Food for Thought: Food Science and Engineering for the Future of Humanity

By Kaan Demiryurek

Food Science and Engineering will play a critical role in enabling the future of humanity. Why and how?
Whether you are a young mind with aspirations for a greater cause and a career or an experienced professional in the food industry wanting to make a positive impact, Food for Thought is calling for you!

Food for thought, not for afterthought. Not anymore...

Our global food system is not sustainable and efficient. It has many complex problems. These problems will require strong collaborative efforts across multiple stakeholders, including various science and engineering fields. Food Science and Engineering will be at the front and center of these efforts.

This is not about a bleak, pessimistic picture of the future but about an excellent opportunity both to contribute to a greater cause and achieve a happy and successful individual career through the use of science and technology.

Leveraging his more than 20 years of experience in the Research and Development function in one of the leading global food and beverage companies, Kaan Demiryurek initiates a compelling mission for both young and experienced food scientists and engineers to take a leading role with his optimism about food science and engineering for the future of humanity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kaan Demiryurek
• Release date: Oct 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005440466

Book preview

Food for Thought

Food Science and Engineering for the Future of Humanity

Kaan Demiryürek

Copyright © 2022 Kaan Demiryürek

***

I, Kaan Demiryürek, forgo all my reserved rights as the author and the copyright owner of this book.

This book, in part or in whole, can be copied, further distributed, or shared freely, even without quoting or referencing me as the author, except for the referenced materials from the other authors and the foreword, which are included in this book.

I forgo all my reserved rights in this book along with a kind request that any further sharing or copying to be done free of any financial gain and financial charge whatsoever; the materials should not be used for commercial purposes, as this book was written with the intention to be of some help for a greater cause.

First E-Book Edition October 2022

To my Dad, who was always kind to others…

…to my Son, who will always be kind to others

About

Food Science and Engineering will play a critical role in enabling the future of humanity. Why and how?

Whether you are a young mind with aspirations for a greater cause and a career or an experienced professional in the food industry wanting to make a positive impact, Food for Thought is calling for you!

Food for thought, not for afterthought. Not anymore…

Our global food system is not sustainable and efficient. It has many complex problems. These problems will require strong collaborative efforts across multiple stakeholders, including various science and engineering fields. Food Science and Engineering will be at the front and center of these efforts.

This is not about a bleak, pessimistic picture of the future but about an excellent opportunity both to contribute to a greater cause and achieve a happy and successful individual career through the use of science and technology.

Leveraging his more than 20 years of experience in the Research and Development function in one of the leading global food and beverage companies, Kaan Demiryurek initiates a compelling mission for both young and experienced food scientists and engineers to take a leading role with his optimism about food science and engineering for the future of humanity.

Contents

About

Foreword

Prologue

Part I:    On Food Science and Engineering

Chapter I:    What is Food Science and Engineering?

Chapter II:    Why Food Science and Engineering?

Chapter III:    A Proposed Mission for Food Scientists and Engineers

Chapter IV:    On Equal Women Representation

Part II:    On Research and Development

Chapter V:    R&D, Why, What, and How?

Chapter VI:    R&D within the Business Structure

Chapter VII:    How to be Successful in R&D?

Chapter VIII:    Understanding the Business

Part III:    On Career

Chapter IX:    What is Career?

Chapter X:    How to Achieve a Successful and a Happy Career?

Epilogue

Endorsements

Acknowledgement

About the Author

Foreword

Climate change and the growing food security crisis are among the greatest threats facing humanity today. We can no longer consider these challenges on the horizon; they demand our immediate attention, and our response will define our collective future for generations to come.

There are many sectors and industries with a role to play in addressing these problems, from clean energy to advanced manufacturing, to biotechnology. But there’s little doubt that the foods industry – and food scientists, academics, and engineers in particular – is at the forefront. Few industries can claim to have such direct influence, with the unique opportunity to accelerate decarbonization, reach net zero emissions, promote biodiversity, and sustainably feed the planet’s growing population.

But to reach its full potential as a change agent, everything we think we know about the foods business – how we source, how we make, how we innovate, how we store, and how we sell – must evolve. We’re at an inflection point for the industry, and we have a unique opportunity to make sure it’s changing for the better.

These are complex, multi-dimensional problems that will no doubt require multi-stakeholder solutions, but I’ve never felt more optimistic about our ability to tackle them.

Kaan Demiryurek shares my optimism and, in this book, captures the spirit of passion and innovation that are required to face these challenges head on from within the foods industry. Recounting more than two decades of experience, Kaan brings the trials, triumphs, and possibilities of a career in food science to life in ways that enlighten, encourage, and inspire.

As Kaan writes, it’s the responsibility of everyone in the industry to strive for better for people and the planet – a deliberate word choice on his part that recognizes while there may be important milestones on the path to better, there is no one final target for success. It’s a process of continuous improvement.

He also delivers a call to action for both future food scientists and industry veterans: if you can imagine the impact your work will have, you can create it, too. 

I hope young minds will find this book inspiring and will be encouraged by the good work being done within the industry to address climate change and transform our global food system for the better.

To current food industry professionals: this book leaves no doubt that your work has the potential to make a seismic impact not just on the industry, but on some of the greatest global issues of our time.

Ultimately, food science plays a critical role in crafting the kind of world we want to live in. The industry needs creative minds who are passionate about creating a positive impact, and innovative enough to imagine what our global food system could look like in 5, 10, 20 years from now.

