Nice work if you can get it

Rachel Cooke is living her childhood dream. She has been working in chocolate factories for almost a decade and the product, she claims, remains the best thing about her job.

“It’s not that dissimilar to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory,” laughs Cooke. “Chocolate is everywhere. We don’t quite have the chocolate waterfall of the film, but we do have a chocolate waterfall. And the smell of it is fantastic.”

Cooke has always had her sights set on engineering. Inspired by her father who was a chemical engineer, Cooke studied the subject at Cambridge University, during which time she won the ‘national best chemical engineering student of the year’ award.

An innate curiosity in how things are produced, as well as her father’s passion for his work, led her to explore a career as a process engineer.

It wasn’t until she went to a food industry recruitment fair in Melton Mowbray that her love of chocolate and engineering combined.

“The main attraction was working with products that I’ve always loved,” said Cooke. “Cadbury as a brand is something that I’ve always eaten. Going around a chocolate factory and seeing chocolates being made- it is quite a nice working environment.”

After completing a PhD in rheology, Cooke joined the Cadbury graduate programme working in various engineering roles before becoming a product change development manager for Kraft Foods following its takeover of Cadbury.

The challenge in innovation for process engineers is scale…the rewards have to justify the risk

Today, the company is the world’s second largest food manufacturer producing brands including Jacobs, Kenco and Philadelphia.

Cooke’s current interest is in shaping the long-term strategy of the food and drinks industry.

“The challenges today are around increasing shelf-life, making products more nutritious and reducing the amount of processing required. We look to other industries for inspiration … for instance; heat recovery has been a big trend.

“We’ve investigated using a form of electrical heating that is very energy-efficient and produces less carbon dioxide instead of heating pipes with hot water or steam.”

In recent years, the application of novel enzyme chemistry has led to significant advances in product structure, flavour release and textural development.

Meanwhile, the focus for engineers has been on improving heat-transfer systems, low-energy separation technologies, rapid heating and chilling technologies.

Nanotechnology is also set to make a contribution to the sector in areas such as non-contact sensors in food processing and new functional materials.

All of this, claims Cooke, means it is an exciting time be working in the sector.

As chairman of the Institution of Chemical Engineering’s food and drink special interest group, Cooke’s interest is not just limited to technology, but also how policy will effect its roll out.

The group, which aims to advance technical policy in the food and drink industry, has recently discussed how chemical engineering can help with the challenge of an ageing population and stretched resources.

The challenges today are around increasing shelf-life, making products more nutritious and reducing the amount of processing required

Sustainability, said Cooke, continues to be firmly on the agenda.

Her own company, along with most other food and drink manufacturers, has declared a “war on waste”.

Around 99% of the Kraft Foods’ waste is solid and the group claims it recycles around 90% of this.

Today, 36 Kraft Foods facilities have achieved zero-waste-to-landfill status, including 24 plants in Europe and 12 facilities in North America.

But it’s not just high-level executives that need to be aware of the difference initiatives such as these can make; the younger generation must also be inspired by the challenges and opportunities of sustainable engineering.

In an effort to do this, Cooke has become an ambassador for the profession and delivers talks on process engineering aspects of chocolate manufacture in schools.

Her work led her to two national award nominations: she was one of six women nominated for the Women into Science and Engineering excellence award, and earlier this year was recognised as one of the country’s most dedicated science and technology ambassadors by SETNET, which promotes careers in science, technology, engineering and maths.

Leveraging a universal passion for chocolate to educate young people has reaped its rewards. But Cooke admits that there is only so much the UK’s outreach programmes can do to plug the growing skills gap.

“The information should be out there, but equally it isn’t for everybody,” she said. “I think now we have the internet, everyone with the slightest interest in how food and drinks are made, or any interest in the product, will know there are options.

“A lot of the information out there is really good. The industry wants the type of person who will be curious enough to find out about it.”

After several years on the factory floor, Cooke has now transferred to a marketing role. At a time when the government is trying to plug the engineering skills gap, and encourage more women into a career in the sector, the move could be seen as a blow to these efforts.

But Cooke believes business skills in food production are critical for engineers. “I felt it was important to understand how the manufacturing and engineering functions were view by the commercial teams, what changes would make our products even better and the rationale behind introducing new products,” she said.

“I do miss the technical engineering side and I plan to return to that area, but with an enhanced view of how the company works from the idea generation at the beginning to meet unmet needs and customer and consumer interaction with the product at the end.”

This commercial acumen, she believes, could be the key to helping the next generation of engineers deliver much-needed sustainable solutions.