He stayed on in Trinity to do a PhD with Professor Jim Mason, on the role certain compounds play in Wilson’s Disease (a genetic disorder where copper builds up in the body). He enjoyed it and remains in touch with Mason but he knew that pure academic research wasn’t for him. ‘I wanted something more applied and as it turned out, when I was finishing my thesis, Kerry were looking for PhD level graduates to move the company into higher levels of technology and research.’ He joined in 1993 and “quickly moved on from doing R&D to a more commercial type role”. He relocated as sales director to France, which he loved. ‘I lived for 14 years in France, much of it in Avignon. Great food, great country, great weather! I married a French woman and have French-Irish kids.’ After promotion to CEO of Kerry EMEA, he was appointed chief technology officer, and in 2016, to his current role of Chief Science & Technology officer. carcinogens - it’s bad from the environmental and nutritional viewpoint. Our technology uses distillation and extraction processes to remove harmful products - it’s more sustainable and efficient than traditional methods.’ Another pillar of their sustainable commitment is plant- based foods. ‘We focus on dairy alternatives - McDonald’s are using our technology to introduce a plant-based cheese for their meat alternative burger, the McPlant. There’s a lot of science in it – plant proteins tend to have earthy taste profiles, you have to mask those profiles and change the texture and then build succulence in. This is a really fast- growing area for us – in the UK market through the Kerry Foods business, we’ve gone from zero to 8% global market share in 12 months. A third area that we are exploring, though it’s early days, is cultured meat - taking cell culture technology that is traditionally only used in pharma and using that to grow meat.’ Measuring and reducing the environmental impact of food is intrinsic to Kerry Group’s mission in sustainability. ‘Food waste is the third biggest global emitter of CO2, after America and China. We want to use our capabilities to reduce this at industrial Our starting point is you should consume food products because they’re good for your health and because they taste really good Kerry Group take their social responsibility seriously. They are key corporate sponsors of the Trinity COVID-19 Immunology Project, led by Professors Kingston Mills, Luke O’Neill and Aideen Long, which is researching treatments and vaccines and consumer level – in developed countries, to tackle this pandemic and establish a consumers are the biggest contributors to food state of preparedness for future infectious waste. We have scientists working on modelling solutions diseases. ‘We were already involved in the COVID vaccine to extend shelf life on products – both the primary shelf life area because of the work we do in media solutions for the (when the product is packed) and the secondary (after it’s Bio-pharma industry, so this was a relevant space for us, and opened). Balancing the amount of food being produced with something we wanted to be involved with in terms of social the amount being consumed will have significant impact on responsibility.’ overall sustainability targets.’ Because they source so many natural materials in their Kerry Group’s commitment extends to the environmental supply chain, Kerry Group has direct experience of the impact of their activities: ‘We look at our factories and supply impact of climate change. Dr McQuaid doesn’t downplay chains and measure what we’re consuming in terms of water, the challenge of getting governments, businesses and energy and resources, and how to make savings, and we consumers to act sustainably, but he emphasizes that do that with our customers too.’ He gives an example of ‘the tools are there to help solve some of these problems. successful innovation: ‘Traditionally, meat factories have It will take huge commitment to move in the right direction, a smoker house which burns wood to smoke the meat and it won’t go from 100 to zero - it will go from 100 to 90 to but this method can leave materials that are considered 80 to 70 to 60. It’s day by day, and step by step.’
Download PDF file