A food manufacturing guru pays it forward

Belleville born Nancy Post has translated a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry into an impressive career in the food sector. Her expertise in all facets, as she so colourfully describes is, “from soup to nuts – literally.” Her professional food sector journey culminated in her starting her own consulting business as president of her namesake NP Tech Enterprises, a full-service consultant for product development, process development and food safety:

“I have been in the food business for over 35 years. In part, I wanted to do this for me as opposed to working in a department doing the same thing, but mostly because in my own life as a Christian I believe in paying it forward. I care about people. In my own small-town Belleville, I was raised in a church, as the organist. I do a fair amount of volunteer work and like to help the small local business owner, especially the young start-up entrepreneurs. Food has a special ability to bring people together.”

Her partial CV reads like a vast menu:

Nestles Enterprises (Belleville); Stauffer products and Lean Cuisine: Food safety and quality assurance department, promoted to product development: “I was the young chicky-poo running around saying your temperatures aren't right,” she said, laughing.

Magic Pantry Foods: R and D Breyers: Ice cream and frozen novelty; R&D.

Malabar Super Spice: Technical lead for customers and custom designed spice blends, managing R&D and Quality Assurance.

Otter Valley Foods, Ltd: Manufacturing of frozen entrees from lasagna to microwaveable sandwiches, and sauces.

Unilever: In the Foodservice technical group, creating new soups and spice mixtures.

Bos Smoked Fish: Quality Assurance.

Dawn Food Products: R&D project lead on food groups, including ice cream variegates, bases and various fruit fillings.

Cadbury: R&D project leader. Omnisweet Canada: Chocolate and couverture-based ingredients for the baking and ice cream industries, and technical support of fillings and ingredients.

GS Dunn: Director of Technical Services for the largest mustard milling supplier in the world.

Food Development Centre in Winnipeg: Business support.

“I am most passionate about product development because it balances the creative element with scientific attributes required for this type of job; it encompasses developing recipes and commercializing, helping to scale up manufacturing whether it be a major operation with all kinds of lovely big, stainless equipment into hundreds millions of dollars, or a local innovation kitchen.”

Post is an invaluable asset to the small business owner in everything from writing basic GMPs (Good Manufacturing Practices) to food safety plans and getting people certified for what is now

the tough standards required by government. She also does upgrades and set ups. She tells one story about a Brighton blackberry farmer who wanted to start a jam company:

“The gentleman asked me to come in and look at his recipe and operation. So, first I did a regulatory review. Jam has this thing called a standard of identity, so to call it a blackberry jam, he needed to hit certain levels of fruit, and certain levels of physical requirement, as simple as pH and soluble solids. The government has high standards. In that case, he didn't want to do it, so I told him he needed to rebrand, and we called it a gourmet spread - a non-standardized thing.”

Another aspect of Post's work is often doing technical sales. With one customer in England who was launching in North America, she helped them do a lot of regulatory reviews as part of the development and contacted key customers in the food sector.

Website: www.nptechenterprises.com