Tara Schustereder

I currently manage confectionery productivity projects for Europe, Middle East and Africa portfolios. My responsibilities include: Managing project timelines; Planning and executing lab trials; Assessing quality and processing risks; Coordinating interdepartmental communications between consumer science, regulatory affairs and quality; Reporting to regional and global teams and external suppliers; Leading implementation with Factory team and attending international production trials.

I researched and developed quality control testing methods for beer and hops; designed experimental method to offer novel testing capabilities for brewing industry quality standards; optimized parameters and system programs for HPLC and gas chromatography with flame ionization detector, photo ionization detector, and mass spectrophotometer and established limits of detections and quantification calibration curves for all chemicals of interest.

I was responsible for the investigated new applications and functionality of novel ingredients to ensure compliance with claims on new cereal product, in which I established a cost effective product formulation and advanced processing method to meet project criteria and created a user-friendly PDCAAS calculator to facilitate recipe formulations for nutrition claim requirements. I was also responsible for coordinating interdepartmental teamwork to facilitate result analysis and next-step planning.

During my internship with Nestle USA, I was responsible for raw materials risk assessment and reviewing all formulas at each level of production to ensure that all HACCP regulations are met for necessary critical control points. I also updated and streamlined quality assurance system files to facilitate access and utilization and I assisted in product commercialization test trial planning, troubleshooting, and test analysis.

During my internship with Wrigley, I gained experience in gum and candy processing techniques and product formulations and researched a sugarless syrup reformulation for process and cost optimization, wherein I designed and executed test methods with various crystal modifiers and processing aids, analyzed results and reported cost projections for presentation and recommendations to colleagues and management.

Biochemistry Nutritional Science Anatomy and Physiology Genentics Statistics

Food Chemistry Food Processing and Engineering Food Microbiology Organic and Analytical Chemistry