By Tara Jewell, Marketing Insights and Content Manager
How innovation fuels Leahy-IFP, powered by a passionate team of food scientists behind all our products.
What inspires our R&D team, from their paths into food science to their favorite flavors and creative approaches to product development.
Why they love what they do, including the excitement of seeing their creations in the market and the joy of crafting memorable, trend-forward flavors.
Here at Leahy-IFP, we are serious about innovation. You may have only recently learned of our brand, but we’ve been around more than 65 years. Product innovation is one of the core values at Leahy-IFP.
It’s pretty much required that you are able to innovate if you’re going to thrive as long as we have. We’ve been able to do that thanks in part to the talented and friendly food scientists who are at the heart of our innovation department.
Let’s get to know Myla Watkins, Paul Tschammer and Ben Smith. Each member of this team had a hand in creating the dozens of our products with the Leahy-IFP name on them.
What made you want to be a food scientist?
MW: Both of my parents were in the medical field so I was drawn to science, but I also loved the artistic side of cooking and baking. When I started at Purdue and found the Food Science department it just felt like a perfect combination of the two!
PT: I originally wanted to be a chef and was taking foods classes in high school. My junior year, I took a class called Chemistry of Foods which was co-taught by a foods teacher and a chemistry teacher. I loved it. It opened my eyes to the world of food science which I never knew existed up until that point.
BS: I used to be a chef, and there came a time when working 14 hour shifts every weekend became old so I looked into what else I could do with my culinary background. This was when I discovered food science as a discipline and realized this could take my culinary skills in a new direction, with the new challenge of learning the science behind the commercial food products we eat and drink every day. And I get weekends off now!!
MW: Right now I am loving nostalgic flavors like old-school candy and dessert flavors (Peach Rings, Jolly Rancher, Strawberry Shortcake, etc). You can create something that can unlock memories and a whole experience, rather than just something that tastes good.
What’s your favorite flavor to work with?
PT: Mango and other tropical fruits. They just always give such a bright and uplifting note to beverages we work on that I feel really gives a little extra depth and excitement.
BS: I love herbs and spices. One of my favorites is star anise with its exotic aniseed flavor. It’s one of those spices that gives dishes the character of Asian cuisine, but can also pair well with beverages so keep your eyes out for a star anise flavored LTO!
MW: I’m a fairly adventurous eater and like most foods, but for some reason I can’t stand asparagus. It’s a beautiful vegetable and I want to love it so much, but I just can’t do it.
PT: As a food scientist it really irks me when products and ingredients get attacked by people that aren’t really educated on them. A lot of safe and FDA approved ingredients get unfair press because people who really know nothing about them think they know everything about them.
As for flavors, cream cheese is the grossest! To me it just tastes like spoiled dairy which I guess I’m sensitive to. But then again I love bleu cheese…
BS: I have always been fascinated by how ‘bad’ smells can contribute to a flavor in a positive way. A good example of this is butyric acid- on its own this smells like vomit, but is an important part of the flavor of parmesan cheese, and at the right level is actually perceived as delicious! Next time you open a can of dried parmesan cheese, give it a good sniff and see if you can smell the butyric acid!
What’s the best thing about your job?
MW: It feels great to see products I helped create on menu boards and grocery store shelves. I also love being able to create new things and try unexpected flavor pairings. I’m lucky to work with a team of scientists that are just as crazy as I am, so we are always bouncing ideas off each other or trying new things on the bench.
PT: Seeing products I’ve worked on out in the marketplace. It’s still crazy to me to see people walking down the street with something I’ve made on the bench or seeing a commercial on TV for something I’ve worked on. It’s a rewarding feeling to know that people out there love something I created.
BS: It’s definitely the mix for me of the creativity of dreaming up new ideas and playing with them in the lab, and then taking that to the next level with the science behind scaling up products to be viable commercially and to tick all the boxes of being a safe, good quality product that is appealing to consumers.
What’s your favorite beverage and what do you love about it?
MW: Iced coffee is a must for me. It’s versatile, refreshing, and gives me a quick pick-me-up.
PT: I drink a lot of flavored sparkling waters. The carbonation gives me a good boost in the middle of the day.
BS: The Aperol Spritz. It reminds me of being in Italy back in the early 2000s. It’s light and refreshing, not too high in alcohol. It’s very quaffable, sophisticated in a way, and very summery.
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