Alumna Yipeng - MSc Food Safety

Current role

She currently works at Mead Johnson in Nijmegen as a Quality By Design Engineer. Mead Johnson is an infant formula company, and their major consumer markets are based in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Yipeng actually started working there when she did her MSc internship. When she finished her internship, Mead Johnson offered her a permanent position.

Favourite aspect of the job

Yipeng really enjoys the data element of her role, and loves to dive into the numbers and analysis. For instance, when producing an infant formula on a large scale, the specifications of the formula must remain precise and consistent each and every time a batch is produced. These are the sorts of things that she monitors. She also likes working on other projects, including predictive calculations to ensure safety and quality, as well as risk assessments to prevent contamination. Another interesting task Yipeng enjoys doing are good practice rounds at the factories that produce the infant formulas. This entails observing different areas of a factory and checking that everything she sees qualifies as good practices.

Challenges and opportunities in the Food Safety sector

Yipeng sees a whole lots of opportunities within the food safety sector. Particularly in terms of job security for future graduates of the MFS program. This is because food safety plays such an essential and crucial role within the food industry. This is because the food industry always need to provide high quality and safe food to its consumers. Even if a certain company isn’t functioning well in other departments, they still need to provide safe food to consumers. And that’s why people employed within the Food Safety and Quality assurance departments have a secure and essential position within this sector.

In terms of challenges, she feels that there is a lack of good, experienced food safety professions at both entry level and management level positions. Yipeng hopes that in the future, more people choose the master Food Safety program and these positions can be ultimately filled.

Advice to aspiring Food Safety professionals

At the moment, Yipeng is still really enjoying her more junior role and gaining experience in different areas. However in five years from now, she would love to be working in a more senior role in the company, as a project manager or other management role. However she stresses that it’s important for prospective MFS students to realize that there is no straight line that you can or should follow when planning your education or career. Anything is possible. The sky’s the limit.

Yipeng biggest advice to those aspiring to be food safety professionals to get out there and see how things at factories work, and how products are manufactured and made. By visiting different companies and observing different practices and techniques, she could better learn how companies follow the rules to maintain the safety of a product or to prevent cross contamination. Lastly, don’t be afraid to try something new and give it a chance, because that why you might find something that you really love.

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