Essential Cuisine Ltd, part of Solina Group is one of the UK's leading manufacturer and supplier of stocks, sauces and gravies to the UK’s foodservice and food manufacturing sectors. Due to our continued fast pace of growth of the business we are looking to appoint a Graduate Technologist for our purpose-built, gluten-free factory in Winsford, Cheshire. The ideal candidate will have experience of working in a food production environment Working within a multi-functional Technical department, this role will work closely with Quality and NPD/ R&D, to ensure the highest quality standards across the product range are met, ensuring compliance and expectations around food safety, quality & legal requirements. This role will vary in day to day duties to support with multiple departments and functions, which is pivotal between NPD and Quality. Responsibilities Liaise with local site Technical (R&D/ NPD/ Quality) with day to day duties. Become familiar with all the products, ranges and key ingredients, to enable an understanding around the technical & food science aspects, to include constitution & functional properties of food components. Become a skilled user of the sites functional software to include SAF (Safety & Formulation) and SAGE to support with Technical function. Support with site GMP audits, based around compliance for acceptable H&S, Food Safety and general housekeeping and hygiene expectations. Support and be involved with QC lab day to day duties to include taste panels against QAS. Investigate product failures, making up reference samples to test against. Assessment for suitability for shelf-life extension short life raw materials and finished product. Shelf-life validation of existing products and new product launches including arranging relevant tests. Work closely with the NPD team to support preparation of samples and production trials. Support attendance of pre/ post trial meetings for new product development, including support on launch & 'Quality Attribute Sheets' (QAS), to enable benchmarking of standards from customer to production. Raw material assessment including supporting with the Group raw material harmonization project. Support with operational investigations and root cause analysis to enable site continuous improvement. Any other projects / duties deemed fit by the Quality/ R&D Managers. Support the wider teams with Technical support. Qualifications Graduate in Food Science or Technology degree. Required Skills Knowledge/ experience of food manufacturing in an Quality/ NPD function. A basic understanding of food legislations and regulations. Computer literate, particularly around excel, word, powerpoint & outlook. Pay range and compensation package Dependent on experience. At Solina, we are actively committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce and culture. We work continuously to create an environment that promotes diversity and inclusion in all its forms. We believe this creates equal opportunities for our employees, as well as partners and communities. We want all our employees to feel they can “bring their whole unique selves aligned with the Solina Way.” In other words: “Your Difference Matters”.