I’ve always believed we can lead the change we wish to see in the world. I hope this book will encourage others to take up the charge. The stakes could not be higher.

Ram Krishnan

CEO International Beverages and Chief Commercial Officer, PepsiCo

Prologue

This book was written not because I knew the answers to the questions it poses, or even because I had any particular knowledge of the many subjects and fields it touches upon, but because I myself wanted to read such a book. It is a book I would have preferred someone else to have written so I could enjoy reading it without the work of authorship. But no one else took up the assignment.¹

These are not my words but S. Frederick Starr’s. This is how he starts the preface of his truly enlightening book, The Lost Enlightenment.

I started reading The Lost Enlightenment by S. Frederick Starr shortly after I embarked on the journey of putting together an essay, which then evolved into this humble book that you are about to read and hopefully you will find helpful. These opening words absolutely struck a chord with me with perfect timing. I had been feeling the urge to write something about Food Science and Engineering for a while. The motivation to share from my experience in the industry so far with my fellow younger food engineers and scientists had been cooking for some time. It was perfect timing to read these opening lines from Starr because no matter how much I had contemplated beforehand, I was unsure where to start and how to pull something together. His opening words ignited a spark, and I thought I could try connecting some dots and presenting them in a unique way someone else might not have tried before, in such a way that I would have enjoyed reading, had someone else written it.

Therefore, I started this journey by trying to connect the Food Science and Engineering disciplines with their applications in the industry, especially within the field of Research and Development, where I have built my career. I also wanted to share some tips I learned for a long-term career with a feel of fulfillment in the food industry. My initial intention was to provide some demystification for my fellow future colleagues. When you are about to choose your field of study for the university, or when you are studying it, or when you are about to graduate, or even after you have graduated, there still might be some mystery about how you can do what you can do in the industry and why.

When I was at those stages in my life, I would have tremendously appreciated reading something like this. (Not that I claim to have written some great piece of work, but at least I had this intention for demystification as much as I could!) That is why it was my wish to throw some light upon this mystery about how we apply the things we learn throughout our education in business life.

As I kept building my manuscript by trying to connect those dots, I realized it was coming together better than I thought it would. The whole thing started making even more sense to me. Moreover, at that point, I read an article by Ram Krishnan² where he mentioned about our global food system’s significant contribution to our era’s defining issue, climate problem, global warming. I felt quite ashamed that I had not thoroughly known about that picture as a professional with about twenty years of food industry experience.

Along with that shame, I also felt content that I learned something I did not know. I had another dot to connect! When I added that piece to the flow, my initial intention of providing some demystification to my future food science and engineering colleagues lost its title as the primary motivation for this work. (It is still in the content but is not the primary motivation anymore). My leading motivation for delivering this work turned into "convince the best talent to consider a career in foods academia and industry, and to encourage the current and future food engineers and scientists to make some positive impact in humanity’s future."

Therefore, the target audience of this book is the future and current food engineers and scientists and the younger talent who may still be contemplating on what field to study and where to make a difference and a positive impact. I aim to encourage my current colleagues to recognize the potentiality of their latent significant positive impact that they might have been taking for granted. I also aim to present the substantial opportunities in our world’s food system to convince the younger best, and brightest talent to consider a career in the food system because I know, by experience, that great advancements can be achieved only by the great talent who have the willpower. Therefore, I set out to persuade them to join this journey to make a positive impact.

In Part I, I will outline the substantial change our world’s food system needs. This change is needed because the way we currently produce, distribute, and store our foods is not sustainable. Also, it will not be adequate in the coming decades, considering the pace of the increase in the world’s population. This is crucially important to grasp well in order to define and drive the necessary change to keep feeding our increasing and changing population in a sustainable way. Then, I will highlight the leading role that food scientists and engineers should play.

When I was studying for my degree in food engineering, it was mostly an unknown and unrecognized field. When you responded food engineering upon being asked What do you study?, you would hear some funniest ever(!) jokes like Are you learning how to crack an egg or how to bake a cake? as well as some uninformed replies like Will you help people maintain a healthy diet?. While the field is more known and appreciated today than twenty years ago when I was studying, some outreach might still be needed.

However, much more importantly, crucially and imminently, food professionals need to realize the big responsibility they have so that they can set out to deliver this responsibility for the future of humanity. There seems to be a significant gap between the opportunities of the world’s food system and what food professionals think they can do about it. I know this by experience because I learned it to my great shame, as I mentioned, after almost spending twenty years in the industry! I aspire to help close this gap by increasing the realization and acknowledgment of what food scientists and engineers can achieve in this space, which is crucially important for our future. I even dared to propose a mission statement for the food engineers and scientists on the planet! Again, not because I felt entitled to do so, but because I wanted to make an attempt to encourage others to build upon it, evolve it, and make it better.

In Part II, I will talk about Research and Development (R&D) for two reasons. Firstly, this function is where I have had my career all along since my university years in the foods industry. Therefore, I have some thoughts and good practices to share. I have collaborated closely with other technical and commercial functions besides R&D, where food engineers and scientists can also build their careers to make an impact. However, I do not have enough direct experience in those functions to write about. Secondly, and more importantly, I firmly believe R&D is central and should play a pivotal role in defining and executing the change needed that we lay out in the first part. R&D, at its core, is all about the future. In R&D, you imagine a future state, then you develop a roadmap to that future state, and then you execute that roadmap and get there.

As we are aspiring for a different future, I would like to attract more of those best talents into the field of R&D within the foods industry to help spearhead this change. In this part, I will explore how we