Meet Izzie Reid, Dairy Technologist from London whose job it is to perfect the cheeses sold at M&S; discovering the world’s finest cheese suppliers, keeping her finger on the pulse of the latest trends and eating over 3000 cheeses each year to bring customers nationwide the best taste, quality and value.

Izzie has worked at M&S for over six years and in that time has launched over 100 delicious cheeses. Her role is unique, combining her scientific know-how and dedicated passion for all things cheese. She reveals what a day in the life of a dairy technologist entails and what makes it the world’s best job!

“I’ve always loved science and studied biology at university. I wanted a job that paired science with my passion for food and cooking, and once I’d completed a Food Science Masters, I knew I’d found something I could really get passionate about. As a general rule, careers in science are quite male dominated, but science is for everyone, and there are so many paths you can take into this exciting area…not least the path to cheese!”

“Central to my role at M&S is managing the quality and integrity of our cheese and dairy products. Each week we conduct in depth ‘quality control’ sessions, reviewing products in the range, to ensure they meet the high standards we set. As an example, for our Cornish Cruncher, we not only taste the cheese for consistency, but examine its structure and how it feels, to ensure all aspects are as we’d expect. Customers need to be able to rely on our quality every time they shop.”

“To ensure the team can detect all the different complex flavour profiles of the cheeses, we’re all scientifically screened to identify levels of sweet, bitter, sour, salty and umami notes- it’s in-depth training! We need to be able to identify all the different flavours at tiny levels to be able to do our job properly. The mix of food science and a product range I’m so passionate about makes it the dream job for me.”

A big part of Izzie’s role is comparing M&S cheeses against the competition, to ensure M&S has unbeatable quality and to identify new suppliers and varieties too. The team conduct regular benchmarking sessions, tasting anything from 50-100 cheeses at once! With around 50 sessions per year, that’s over 3,750 different cheeses sampled by Izzie!

“Benchmark tastings are important, so to prepare, I don’t drink any coffee or have any chewing gum on the day, because this affects your taste and I also don’t wear perfume either. I also ensure we have lime juice or apples to hand, to refresh our palette between tastings so we can taste the complex flavours of every single cheese.”

“My favourite cheese is our Cornish Cruncher™, the flavour is really rich and intense, crunchy yet creamy and very moreish! Our supplier is Davidstow Creamery in Cornwall, they’ve been making it for us for 21 years. We sell both a 2-year and 3-year matured version. Maturing cheese for this long is technically very challenging, but it delivers a complexity of flavour that younger cheeses just cannot match.”

“It takes about five hours for the raw milk ingredient to be turned into a block of Cornish Cruncher™ cheese, but the maturation process is what develops the magical flavours within. Only when it has been individually graded by the creamery’s professional cheese grader, is it allowed to be packed and sent to our stores.”

This year has been a very different year and Izzie and the team have turned the challenges into opportunities to keep relationships strong with suppliers in the UK and overseas by conducting regular video calls.

“Prior to Covid-19, I’d be travelling to factories and suppliers 2-3 times a week; meeting large multinational companies as well as farmhouse producers. We’ve since adapted, conducting a lot of those meetings virtually and stocking our fridges at home for benchmarking via video calls. The last year has given me the opportunity to explore the cheeses we’re lucky enough to produce in this country and get inspiration from local delis, restaurants and markets – when government restrictions allowed.”

“Of course, having the world’s best job and eating all those delicious cheeses, also means that I need to maintain a healthy lifestyle outside work. In my spare time, I like to go for long hikes to keep healthy and burn off some of those extra cheese calories just a little.”

With over 115 new and improved cheeses added to the range at M&S over the last year, it’s never been a more exciting time to stock the fridge with our dairy delights. From Monday 26th April, you’ll also be able to see our famous Cornish Cruncher and the people who make it on ITV, Channel 4 and across multiple online platforms, as part of our exciting Fresh Market Update campaign, where we visit several of our Select Farms across the UK to show where, how and what makes our food so fresh and of such great quality. For more information on the campaign and recipes please visit: www.marksandspencer.com/freshmarketupdate