What if you have a great food idea that someone has said you should turn into a business? Or they’ve said you should expand your micro-business and go big?
Exciting? Scary? Stuff of dreams? All of those probably, but there’s a sound route to reality.
In conversation with Ruth Dolby, of Food Science Fusion, she talks about her focus on the technicalities of scaling food production – essentially how to stay close to your original concept but involve machinery and process.
With Ruth, you quickly realise you’re in the company of someone who has spent a lifetime not just working in food but thinking food. Her career spans over four decades, from culinary beginnings to sensory science, manufacturing, retail, and now consultancy. Today, she leads Food Science Fusion, a multidisciplinary team helping food businesses navigate the complex journey from idea to commercial reality.
In our recent conversation, Ruth summed it up as: "We operate in the crossroads between culinary creative sensory science and manufacturing processing.”
It’s this intersection — where creativity meets engineering, and where flavour meets feasibility — that defines this kind of work.
Why consultancies can ‘save your bacon’
Most innovators can craft a delicious recipe. But as Ruth explains, the real challenge is ensuring that recipe survives the brutal honesty of the factory floor.
A dish that works in a test kitchen may fall apart under industrial pressures: different heat regimes, pH shifts, water absorption, machinery constraints, or simply the realities of a Friday-afternoon production team trying to get home on time.
The point is to step in long before those problems surface. Ideally be holistic, technical, and deeply human. Look up and down the production stream, asking:
- Can this recipe scale?
- Will it behave under real manufacturing conditions?
- What shouldn’t be lost in translation?
- What does the consumer expect — and will they notice if it changes?
As Ruth puts it, the job is to guide clients “from thought to fork.”
A Case Study: Turning Waste Fibres into PuA Pastry
One of the few projects Ruth can talk about publicly — thanks to Innovate UK funding — is a two-and-a-half-year study exploring how recovered fibres from food waste streams could be used in new products.
What is PuA pastry? A quick search reveals a tasty sweet pastry with a very specific profile and hugely popular.
The team worked with partners who dried and milled the fibres into functional ingredients rich in vitamins and minerals. Their first test? PuA pastry.
“We originally just threw them in… took out wheat flour and put in fibre… and we found that it created a brand-new product.”
It was crisp, delicious — but not what the customer wanted.
So the team went deeper. They used laser particle analysis to understand fibre structure, explored hydration strategies, tested pH and heat stability, and even experimented with fermentation. They visited factories to understand real-world constraints, asking operators what made their jobs easier or harder.
The result? A high-fibre puA pastry that ran smoothly on factory lines, passed consumer panels, and halved its HFSS (High in Fat, Salt, or Sugar) score — without compromising quality.
When does it make sense to bring in expertise?
- Startups hitting technical ceilings
- Growing brands facing scale-up challenges
- Manufacturers modernising high-volume lines
- Businesses navigating HFSS reformulation
- Companies exploring sustainability and circular food innovation
Ruth often finds herself connecting people within the same organisation who didn’t realise they needed each other. In one case, she discovered an employee with hidden expertise that perfectly matched the company’s new strategic direction — a skillset they were about to recruit externally for.
So it’s useful to think about growth not just technically, but structurally.
The Technical Safety Net
Ruth describes her work as a “technical safety net” — catching failures long before they reach consumers, such as:
- Formulation support
- Shelf-life testing and abuse testing
- Regulatory guidance
- Scale-up assistance
- Quality assurance handovers
- Training and mentoring teams
Her regulatory vigilance is particularly striking. She shared an example of a seemingly harmless apple jam recipe found online — one that turned out to be illegal under UK food law.
“Dr. Google speaks American and American food law is not European or UK food law.”
It’s a reminder that in food, small mistakes can have big consequences.
Why sensory validation matters
For Ruth, sensory science is non-negotiable. “If it’s not eaten, it’s not nutritious,” she says — a mantra her team knows well.
Whether reformulating for HFSS, adjusting machinery, or changing ingredients, sensory validation ensures the product still meets consumer expectations. Consistency is king. A choc-ice with too much chocolate one week and the correct amount the next, will lose customers.
How Ruth got here
She grew up with a mother who was a nutritionist and BBC broadcaster, absorbing food science from childhood. She trained at The Tante Maries School of Cordon Bleu Cookery, worked in professional kitchens, and was eventually pushed — lovingly — into home economics and food development by a mentor who saw her potential.
Her advice for anyone entering the industry? Be curious. Ask questions. Offer help. Show up.
At the heart of it all
Ruth recommends aiming for what she and her consultancy does for businesses. It’s not just about technical expertise, but critically, translating complexity into clarity, to bridge the gap between chefs and engineers, so your business is materially stronger as a direct result.
In her words, there’s one simple truth: Everyone eats — and that’s exactly why this work matters.
When you’re ready to scale, surround yourself with people who know the landscape.
Not sure where to begin? It’s time to ask for help
- Think about strategic support to help you find the right consultant, to research and strategy to scaling options, processes, production facilities, distribution contacts and more.
- Think about professional facilities, like hiring sensory tasting and test kitchens, to start shifting your product to the next level of professionalism.
Every single baby step will count towards growing your business and you’ll find there are many organisations ready to guide you.
You can always start by asking us, the team at Broadland Food Innovation Centre, and we’ll signpost you the right way.
