Hillary Sandrock, CFS, Senior Scientist, Merlin Development
Hillary Sandrock is a Senior Scientist at Merlin Development. She has spent the last 13 years working on product development, formulation, scale-up, and commercialization of new products, emphasizing beverage, dairy, and dairy alternatives.
Before joining Merlin Development, Hillary was one of the first food scientists at Nature’s Fynd, helping to pioneer the use of fermented Fusarium strain flavolapis in food.*
Past roles also include working in the innovation group at Kraft Heinz and leading development teams at Imbibe. She graduated from Northwestern University and earned a Certificate in Food Science from Kansas State University.
*Sandrock’s projects at Nature’s Fynd were recently featured on a 60 Minutes segment. Bill Gates and Cooper Anderson discussed vegan dairy analogs developed from novel fermented mycelium protein.
ABOUT MERLIN DEVELOPMENT
Merlin Development is an established leader and trusted partner providing exceptional food product development, research, and related services through science-based and culinary approaches to the food industry since 1989.
Global Food Forums Presentations By Speaker
2022 Protein Trends & Technologies Seminar
The Best of Both Worlds: Combining Dairy and Plant Proteins in Cultured Products
Plant-based dairy alternatives still account for less than 10% of the overall yogurt market. Taste and texture remain key barriers to broader acceptance. Plant proteins lack certain functionalities of dairy proteins and pose development challenges when formulating cultured products. Blending dairy and plant proteins could increase consumer acceptability of plant-based proteins and capture a greater portion of the large and growing flexitarian market. Merlin Development will share proprietary research on incorporating plant proteins into traditional dairy yogurt to determine its impact on flavor, texture, and overall liking.
