Junior Product Scientist- Fermentation

About Flora Food Group

We offer consumers a compelling choice in four growing categories: butters and spreads, creams, liquids and cheeses. We hold leadership positions in many of the 100 countries we operate in, with iconic brands including Flora, Becel+ProActiv, Blue Band, Country Crock, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, Rama, and Violife, together with our local brands and Professional business.

Global branded food champion Flora Food Group, offers the next generation of delicious, natural, nutritious food. Our products are more affordable and more sustainable than their dairy equivalents.

Location: Wageningen, Netherlands

On-site

About the role

As a Junior Product Scientist – Fermentation, you will take a hands-on role in developing and characterizing fermented products, with a strong focus on flavor development during cheese maturation, culture performance, and analytical assessment. You will work across fermentation and maturation processes in both plant‑based and hybrid matrices, contributing to exploratory research as well as applied product development.

You will:

• Screen and evaluate microbial cultures across plant‑based, dairy, and hybrid substrates.

• Characterize enzymatically treated and/or fermented bases to identify and quantify proteolysis and lipolysis by‑

• Conduct fermentation and maturation studies to optimize product quality, flavor development, and safety.

• Analyze aromatic and non‑volatile compounds using chromatographic techniques (GC and LC).

• Perform sample preparation and extraction procedures prior to instrumental analysis.

• Interpret analytical data using statistical tools and translate findings into clear, actionable conclusions.

• Coordinate analytical activities with external laboratories when necessary.

Initial Projects You Will Lead or Support

• Map and optimize the cheese maturation process with a focus on flavor development and food safety.

• Consolidate and characterize culture collections to strengthen internal screening programs.

• Perform instrumental analyses (GC, LC, extraction techniques) and manage analytical outputs generated in collaboration with external partners.

So what does it take to be successful in this role?  

• MSc in Food Science, Food Chemistry, Food Fermentation, Food Ingredient Functionality, Process Engineering, or a related discipline.

• Strong understanding of aroma development and flavor chemistry.

• Knowledge of analytical methods for characterizing volatile and non‑volatile compounds.

• Experience with chromatographic techniques (GC, GC‑MS, LC, LC‑MS) is an advantage.

• Familiarity with fermentation pathways, especially aroma‑generating metabolic routes (plus).

• Experience with Design of Experiments (DoE) and multivariate statistical tools (e.g., PCA, MFA) (plus).

• High attention to detail and strong critical thinking.

• Hands-on mentality with flexibility to work across lab and pilot environments.

• Ability to communicate findings clearly and translate analytical output into practical insights.

What’s Next?

If this position sounds interesting, please hit the apply button now! The deadline to apply is February 11th.

We understand your resume might not be up to date and recommend that you apply with what you have or your LinkedIn Profile. Flora Food Group is dedicated to building an inclusive and diverse workplace, we understand that you might not meet all the requirements stated in the description, but we encourage you to apply anyway. You might be the right candidate for this role or other roles. 

Flora Food Group is an employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace and equal opportunities for all. We recruit based only on values, qualifications, performance, skills, behaviours, experience, and knowledge. We ensure job advertisements are free from unintentional bias.

No personal characteristics should be a barrier to joining Flora Food Group. We prohibit discrimination and harassment based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or other personal characteristics.