Wolfing Down Food Science

Live from BakingTECH 2026 with Heather Simpson. We're on a Roll!

Send a textThis episode was recorded live at the BakingTECH 2026 meeting in Chicago with our guest, Heather Simpson.Heather Simpson has built a diverse career in the food industry, leveraging her Food Science education from Purdue University. Her journey began at Mars Corp's DoveBar plant gaining experience in production. She then transitioned to the dairy industry, working with a hydrocolloid ingredient company to support McDonald's shake and soft serve products, deepening her expertise in food ingredients and applications.Heather's career path then led her to a sales position with Kraft Food Ingredients, where she honed her skills in client relations and business development. After a hiatus to focus on raising her sons, she re-entered the industry in a sensory role at McDonald's Corporate. Her subsequent work at Jimmy Dean / Tyson Foods involved carrier breads, adding experience in food product innovation. A brief stint at Newlyweds Foods saw her developing English muffins, before joining Tate and Lyle.Heather is currently a Technical Service Account Manager at Tate and Lyle, focused on snack foods and alcoholic beverages. Her varied background and extensive industry knowledge have made her a valuable asset in her role, on what she affectionately calls the "party team," reflecting her enthusiasm and passion for her work.American Society of Baking Website: https://asbe.org/BakingTech Website: https://asbe.org/bakingtech/Got a questions for us? Email us at wolfingdownfoodscience@gmail.comPlease take a minute to help others find our podcast by leaving a rating and comment on your podcasting app!

Escaping Ordinary Food Safety Training with Escape Rooms!

Send a textIn this episode we've "escaped" our ordinary format to talk with three amazing guests at once:Clint Stevenson, NC State Professor and Distance Ed CoordinatorDave Seddon, Co-Founder and Chief Safety Officer at FoodReadyDavid Wilson,  Chief Creative Officer at Intoxicated by Riddles and Co-Founder of the True/False Film FestThe topic?  Clint, Dave, and David's collaborative project using the concept of escape rooms to teach food safety skills.  For the beta-test, they let faculty and staff try out the escape room on day one (lot's of fun, I must say), then unleashed students into rooms with three unique scenarios on day two.  Can't wait to see what they do with this escape room concept in the future.Got a questions for us? Email us at wolfingdownfoodscience@gmail.comPlease take a minute to help others find our podcast by leaving a rating and comment on your podcasting app!

PodFest Decompress and BakingTECH Preview

Send a textTo start out the new year, we're recapping PodFest 2026, which wrapped in mid January and looking ahead to BakingTECH 2026.  Podcast was about every type of podcast and every aspect of podcasting you can think of, while BakingTECH is really focused in on the commercial baking industry.  In this episode, we talk about some of the surprising and cool things about PodFest, including what Pecha Kucha is and training with stand-up comics.  To our surprise and delight, we were invited to both conferences because of the WDFS podcast.PodFest 2027 (just in case you'd like to go next year) https://podfestexpo.com/BakingTECH2026 (in case you'd still like to go) https://asbe.org/bakingtech2026/Got a questions for us? Email us at wolfingdownfoodscience@gmail.comPlease take a minute to help others find our podcast by leaving a rating and comment on your podcasting app!

Looking Back at 2025: With Special Guests... Ourselves!!!

Send a textIt has been a great 2025 for WDFS.  We spoke with wonderful, highly accomplished guests who provided a plethora of good advice about food science careers, about professionalism, and about life.  We welcomed Stella as our podcast editor.  We had our first Spanish/English bilingual podcast.  We were pleasantly surprised to be invited to do a live podcast at the American Society of Baking annual conference.  Incredibly (for us, anyway) the podcast is now heard in 107 countries around the world.  So much to be grateful for.In this episode we decided to interview one another about the year that was 2025.We hope you enjoy this last WDFS podcast episode of 2025 and look forward to great new interviews in 2026.Until then, keep Wolfing Down Food Science!Got a questions for us? Email us at wolfingdownfoodscience@gmail.comPlease take a minute to help others find our podcast by leaving a rating and comment on your podcasting app!

FORM TUF ABS™ and Build Soft Skills with Arnie Sair

Send a textDr. Arnie Sair is a third generation Ph.D. food scientist, a returning guest to WDFS, and Head of Global Quality & Food Safety at Bunge.  Arnie returns to WDFS with a new endeavor: the Core Ready™ leadership program.  Core Ready is focused on building the soft skills and leadership habits students need to thrive in the workforce from day one using the FORM TUF ABS™ approach.  In this episode, Arnie explains what each letter of FORM TUF ABS™ means and how each skill benefits early career advancement.  With a career path that has allowed him to grow as a leader and facilitate that growth in others, he is uniquely positioned to offer success to those just entering the workforce, as well as those looking to add new skill sets.Got a questions for us? Email us at wolfingdownfoodscience@gmail.comPlease take a minute to help others find our podcast by leaving a rating and comment on your podcasting app!