends and how the pandemic is affecting it. Not only has a ton of things stopped, but what are some insights that are starting to unfold as we stay in our houses all day?

All that and more in today’s episode.

Marie Wright, President, Creation, Design & Development and Chief Global Flavorist at ADM Nutrition, passion for flavor is deeply rooted in her belief that original flavor creation is artistry rather than science, and perfection in art is often elusive. After graduating from Kings’s College, London, she trained as a Flavorist with Bush Boake Allen, London, advancing to Senior Flavorist and a move to the US as the Flavor Creation Manager for Latin America. Marie moved to IFF creating flavors for the global accounts and playing a leadership role in innovation as Vice President, Senior Flavorist.  In 2012, Marie joined Wild Flavors, which was acquired by ADM in 2014, as their Chief Global Flavorist.

ADM Customer Innovation Center in New Jersey How does an innovation center work in a quarantine?: We’re sending things to people’s homes and working through video conferencing to taste things. It’s a bit strange, but surprisingly, everyone likes to go to the office Is business doing well?: Everyone’s still drinking or eating, food service is holding back, but health has been a huge thing When someone asks what you do for a living: I actually tell them I’m a flavorist. A perfumer for food. Most people get that. I use the analogy of a Chef and There are only 350 certified flavorists in the US. It’s actually different globally The Academy of Future Flavorist at ADM Why 7 years to be a certified flavorist?: some people can be faster than others but analyzing flavors is really hard because of all of the cognitive workout How do you mitigate back-and-forth sampling?: The best way is to get the tech teams together and work together. Then we do rapid prototyping. It helps a ton to have a base For entrepreneurs, it can be hard so we do a lot of product development to aid them. We have a lot of in-depth marketing knowledge The best way to nail a flavor down is to actually go to a flavor house and create a product together Natural Products Expo Reputable flavor houses not only know flavors, but regulatory How did you learn about food science?: I wanted to work in the food industry and was lucky to be exposed in the South of France with a lot of flavor companies It’s difficult to get into the food industry in Europe so I actually applied to Marketing and convinced them to have me meet the global head of flavor there I’ve never been a corporate person but I was driven by passion Be careful being driven by profession rather than passion Why Does Your Food Job Rock?: It’s unique and I love looking at different perspectives What have you learned about food in other cultures?: Depending on the culture, it’s more sacred, more familial, less fuel, more ritualistic Food Trends and Technologies: COVID really messed up a lot of things. We do think plant-based will have a very interesting role in microbiome and immunity. Meat consumption up. Hard seltzer category will rise too. Dairy, fermented, sour profiles might be more popular in the future In unknown times, people won’t spend time trying new experiences, but they might try new experiences in home What advice would you give someone getting into the food industry?: It’s a fantastic career and there will always be great work to do. Email: Marie.Wright@adm.com

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