A Day in the Life of a Food Engineer

Cynthia M. Stewart, PhD, CFS, is the founder and principal of Innovative Food Science Consulting, which provides consulting, advisory, and technical due diligence services to the food and food ingredients, biotechnology/food technology, and venture capital industries. Prior to founding Innovative Food Science Consulting, she was the vice president, Open Innovation in Corbion, where she strategically led their new global Open Innovation business model and team. Prior to joining Corbion, Cindy was the Global R&D Leader for Cultures, Food Protection, and Food Enzymes businesses, in the IFF Health and Biosciences Division (formerly DuPont Nutrition and Biosciences). Other previous positions held include senior director of Advanced Research at PepsiCo; general manager, Silliker, Inc, Food Science Center; director, Scientific Affairs, National Center for Food Safety and Technology; High Pressure Processing Program Manager for CSIRO's Food Science Australia; senior research microbiologist, Nabisco; and research associate II, University of Delaware. Dr Stewart's expertise as a food scientist is recognized globally, as she has published and presented more than 125 papers and book chapters on topics including nonthermal processing technologies, predictive microbiological modeling, and microbial risk management. Cindy served on the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Board of Directors (2012-2015) and was the 78th IFT President, 2017-2018. In 2020, she was elected as an IFT fellow. Cindy is a member of the Tuskegee University Food and Nutritional Sciences Advisory Board, serves on the Delaware Hospice Board of Trustees, and is an International Food Information Service Corporate Advisory Board Member. She holds food science BS and MS degrees from the University of Delaware and a PhD in food science from Rutgers University. The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. Correspondence: Cynthia M. Stewart, PhD, CFS, Innovative Food Science Consulting, 11 Perth Dr, Wilmington, DE 19803 ([email protected]).