Food Scientist, Performance Lipids
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Employment type:
Full time
Experience required:
Intermediate
Salary
Salary not provided
About the company:
Our mission is simple: to eradicate the use of toxic vegetable oils in our food system.
These destructive oils are hidden in everything, from salad dressings and condiments, to fast food and Michelin-starred restaurants, accounting for 20% of our daily calories.
Vegetable oils have been linked to weight gain, diabetes, cancer, cognitive decline, heart disease, autoimmune disease, and more. They increase risk of death by 62% — more than heavy drinking or moderate smoking — and are a leading cause of deforestation and climate change.
Zero Acre Farms is replacing the most problematic part of our food system with oils and fats that don't make us sick or destroy the planet.
And we’re doing it by introducing a new category of healthy oils and fats, made by fermentation, not deforestation.
Fermentation is the original culinary art, after fire. We use this ancient technique in a revolutionary way to produce oils and fats with the lowest levels of bad fats linked to inflammation and disease, while having a small environmental footprint.
As a team of food lovers, nutritionists, innovators, doctors, and PhDs, we’re banding together to save our health and planet without sacrificing the foods we love.
The world needs an oil change. We hope you join us.
Why We Exist
We believe a healthier world is possible with better oils and fats.
Vegetable oils account for 20% of our daily calories and have been linked to chronic disease, inflammation, obesity, and cognitive decline, as well as deforestation, biodiversity loss, and climate change, with no end in sight.
Vegetable oils are now the most consumed food in the world behind rice and wheat and are the fastest growing sub sector of global agriculture. More vegetable oil is consumed globally than all beef, chicken, cheese, and shrimp, combined.
The world needs an oil change.
Zero Acre Farms is on a mission to replace destructive vegetable oils in the food system with healthier, more sustainable oils and fats made by fermentation. Our first product, Cultured Oil, just launched DTC as we look ahead to retail, foodservice, and food manufacturing expansion.
Our Team
We’re a team of food lovers, nutrition believers, innovators, doctors, sustainability advocates, PhD’s, and problem solvers. We believe in taking care of our health and our planet’s health without sacrificing the foods we love. We started Zero Acre Farms out of concern for what we’re all involuntarily putting into our bodies and the profound effect it’s having on our health and the natural world.
Zero Acre Farms is backed by an incredible group of investors, including mission-driven VC’s, celebrities, influencers, and change makers.
The Role
Zero Acre Farms seeks an experienced food scientist/chemist to lead the development of the next generation of cooking oils and fats. This hands-on food scientist will apply a deep understanding of lipid chemistry, lipid thermal and oxidative degradation mechanisms, and the influence of equipment, food, and non-lipid chemicals to the design, creation, and testing of candidate oils produced through Zero Acre Farms Cultured Oil production platform. This role will work cross functionally with teams producing and refining oils to define a target composition and process for its commercial production.
Responsibilities
- Define and execute an innovative development plan to create and test the next generation of cooking oils.
- Define and build out required lab capabilities and team (as needed) to execute plan.
- Work cross functionally with business and oil production teams to define target oil compositions and performance metrics.
- Manage cross functional development team.
- Work hands on in the lab to evaluate candidate oils.
- Develop intellectual property as appropriate.
You and Your Experience
- PhD in food science/chemistry, chemistry, or equivalent.
- 5-10 years of industrial experience in the food industry.
- Deep understanding of of the formulation of lipids and oils.
- Expertise in lipid chemistry, lipid oxidation, and lipid thermal transitions and degradation.
- Deep understanding of the influence of equipment, food, and small molecule contaminants and additives on oil function and stability under extreme conditions.
- Understanding of standard analytical methods for monitoring lipid chemistry: PV, AV, IV, OSI, TPM, FFA, and beyond.
- Experience with the analytical equipment used to analyze lipid chemistry: GC, HPLC, MS, NMR, etc.
- Practical experience working with different equipment for both QSR (quick service restaurants) and continuous operations.
- Strong working knowledge of the commercial processes used to produce and refine oil and their impacts on oil performance.
- Experience monitoring directing third party research, analytical, and CMO partners.
- You are passionate about supporting healthy foods that don’t squander the Earth’s natural resources.
- You love thinking about and getting into the details on lipids and oils.
- You are data driven and have great analytical skills.
What We Offer
- An engaged and collaborative team that is working on solving a health and sustainability crisis that impacts everyone.
- The opportunity to help build company processes and culture from the ground up.
- Empowered team members with minimal bureaucracy.
- Competitive salary and meaningful equity.
- Flexible vacation time (minimum 3 weeks).
- Focus on uninterrupted deep work time.
- Medical, dental, vision, long-term disability, life coverage, health and dependent care FSA (flexible spending account)
- Additional perks like books and commuter assistance.
A Note From Our Founders
The majority of Americans are sick. Let that sink in. More people have a chronic disease than not in this country! 6 out of 10. And a hundred years ago, almost no one had a chronic disease. Our healthy life expectancy is decreasing for the first time in recorded history. Our solution so far has been more prescription drugs (in 2018, the average American filled eighteen prescriptions).
Our planet is also being destroyed by the day. The Amazon loses about 2 football fields of rainforest every minute, mostly to grow industrial monocrops like seed oils that make us sick. Species extinction is at an all time high. Some projections say we only have 60 harvests left before our soil doesn't support any more life.
The real issue? These problems are interconnected. We're destroying the planet to grow food that makes us sick.
How is this not one of the most important, urgent, and talked about issues of our generation? We want to change that. We want to slow down and ideally reverse the skyrocketing rates of chronic disease and environmental impact caused by what we eat. We truly believe that we can save millions of lives, as well as millions of acres of rainforest, if we are successful in our mission of replacing destructive vegetable oils in our food supply.
That’s what drives us, and we hope you’ll join us.
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