Jonathan Gordon

April 14, 2022
Speaker Biography Feature Image

Jonathan Gordon, Ph.D., Founder and
President of Glasgow Growth Partners

Jonathan GordonDr. Jonathan Gordon is the Founder and President of Glasgow Growth Partners, a full-service technical product development consulting company. Glasgow Growth Partners offers world-class food and beverage product development and scale-up services.

Originally a professional Chef and Patissier in Europe, Australia and the USA, Dr. Gordon took undergraduate degrees in Engineering, then Food Science, followed by a Doctorate in Chemical and Process Engineering (for research in Soy Protein Chemistry and Microbiology).

He has worked for Kraft Jacob Suchard in Germany and as the technical program leader for Kraft Food Ingredients’ international efforts, where he travelled the globe, interacting at senior level with multinational customers. In 1995 he was hired by White Wave, a small, soy foods company to run Operations, R&D and QA. Within 2 years, through the invention of ‘Silk’ soymilk, he helped to build company sales from $6.5 MM to $35 MM. The Silk brand went on to single-handedly transform the US milk-alternate market.

In 2000, Dr. Gordon started an entrepreneurial company, inventing new technologies to improve the quality of soy ingredients and developing a range of soy-based dairy analogs such as cream, cheese, yogurts, creamer etc. In 2002 he was hired by Firmenich (a global flavor house), to manage the Soy and Wellness program for their  international Design Team. Based in Princeton, NJ he travelled extensively, interacting with customers on five continents and developing a multitude of new products and flavoring solutions. While at Firmenich he was an inventor on four international patents for novel encapsulation technologies.

In 2006, Dr. Gordon founded Glasgow Growth Partners which is located in Narragansett, RI. Glasgow provides natural and organic food and beverage development services to companies across the U.S. and world-wide. Products that Glasgow Growth Partners has developed have won 13 “Best of” Awards in just the last 9 years from Expo West, Expo East, Bev Net, Inter Bev and others.

Dr. Gordon has worked in and managed a multitude of food and beverage product development areas such as soy and dairy products, aseptic beverages, juices, emulsions, fat-replacers, nutraceuticals, diet and wellness products, center-plate items, meats and meat analogs, flavors, nutrition bars etc.

 Global Food Forums Presentations by Speaker

Where’s the Protein? The Challenges of Formulating Non-Dairy Cheese Analogs with Similar Nutrition to Their Dairy Equivalents

Abstract: It has not proven easy to formulate plant-based dairy analogs, especially cheeses, that have a similar nutritional quality to their dairy equivalents. Unlike dairy products composed of protein/fat matrices, traditional plant-based cheese analogs rely on starch-based matrices. The addition of protein typically results in soft and mushy end products. These have proven suitable for soft cheeses and spreads, but the formulation and processing tactics are not adaptable to hard cheeses. Newer analog products that rely on traditional cheese processing and use plant-based milks or slurries as the starting materials do not have as much protein resulting in lower protein products. We will explore potential approaches to solving these issues using plant-based ingredients.

A Food Scientist’s Role in Advancing Clean Labels and Sustainable Food Systems

Abstract: This presentation looks at how the food industry arrived at a place where a “Clean Label” conference is needed. It further offers insights into food scientists’ role in feeding our planet’s seven billion people and providing foods with optimal health benefits.