Katie Stephen
Katie reflects on her varied and exciting experience as an R&D intern at Muller.
I spent my placement year working as a Research and Development Intern at Muller UK and Ireland, within the Private Label team. Muller is a leading manufacturer of both branded and private label chilled yogurts and potted desserts, making it a great place to start my career in the food industry.
I was part of a large cohort of students (22 in total), across a wide variety of departments. This was amazing, as not only did I have built-in friends, but it meant we were offered a thorough induction, which involved site tours at multiple factories, talks with senior colleagues, and even a farm visit to see a Muller Dairy!
After settling into my role with the Research and Development team, my responsibilities included: making samples of new products for customer submissions, completing basic recipe development, organising factory trials, checking product artwork, carrying out organoleptic testing, and much more! One thing I loved about product development is that no day is the same. I spread my work across the office, development kitchen, and the factory, and I found having these different working environments made my job very exciting.
Throughout the year, I worked on lots of projects, launching products for large UK retailers under their own-brand ranges. I was even given projects to work on independently, running factory trials and product launches within my first 6 months. It was great to see the products that I had worked on launching into stores - and getting family and friends to try them!
A placement year is great for developing the soft skills which you can transfer to your studies and future career. For example, my confidence in talking to new people grew massively as a result of liaising with our suppliers and communicating with operatives in the factory.
The opportunities I received were amazing, for example I took part in a flavour workshop to improve my sensory skills, attended a food and drink expo to look at innovation trends, and visited customers at their head offices to present new products.
Another highlight was towards the end of the year, when I was invited to a conference in Freising, Germany, where Muller's R&D department is based. Throughout the conference, I networked with many German colleagues, learned more about the international business, and even had an insight into some exciting future projects. Travelling for business was a rather surreal experience and something I was grateful to be included in as a placement student. I even got to explore Freising and Munich in my free time!
To anyone who is thinking about doing a placement year, my advice is to go for it! You will gain invaluable work experience, and it is also a great way of figuring out which area of the food industry you are interested in pursuing after your degree.