In the Dough - Lesaffre November 2019 - 6

"I'VE SEEN
TRENDS COME
AND GO AND
COME AGAIN
WITH A NEW
LITTLE TWIST.
WHILE YOU
MIGHT THINK
BAKING
IS WELL
ESTABLISHED
AS A SCIENCE,
THERE IS
STILL QUITE
A LOT TO
LEARN AND
EXPLORE."

WITH MARY THOMAS,
SENIOR RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
FOR LESAFFRE

Bigger.
Better.
Stronger.

Getting Personal
WITH MARY THOMAS, SENIOR
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
MANAGER FOR LESAFFRE
Just over a year ago,
Lesaffre acquired Delavau.
The acquisition included
an impressive range of
talent including Mary
Thomas, Senior Research
and Development Manager,
who had been with Delavau
for 12 years prior. In her
role, Mary is responsible for
the development of novel
solutions for a myriad of
baking challenges using
clean label, consumer friendly
ingredients. These projects
include extending textural
shelf life of baked goods,
improving dough processing
performance and adding
nutritional value, just to name
a few. "Innovation is driven by
the needs of our customers,
so I work closely with R&D
in other food companies to
develop systems which meet
their process needs and
ﬁnished product objectives,"
she said.

While her role varies
from day to day, a key
part always includes
customer interaction. This
is critical for establishing
objectives on new project
assignments or for
discussing the status of
an existing project. At
any time, you might see
Mary running a plant trial
at a customer location
or running trials in the
Lesaffre Baking Center™
to test out various enzyme
ingredients for speciﬁc
applications and to design
test methodology for
future investigations. She
also works with marketing
to develop product
literature and supports
sales with product
recommendations.
Mary is the holder of
four patents and she also
received a New Product

A continually expanding
line of ingredients
XtendLife
NMI

Bread
Improvers

Star-Zyme
Enzyme

of the Year award from
Gorman Publishing for
innovation in frozen dough.
"While I am proud of the
products I've developed, I'm
also thankful for the ability
to come to work every
day and do my job," she
said. "I'm grateful for the
opportunity to meet good,
hard-working people on our
customer's production lines
who face struggles but still
ﬁnd the strength to come
to work, smile and support
me in my project. I've been
blessed with good health,
a loving and supportive
family and co-workers who
help move the projects
along."
When she's not creating
something delicious, Mary
enjoys spending time with
friends and family and being
outside in the fresh air
hiking, biking and skiing.
In the Dough - Lesaffre November 2019

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