R&D Intern - Culinary Performance of Spreads

Location: Wageningen, Netherlands Hybrid: 4-5 days per week in the office Start date : September 2026 Duration : 6 months

We are looking for a motivated, curious, and hands-on R&D Intern to contribute to a project focused on the culinary performance of spreads. In this role, you will investigate how different products and their ingredients function across different culinary applications. The project will focus on testing existing products, linking their composition and structural properties to their performance, and developing ways to quantify culinary performance in a structured way. You will work on your own project, combining kitchen trials, laboratory testing, and data analysis. Your work will include designing experiments for performance tests in the kitchen, expanding technical methodologies, and helping determine standard ways of working to quantify culinary performance and claims. You will gain hands-on experience in the kitchen and laboratory environment while working closely with different R&D teams. During the internship, you will test different products across several culinary applications, collect and analyse technical data, interpret your results, document your findings in reports, and present your insights to relevant stakeholders. This internship offers a hands-on opportunity to perform systematic experimental research, build data-driven insights, and contribute to a deeper understanding of formulation functionality in a real product development environment. You will also take part in the intern challenge, collaborating with other interns on a shared project during your internship. Join us in shaping the future of culinary performance and formulation functionality! So, what does it take to be successful in this role? You are currently pursuing a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Food Technology, in a Culinary school, or a related field at a Dutch or a European university. You are enrolled as a student for the full duration of the internship. You have a solid understanding of food ingredient functionality and food structuring principles. You have knowledge of, and interest in, experimental design, such as structured testing, Design of Experiments, or comparative studies. You are comfortable performing laboratory analyses and have an affinity for culinary and baking applications. You have strong analytical skills and can interpret experimental results and connect them to scientific literature. You are collaborative and comfortable working with different departments and stakeholders.