Prachi Kishnani
Mississauga
Summary
Innovative R&D Leader with extensive experience in product and process innovation, scale-up strategies, and cross functional collaboration, seeking to leverage expertise as an R&D Manager. Proven ability to drive consumer focused development and regulatory compliance while optimizing sensory and shelf-life attributes. Ready to enhance team performance and deliver impactful results.
Overview
8
8
years of professional experience
Work History
Senior Food Scientist | Acting R&D Lead
Tradition Fine Foods
04.2025 - Current
- Leadership Scope: Acting R&D Lead responsible for bakery innovation and commercialization. First to establish and lead the R&D innovation wing, overseeing ideation, technical strategy, and lab-to-plant execution for muffins, bars, croissants, pastries, pizza dough and soft baked products.
- Innovation & Strategy: Established and led the R&D innovation function, defining ideation frameworks, technical development pathways, and commercialization for bakery platforms. Led client-facing ideation and innovation sessions, translating consumer insights and customer briefs into scalable, technically feasible product concepts.
- Product, Process & Equipment Leadership: Led successful launch of multiple bakery products, utilizing new equipment, novel processing approaches and patented technologies. Owned process design and scale up strategy, partnering with Operations and Engineering to qualify new equipment and manufacturing workflows. Drove scale-up of croissant production on automated continuous lines (~18,000 units/hr), optimizing lamination, proofing and bake parameters. Also worked on Freezer to oven (FTO) technology based pastry products.
- Cross-Functional Influence & Risk Management: Acted as a primary liaison between R&D, Product Management, Operations, Engineering, and QA to align timelines, resources, and technical decisions. Quantified technical risks related to formulations, processing, and scale-up to support go/no-go decisions and stakeholder alignment.
- Consumer, Sensory & Quality Excellence: Led sensory evaluations and consumer-aligned assessments to guide formulation decisions and renovation strategies. Ensured compliance with SQF, AIB, HACCP, allergen controls, and Canadian/US Labeling requirements.
- People Leadership & Change Management: Mentored Food Technologists and Junior Scientists, strengthening technical rigor, experimental design, and cross-functional communication. Led R&D Change management initiatives including SAP implementation, SOP Development and administrative process standardization.
Senior Product Developer
Giraffe Foods
03.2024 - 04.2025
- Recognized Subject Matter Expert (SME) for sweet dipping sauces, frostings, simmer sauces, fruit fillings, desserts, and speciality sauce systems.
- Led multiple cross-functional product development programs from concept to commercialization, delivering multimillion-dollar revenue impact.
- Partnered with Marketing, QA, Operations, Sales, and Regulatory to translate customer and consumer requirements into compliant, scalable product solutions.
- drove formulation and process optimization initiatives that doubled production efficiency and significantly reduced manufacturing cycle time.
- Supported business growth through technical input into customer presentations, feasibility assessments, and commercialization strategies.
- Mentored Junior Developers, improving technical documentation quality, formulation robustness, and cross-functional effectiveness.
Fermentation Scientist | Platform Technical Lead
Mara Renewables Corporation
11.2020 - 03.2024
- Technical lead for fermentation platform development supporting sustainable Omega-3 products, overseeing scale-up strategy, pilot plant execution, and technology transfer.
- Led discovery and commercialization of a sustainable Omega-3 production process from formulation through pilot-scale implementation.
- Optimized automated fermenters (0.5L to 500L), increasing productivity by 400% through system standardization and process refinement.
- Designed and executed scale-down experiments to validate industrial concepts and mitigate scale-up risk.
- Directed cross-functional terms to improve process efficiency, reduce cycle time by 50%, and enhance production reliability.
- Authored SOPs and Technology Transfer Packages to ensure regulatory alignment and operational consistency.
Research Associate
CIFT Lab, Dalhousie University
07.2020 - 12.2020
- Conducted yeast strain evaluations, flocculation studies, and raw material analyses to improve product quality, shelf life, and process reproducibility.
Brewing Intern
2 Crows Brewing Co.
04.2018 - 07.2020
- Supporting the shop-floor production including fermentation, recipe development, sensory testing, packaging and quality control.
Education
Master of Science - Food Science & Technology
Dalhousie University
Halifax, NSBachelor of Technology - Biotechnology
Dr. D. Y. Patil University
Pune, MH, India Skills
- Critical thinking
- Product development expertise
- Cost optimization strategies
- Continuous improvement mindset
- R&D Leadership and Strategy
- End-to-end product development
- Technical risk assessment
- Portfolio and pipeline management
- Resource prioritization
- Change management
- Product and process innovation
- Bakery and snack system expertise
- Sweet Sauces and fillings expertise
- Ingredient functionality analysis
- Scale-up and commercialization strategies
- Sensory and shelf-life optimization
- Cross-functional collaboration
- Stakeholder engagement
- Consumer-focused development
- Data-driven decision making
- Executive communication skills
Languages
Hindi
Native or Bilingual
English
Native or Bilingual
Timeline
Senior Food Scientist | Acting R&D Lead
Tradition Fine Foods
04.2025 - Current
Senior Product Developer
Giraffe Foods
03.2024 - 04.2025
Fermentation Scientist | Platform Technical Lead
Mara Renewables Corporation
11.2020 - 03.2024
Research Associate
CIFT Lab, Dalhousie University
07.2020 - 12.2020
Brewing Intern
2 Crows Brewing Co.
04.2018 - 07.2020
Master of Science - Food Science & Technology
Dalhousie University
Bachelor of Technology - Biotechnology
Dr. D. Y. Patil University