Brussels Metropolitan Area
R&D / NPD / innovation project management in food industry (Unilever, Jordans Cereals, Coca-Cola, Puratos) with a focus on health and well-being solutions. * Managing Innovation / Product Development and R&D projects from Idea to Market Launch: Concept, prototype design, consumer and sensory testing, product and process specifications, scaling-up for commercial productions. * Effective technical leader in cross-functional teams of marketing, sales, regulation, supply chain, quality and production; and in technology partnerships with suppliers, agencies and universities. * Driving innovation: Generating innovation pipelines in line with global business strategies. * Presenting to technical and non-technical audiences.
* Develop new sports and energy drinks (e.g. Aquarius, Powerade, Burn, Relentless) including functionality, flavor and calorie innovations. * Manage renovations in the category for increased consumer liking, sugar reduction, cost optimisation, claim substantiation and stability improvement. * Create new beverage concepts for Foodservice customers. * Create cost saving guidelines for R&D. * Manage R&D Brussels Labs using 5S methodology.
* Develop new juices and juice drinks (e.g. Minute Maid Cappy, Oasis) including flavor and calorie innovations, juice type and content adjustments. * Coordinate consumer sensory and competitor benchmarking studies for global juice preferences. * Train R&D development community, business and bottling partners on Juice Technology. * Develop an internal database for innovation reapplications across geographies. * Review and approve juice concentrate suppliers and ingredient specifications for conformity. Awards: Refreshing flavor innovations for Cappy (East Europe) received Taste Awards by ITQI Institute. 1st No Added Sugar Nectar in Europe using Stevia received Best Taste claim in Spain.
* Develop new variants and reformulations for flakes and baked clusters categories (Crunchy, Crispy, Duoflakes). * Monitor product stability and improve quality issues. * Prepare and approve on-pack labels (ingredients list and nutritional table). * Generate nutrition and health claims for Superfoods range.
* Developed a slowly digesting (low GI) carbohydrate using pea seeds and optimized the process for manufacturing it. Results were filed by Unilever in International Patent WO/2007/006383. * Author: Oyman, S. (2007), Plant Cellular Integrity: Its Effect on in-vitro Starch Digestion. Doctoral Thesis, University of Nottingham * Author: Oyman, S., Blonk, J., van der Hijden, H., Peters, H. &S. E. Hill (2008). Real-Time CSLM Observations on Alpha-Amylase Digestion of Starch in Isolated form and within Cellular Integrity. Gums & Stabilisers for the Food Industry 14. Wrexham, pp. 334-340. * Speaker: 14th Gums and Stabilisers for the Food Industry Conference, Wrexham, UK, 2007 * Speaker: Royal Society of Chemistry Food Group Conference, Leeds, UK, 2006 * Poster: AACC International Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas, USA, 2007
* Developed a methodology for easy-to-brew tea. * Co-authored the internal publication: "Unilever Science&Technology Report: Characterizing solute transport across tea leaf cuticles".