Meet Catie Stuart
“I love that every day is different. You’re always learning something new.”
Job Title: Sweet Applications Technologist
Company: Mane
Degree: BSc Food Science, University of Nottingham
A Love of Food from the Start
Catie always knew she wanted a career involving food.
As a child, she loved baking and regularly made treats for bake sales. At first, she imagined becoming a baker, but school introduced her to a more scientific side of the food world.
Her food technology teacher played a big role in shaping that direction.
“She told me a lot about food science and I thought, okay, so you can go a bit more sciencey than just making things.”
That discovery led Catie to study Food Science at the University of Nottingham.
Finding Flavour
Like many students, Catie didn’t know much about the flavour industry before university.
When it came time to apply for placements, she initially looked for traditional New Product Development (NPD) roles. Then she spotted an advert for a placement at Mane.
“I thought, I’ve never heard of this company and that made it interesting.”
The role combined flavour with product development and offered experience across both sweet and beverage applications.
“You always see unusual products on the market and think, ‘How did they come up with Cherry Bakewell flavoured tea?’”
The placement opened the door to an industry she hadn’t previously considered and she quickly realised flavour was the right fit.
A Different Route into Applications
After graduating during the COVID period, finding a role in applications proved difficult.
Catie took a temporary regulatory position at Sensient, even though it wasn’t initially the type of role she imagined herself doing.
“I knew it wasn’t really what I wanted long term but I thought it would be good experience.”
That decision turned out to be incredibly valuable.
Working in regulatory gave her a much deeper understanding of flavours, ingredients and legislation, covering areas such as:
- Raw materials
- Colours
- Flavours
- Ingredient pastes
- Product declarations and labelling
“It really helped me understand flavours beyond just putting them into an application and hoping they work.”
Eventually, the opportunity came to return to applications at Mane but this time with a much broader skill set.
Life in the Lab
Most of Catie’s time is spent in the lab developing products.
Unlike beverages, where flavours can often be tested quickly, bakery and confectionery applications can take much longer.
“If you’re making cookies, you have to bake them before you know whether the flavour works.”
That means mixing, baking, testing and repeating, often across multiple flavour variations.
“It can definitely be more time-consuming, but that’s part of the fun.”
What Does a Sweet Applications Technologist Do?
Catie works across a huge range of sweet product categories, including:
- Bakery
- Confectionery
- Dairy
- Sports nutrition
Her role starts with a customer brief.
“They might say they want a strawberry milkshake, although usually it’s more unusual than that!”
From there, she selects suitable flavours from a library of hundreds of options, considering:
- Flavour profile
- Natural or artificial requirements
- Solubility
- Application type
- Heat stability
- Customer specifications such as halal or kosher
“A strawberry flavour for a cake is different from one for chocolate or a milkshake.”
A large part of the role involves testing flavours in real products and refining recipes through trial and error.
The Power of Collaboration
Although Catie leads the sweet lab, flavour development is highly collaborative.
Taste panels regularly involve colleagues from across the business to gather feedback and ensure products are performing well.
“You can’t just rely on one person’s opinion, especially if it’s a flavour you personally don’t like!”
Working closely with colleagues also helps build confidence when presenting products to customers.
“When you’ve worked on something for so long, you really know it inside out.”
Always Learning
For Catie, one of the biggest attractions of the role is the constant variety.
“There are always new trends, new applications and new things to learn.”
Current trends include dessert-inspired products and indulgent flavours, creating opportunities to experiment with creative concepts.
The role also allows time for proactive innovation projects, where the team explores new ideas and develops concepts around emerging trends.
“There’s freedom to look at what’s interesting and what’s trending.”
Career Development
Catie sees plenty of opportunities to grow within applications and the wider flavour industry.
Potential paths include:
- Progressing into management
- Exploring other application areas such as beverages or savoury
- Developing expertise across different product categories
“There are lots of different parts of flavour that people probably don’t know about.”
Her own journey through both regulatory and applications has shown how interconnected those areas can be.
Skills for Success
Catie highlights a mix of technical and personal skills as important for a career in flavour applications:
- Practical lab skills
- Sensory understanding
- Regulatory awareness
- Creativity and problem-solving
- Presentation and communication skills
- Confidence working with customers
One area she feels she has developed significantly is presenting.
“When I started, I really didn’t like presenting. But you get more confident because you know the products so well.”
Advice for Aspiring Flavour Professionals
Catie strongly recommends gaining industry experience through placements or internships.
“For me, the placement was really important.”
She also suggests exploring areas such as:
- Sensory science
- New Product Development (NPD)
- Food trends and innovation
“If you like NPD, then flavour applications is a really good area because you get variety and creativity without being stuck working on the same products all the time.”
Final Thoughts
Catie’s story highlights how many different routes there are into the flavour industry.
From baking at home to working in regulatory and applications, her career has been shaped by curiosity, adaptability and a love of food innovation.
“It’s an industry where you’re constantly learning and that’s what keeps it exciting.”
Real world insights
What does a Sweet Applications Technologist do? Catie explains what a typical day looks like, from developing products in the laboratory to adapting flavours for different food applications. Discover how food science, creativity and practical problem-solving come together to ensure flavours perform perfectly in the finished product.
Could Flavour Be Your Future?
Catie’s experience shows that the flavour industry offers far more variety than most people realise. Whether your interests lie in science, creativity, product development or sensory work, there are countless ways to build a career in flavour.