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Rachel Eaton and Emily Chuang were both named the 2018 Red Gold Food Science Scholarship Award winners. The Red Gold-Purdue Food Science Scholarship is awarded to Purdue University students, with strong aptitudes for a career in food science. In addition to the scholarship, Red Gold rewards each recipient with a paid internship at the Corporate Headquarters, along with hands-on experience at their three state-of-the-art food processing facilities and in their product development lab. “We are proud to present this opportunity to students who excel in Purdue’s challenging Food Science program. Red Gold is committed to industry leadership, the abundance of career opportunities in advance food manufacturing, and we are excited to support the next generation of food scientists,” says Tim Ingle, Vice President of Human Resources and Corporate Strategy at Red Gold.
Rachel is the daughter of Linda and Jeff Eaton of Fishers, Indiana. Rachel is currently a junior working towards her Bachelor of Science Degree at Purdue University, majoring in Food Processing Engineering with a minor in Food Science and is expected to graduate in May 2020. During the school year, Rachel works on campus at the Laboratory of Renewable Resources Engineering as a research assistant. In this role, she has conducted a microfiltration process to detect food-borne pathogens and implemented sterilization techniques to maintain a safe work environment. Rachel is also a member of Purdue’s Engineering Student Council where she works as a Registration Coordinator for the Industrial Roundtable. She is currently working as the Product Development Intern at the Red Gold Corporate Headquarters, located in Elwood, Indiana. “I plan to pursue a career in food research and development, so I was thrilled with the opportunity to work alongside Red Gold’s Product Development team. Red Gold stood out to me as a friendly, family-owned company that would enable me to work on projects that matter. By the end of the summer, I aim to develop my own product and be able to analyze foods using quantitative data. I have enjoyed seeing how a formula evolves from the lab, to plant production, and eventually becomes the product consumers grab off grocery shelves,” says Eaton.
Emily is the daughter of Jennifer Lee and Kenny Chuang of Buffalo, New York. Emily is currently a junior working towards her Bachelor of Science Degree at Purdue University, majoring in Food Science and is expected to graduate in May 2020. During the school year, Emily works at Purdue’s Pilot Plant where she conducts test designed for manufacturing companies. This past summer Emily attended Better Processing Control School at Purdue where she became certified in thermal processing, acidification, and container closure inspection. Emily is also a member of Purdue’s Food Science Club where she serves as their Treasurer. She is currently working as the Quality Assurance Intern at the Red Gold Corporate Headquarters, located in Elwood, Indiana. When considering a summer internship, Emily said, “I chose Red Gold because of the positive experiences that former Red Gold Corporate QA interns have shared with me. They expressed how much effort everyone in the QA department gave to ensure that they had a meaningful summer internship where they actually completed work that impacted the company. Just from my interview, I could tell that Red Gold wants to set up their interns to succeed and give them worthwhile experiences catered to their interests that will benefit them in their future career. I hope to gain insight on how QA works with different departments and learn more about how food microbiology is applied in a food company.”
“The Internship and Scholarship program that Red Gold offers demonstrates our commitment to ensuring that students pursuing a career in Food Science have the opportunity to discover their true potential and career field. To accomplish this objective, the student is assigned projects and activities that will require hands on participation in food manufacturing processes in both the Plant and Corporate locations. Acquiring this experience and knowledge in an industrial setting is invaluable considering the rapid evolution of product formulation, ingredients, and processes. As a progressive and dynamic food company, Red Gold is prepared to meet the needs of the future leaders in the Food Industry,” says Rick Jones, Director of Quality Assurance at Red Gold.
“Red Gold’s internship program provides a great opportunity for Food Science students to take what they have been learning in the classroom and apply it in a real world business environment. In addition to utilizing their technical skills, our interns develop their interpersonal skills as well. Our program offers a great experience while allowing participants to explore where their true interests lie in the food industry. We are proud to offer such a wonderful opportunity for students each summer and it is great to see all that our interns achieve in such a short period of time,” says Emil Shemer, Director of Product Development.
Food Science is an applied, interdisciplinary field that applies the basic sciences, mathematics, and engineering to convert agricultural commodities into edible foods and beverages. Red Gold seeks individuals who share our values, passion and commitment to leave a positive and lasting imprint with their performance and ability to build strong relationships. Exceptional quality and operational excellence are the shared values that contribute to the employee-created mission statement: “To produce the freshest, best tasting tomato products in the world.”