Interim Food Technologist

Wiltshire Farm Foods; Trowbridge; On-site; GBP 32,000 - 42,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Living wage

25 days holiday

Discretionary bonus

Pension scheme

Life assurance

Free parking

Christmas voucher

Perks scheme

Job summary

apetito is seeking an interim Food Technologist to join the New Product Development team in the UK Head Office at Trowbridge, Wiltshire. You will manage specification reviews, work with suppliers on raw material data, and ensure information is accurate, up-to-date and compliant for safe, high-quality meals.

You will support the food technology team, review specifications, and help maintain product information through concept to launch, collaborating with internal stakeholders and suppliers as

Qualifications

• Proven experience in a similar role in food manufacturing.
• Experience checking raw material specifications for accuracy and compliance.
• Up-to-date knowledge of Food Legislation for end consumer delivery.
• Competent with MS Office including Word, Excel, Outlook and SharePoint.
• Ability to manage multiple projects with numerical support for recipes.
• Detail-oriented, with strong communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Manage a busy workload of specification reviews, balancing new products and three-year reviews.
• Collaborate with suppliers to prepare and maintain accurate raw material specifications for on-site materials.
• Obtain timely stakeholder approvals for specifications.
• Keep raw material information up to date in internal systems for customers.
• Maintain accuracy of products, recipes, and specifications in internal systems.
• Keep abreast of legislative changes and implement them where needed.

Skills

Similar role experience

Food manufacturing experience

Check raw material specifications

Legislation knowledge

MS Office proficiency

Multitask management

Numerical competency

Stakeholder communication

Data interpretation

Tools

Microsoft Office Suite

Job description

Overview

This is an interim opportunity for a detail-focused and technically curious Food Technologist to join a knowledgeable, highly valued team at the heart of apetito’s New Product Development function.

The role has been created to provide additional technical capacity during a period of high specification and project activity, supporting the review, approval and maintenance of accurate product and ingredient information.

In this role, you will work with suppliers to collect and approve up-to‑date ingredient information, helping to ensure clear, current and legally compliant data is available to support safe, high-quality meals for people who rely on our food every day.

Working within the Ingredients Function in the Product Development Team, you will report to the Food Technology Supervisor and support a wider Food Technology team who provide the technical expertise required to ensure our product information meets legislative, customer and apetito requirements, helping to protect product integrity from concept through to launch and beyond.

This is a role for someone who enjoys precision, problem solving and communication. You will work closely with suppliers and internal stakeholders to gather, interpret, approve and share product information, making sure the right technical detail is available to the right people at the right time.

Within our dynamic and growing business, you will review a high volume of specifications and support a steady flow of product, supplier and process updates, helping to ensure accurate technical information keeps pace with business needs.

This role is based at our UK Head Office in Trowbridge Wiltshire on a five and a half month fixed term contract.

Who we are

apetito is the UK’s leading food supplier to the health and social care sectors serving more than 1,300 care homes, health care and education settings.

Our meals are expertly crafted by our dieticians and chefs, and then frozen to lock in the goodness.

Wiltshire Farm Foods, our sister company, is the UK’s largest ready meal supplier cooking and delivering over 330 different delicious frozen ready meals across the UK.

Responsibilities

• Manage and prioritise a busy, varied workload of specification reviews. Balancing new products, 3 year reviews and specification updates
• Work with suppliers to prepare and maintain accurate raw material specifications for materials used on site, ensuring legislative, customer and apetito policy compliance
• Seek timely stakeholder approval of specifications

• Keep raw material information up to date in internal systems to ensure accurate, up to date information is available for our customers
• Keep internal systems for products, recipes and specifications accurate and up to date

• Keeping up to date with, and implementing key legislative changes

Qualifications/Personal Qualities

Essential

• Proven experience in a similar role
• Previous experience in Food Manufacturing
• Previous experience checking raw material specifications from suppliers for accuracy, legislative compliance and adherence to business policies
• Previous experience with raw material specification checks across a variety of food groups
• Up to date knowledge and understanding of the implementation of Food Legislation for delivery to the end consumer
• Competent user of Microsoft Office Software including Word, Excel, Outlook and SharePoint
• Comfortableand capable of working on multiple projects at one time
• Numerical competency to support recipe calculations
• Comfortable working with multiple data sources

Personal Qualities

• Detail focussed with a structured approach to task completion
• Self-motivated and able to own and manage workload with minimal supervision
• Able to work within a team and communicate with internal and external stakeholders at all levels in a professional manner, using both oral and written forms of communication
• Analytical thinker with ability to translate facts into usable information to support a position on a task in the workplace

Company Benefits

• Competitive salary - accredited Living Wage employer
• 25 days holiday per year, plus bank holidays
• Option to purchase up to 5 additional days holiday per year
• Discretionary annual bonus scheme
• Pension scheme - employer matched contributions up to 4%
• Life assurance scheme worth at least 1x annual salary
• Subsidised canteen
• Free parking
• Free turkey or voucher at Christmas
• apetito perks scheme including salary sacrifice options and retail discounts

Our Values

As a family-owned business, we take great pride in being a company that makes a real difference and is dedicated to creating outstanding meals to be proud of.

We develop a range of products designed to enhance health and well-being for all our customers.

We are driven by a passion for service and dedicated to feeding some of the UK’s most vulnerable people.

We proudly support British food and farming, focusing on using the best ethical and sustainable produce in alignment with our goal to reach Net Zero by 2040.

Our ethical standards are recognised by the ETI and we are an accredited Living Wage employer. Learn more about apetito’s commitment to a more sustainable future.

We embrace inclusion, empowering individuals from diverse backgrounds.

Our commitment to making a real difference extends to customers, communities, and staff and we're on a mission to build an inclusive workplace where everyone reaches their full potential.