Video: Making a novel sports drink
Read more: 鈥�Graduate Special 2013鈥�
Reckon you can tell the difference between Coca-Cola and a supermarket鈥檚 own brand version? Not if Paulina Erceg has her way.
Paulina knows soft drinks like a sommelier knows wine. A food scientist at in Reading, it鈥檚 her job to develop fizzy drinks and energy drinks for both big brands and supermarket copycats. 鈥淐onsumers get used to a certain taste and they don鈥檛 want to compromise,鈥� says Paulina, 鈥渟o we make sure that we develop a new product that tastes exactly the same.鈥�
Advertisement
Each drink is concocted from a range of powdered ingredients, some of which are newly created by other companies. 鈥淭here are so many coming out it鈥檚 impossible to keep up with them,鈥� Paulina says.
She then hydrates the mixtures with water before putting them through the all-important taste test. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like cooking,鈥� she says. 鈥淵ou mix something up and you have a quick taste, and you go 鈥楿rgh, too salty!鈥� or 鈥楿rgh, too sweet!'鈥�
Many of Paulina鈥檚 clients are from big name brands that like to keep their recipes top secret. So secret, in fact, that we have been asked not to name them. Paulina regularly has to sign confidentiality agreements, and has even been banned from making photocopies in the past.
Paulina first trained as a clinical psychologist, and worked with children with special needs. Then a friend introduced her to . Once her appetite had been whet, there was no going back, and Paulina returned to study for a degree in food science.
鈥淚 have always been passionate about food, nutrition and healthy living and I believe that changing your diet can really affect the way you live,鈥� Paulina says. 鈥淚t all clicked into place. I love it and I鈥檓 so glad I did it.鈥�
After a placement at GlaxoSmithKline, Paulina started at IFN early last year. 鈥淲e work in laboratories with analytical equipment, and I use my chemistry knowledge every day,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 guess it鈥檚 surprising to people how much science actually goes into food.鈥�
But the real fun lies in concocting 鈥� and tasting 鈥� new foods and drinks. 鈥淚 think everyone at IFN is truly a foodie 鈥� foodies before we are scientists,鈥� she says.