Internships

Internship positions available for students

Working at the interface of Food and Chemical Technology

Internship possibilities PectCof

We are looking for new interns who want to enrich our PectCof team with new ideas and initiatives. Are you interested in experiencing the dynamic world of a scale-up? Look at our internship possibilities! We have many projects running and in consultation with us, we can look for a suitable project for you. Below you find some of the projects, which are either in our shared kitchen FoodUnion in Haarlem or at the Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo.

Starting date: September 2024 (other dates in consultation) The internship will take at least 4 months.

Internship topics

  • Application development
  • Product optimization
  • Process optimization
  • Marketing

Application development

In this project you will work on consumer applications with our Dutch Gum® ingredient. During your internship, you will develop different recipes with our product and benchmark Dutch Gum® against other commercial ingredients. You will work on the application of Dutch Gum® among other applications; in plant based ice-cream, confectionary and protein bars. The product development will mainly consist of kitchen work, some literature research and off course all your creativity!

Educational profile: e.g. Food Technology Location: Food Union, Haarlem

Product optimization

During this R&D project you will work on the product market fit of our Dutch Gum® ingredient. First, you will dive into the existing data to better understand our products specifications, and what the functionality of the product is in the consumer application. You will investigate the composition of our product, and how the purification of the product can be optimized. You will investigate several possibilities to improve our product and will make bridges between the product and process development areas. The work will be a combination of literature research, practical kitchen work and organizing and analyzing data.

Educational profile product: e.g. Food Technology, Food Chemistry, Food Process Engineering, Food Physics, Food Ingredient Functionality, Educational profile technology: (Bio) Chemical Engineering, (Bio) Chemistry, Industrial Engineering & Management Location: Food Union, Haarlem, Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo

Process optimization

You will work on several topics related to our water- based extraction process. Topics you will work on include yield optimization, optimization of our purification process, optimization of the evaporation to spray dryer dry matter ratio. The work will be a combination of practical work in our R&D facility, laboratory work, data analysis and literature research.

Educational profile: e.g. Food Technology, (Bio) Chemical engineering, (Bio) Chemistry Location: Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo

Marketing

You will work on the integration of our brand story for both PectCof (as biorefinery technology provider) as well as Dutch Gum® (our first functional food ingredient) through output channels such as conferences, events, LinkedIN posts, podcast(s), posters, brochures, etc. Topics that can be further investigated include Environment Social and Governance impact, sustainability, circularity, upcycling, food waste reduction and overall corporate social responsibility.

Educational profile: (Food Ingredient) Marketing
Location: in consultation

Who are we looking for?

You are a self-starter, hands-on, flexible and independent person who is excited about working in a scale-up company. You are fluent in English, both oral and written.

More information?

Of course, we are happy to have a cup of coffee with you, to tell you more about our company and our projects. More information on working at this exciting scale-up, please contact Irene Bouwman, Application Development Specialist, by email: irene.bouwman@pectcof.com.

If you require more information about Dutchgum, the technology and/or our role please contact us.