Piece of cake: Chanel David's career in food science

What leads to a career where you can have your cake and eat it, too? If you’re Chanel David, it’s football.

Described as a trailblazer in her role as an R&D process development engineer at Rich Products Corporation, Chanel David (‘03) has always loved football. 

It was my fascination with Ohio State’s team spirit that made me want to become a Buckeye. -Chanel David, '03

“As a kid, I used to always watch football with my dad,” she recalls, laughing about the time she joined him for a game wearing an Ohio State sweatshirt and Michigan sweatpants. “What are you doing?” asked her dad, a Bronze star Vietnam vet who takes his football seriously. “You can’t do that!”

Ms. David, whose parents are both social workers, has always loved science. Inspired by a TV show called Mr. Wizard, two things consistently made her Christmas wish list: a microscope and an EZ Bake Oven. She finally got the microscope at the age of eight. 

As a student at a technical pre-engineering high school, she discovered organic chemistry, which led to a desire to be a pharmacist. However, an advisor told her that with her good problem-solving, math and lab skills, she could get a degree in chemical engineering and still work in pharmaceuticals. The advisor had said that chemical engineering was one of the toughest majors there is. “Faced with a challenge, I said, ‘OK, I’m in!’” Ms. David recalled. 

It was a co-op internship at Rich Products Corporation that led her to food science. “I have always loved baking and cooking, even though I never got my EZ Bake Oven,” she joked. “But of course that wasn’t important. Today I get to work in kitchens with all sorts and sizes of ovens,” she said. 

Following graduation, Rich hired Ms. David to work in their research and development (R&D) department, where she has played a critical leadership role. Rich Products had never had an engineer, chemist or biologist in R&D before, so results at the plant were falling short of what could be done in the lab. Ms. David was the first to develop a product, work out a process to make it and scale it with the proper equipment for floor operators. Her plant production and process parameter optimizations improved the product performance and quality of one of Rich’s key products: the non-dairy whipped topping for which it is famous.

Ms. David also completed an extensive freezing study to determine the validity of spiral freezing on non-dairy whipped bowl topping performance, yielding a cost savings of $400,000/year. Further, she developed and designed a batching process for the topping that increased batching capacity by 66%, and identified aeration equipment that increased product performance and production efficiency by 50%. Another achievement was to extend product refrigeration shelf life seven days by determining fat crystallization and heat transfer rates. 

A 2016 MBA from the University of Buffalo has further sharpened her leadership and management skills. 

Her efforts have paid off. Last March, she was recognized as one of Buffalo’s brightest women in STEM by Invest Buffalo Niagara. She also received the Maureen Hurley Award for Emerging Women Leaders at Rich Products and was a finalist in the Robert E. Rich Spirit of Innovation Award.

As a skilled engineer with a warm, outgoing personality, Ms. David makes it all look deceptively easy, but of course there is more to it than meets the eye.

Her R&D work involves functioning as a “middle man,” juggling feedback 

from the customer while working within parameters defined by the plant engineer. “In cross-functional teams, you have to take the brunt of criticism because your customer is your product developer,” she said. “I tell new engineers that they need to have thick skin and be flexible and adaptable. Products like food are very subjective and not everyone is going to be happy with the products we make,” she said.  

Consumers demand more than just good-tasting products these days. The company is currently developing products that are completely plant-based and have no high fructose corn syrup or animal byproducts. 

Ms. David has met other leadership challenges while at Rich. When she was first hired, she was the only black female of around 10,000 employees. “I have been really happy to be at Rich, because I was able to build my own path,” Ms. David said. “I could spearhead a lot of things, making and exploring new products and helping our department to grow.” Her initiatives included creating a coop program, hiring and mentoring seven Ohio State students and representing Ohio State at college fairs.

Ms. David is active as a community leader and role model for women in STEM. “It’s important to me to give back,” she said. She coordinates and hosts Rich’s hands-on-learning outreach event, “Success Looks Like Me,” and serves as president of Kaleidoscope, a networking group for associates of color. She has also shared her experiences with girls 12-18 and mentored University of Buffalo STEM students interested in food science. 

Since the pandemic, Ms. David has worked from home 75% of the time, but still goes to the lab for testing. Her job also involves field research. “We’ll go to a bakery, buy a bunch of cakes, then taste-test them to evaluate things like density, sweetness, aftertaste and sensory aspects. Then we make a small batch.” she said. 

“It’s really cool working in food because you get both the art and the science, such as the technical aspect of designing something with a 20-day shelf life,” she said.  
 

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The Story of Rich Products

Buffalo-based Rich Products was the first company to make non-dairy whipped topping. The founder owned an ice cream factory but wanted to avoid cumbersome dairy laws, so he tried whipping up a concoction of soya beans, which was cheaper and also appropriate for those with lactose intolerance.

A serendipitous accident produced the first frozen whipped topping. The story told is that Mr. Rich was on a train going to New York City to meet with investors, and the product froze. But when he got there, it whipped up right away. The investors were impressed and Rich’s Whip Topping, dubbed “the miracle cream from a soya bean,” was born.

Since its founding in 1945, Rich’s went on to become the first company to deliver the first non-dairy creamer and the first frozen, ready-to-eat bakery products to the market. Today it produces a wide variety of cakes, icings and frostings, pizza, appetizers and much more, mostly supplying restaurants and grocery stores.