PAULA S. BAHR

**** **** **** *******

Kansas City, MO 64114

Phone: 816-***-**** (C) 816-***-**** (H) Email: abpeln@r.postjobfree.com

SUMMARY

Versatile and creative food product development professional with a record of developing and reformulating

products that increase revenue and meet popular consumer demands. Recognized for skillfully facilitating

development teams efforts to achieve quality deliverables in a timely, efficient manner. Proficient at problem

solving and manufacturing implementation.

Active in the emerging field of Culinology the blending of culinary arts and the science of food, to provide

balance from a culinary perspective which helps jump-start product development and palate pleasing results.

Completed culinary course work to become a Certified Culinologist.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

HARVESTERS--The Community Food Network, Kansas City, MO 2009 to 2010

On community assignment loan from General Mills

Adapted food service experience, culinologist and R&D project management skills to assist the Nutrition Education and Kid s Caf

Developed the second edition of Harvesters nutrition education cookbook used to teach adult cooking

skills and nutrition classes. Hospitals and agencies teaching similar classes are requesting to purchase the

updated cookbook for their use.

Created use sheets with recipes for unusual donated food items such as ostrich eggs, nopales and spiny

chaote. Sampled them to agencies picking up food at Harvesters.

Audited Kid s Caf sites for governmental program compliance and assisted new sites to enable compliance.

Continuing to assist by volunteering on a weekly basis. Currently creating a project plan for nutritionally

rating food procured and distributed by Harvester s to enable choices for better nutrition.

GENERAL MILLS, Minneapolis, Minnesota 1997 to 2009

Food Service Division (2008-2009) Culinologist

Added food science perspective and project management skills to the sales organization s Culinary Team of chefs, assisting them with

ensuring their creativity could be enjoyed far beyond the GMI kitchen.

Verified that chef created recipes could be successfully reproduced, submitted for nutrition analysis and

formatted for placing on the Food Service web site and/or used for customer presentations, brochures

and cookbooks.

Decreased the cost of food photography by one-half which enabled more than 230 professional photos to

be posted with the recipes on line. As a result, website hits increased significantly and the team received a

Championship People Award for this contribution.

Tolerance tested newly developed or reformulated products to ensure performance with varying oven types,

oven temperatures and consumer added ingredient levels.

Developed Pillsbury Dough Singles use booklet with a chef and marketing to help schools engage kids while

using commodity items. This included developing ideas and how to steps for folding the wraps, recipes and

photographs.

Paula S. Bahr Page 2

Baking Products Division (2007-2008) Senior Food Scientist II

Stepped in to keep three Warm Delights development projects rolling while developer was on maternity leave. This included an

Innovation Speed Team (in-market development) project.

Food Service Division (2006-2007) Senior Food Scientist II

Led product development for snack bars as part of a new R&D Branded Innovations team, tasked with bringing General Mills brands

into the food service arena.

Clarified direction for bar development opportunities for three Food Service businesses by developing a

bars category overview, as thousands of snack bars exist worldwide.

Led the development work for reformulating the cereal & granola bars sold in schools to meet the new

Clinton guidelines rebalancing calories, bread equivalents and adding calcium. Developed a fourth flavor,

Fruity Cheerios, for addition to this line.

Joined the Biscuit team, when they were tasked with quickly developing a 0g trans fat line of biscuits as major cities started banning

products in restaurants containing trans fats.

Successfully executed the quick launch of three new 0g trans fat biscuits.

Awarded second place in dessert category for General Mills International Chef s Challenge.

Pillsbury USA Division (2005-2006) Senior Food Scientist II

Successfully led development team charged with quickly executing the development of a new product to revitalize the frozen bread business.

Developed and commercialized Crusty French Mini Loaves, which received the highest consumer testing

scores in Pillsbury to date. The R&D team was recognized with a Cool Under Pressure Award by the

division. The entire business team was the recipient of a company wide Speed to Market Award.

Snacks Division (1997-2005) Senior Food Scientist II, Senior Food Scientist I

Developed and commercialized new snack bars, line extensions, performed brand maintenance and started up additional manufacturing

locations as sales grew exponentially.

Introduced the use of confectionary coating to the Nature Valley brand, developing a four flavor line of

chewy yogurt bars, implemented production at three manufacturing locations.

Coordinated start up for additional manufacturing sites of Crunchy Granola and Chewy Trail Mix bars.

Innovated to add a layer of peanut butter on top of bars for Peanut Butter Graham Treats to add a third bar

to the Graham Treats line. Restaged Chocolate Chunk as S Mores and added Calcium to all three SKU s to

bring news to the declining line.

KEEBLER COMPANY, Elmhurst, Illinois 1985 to 1996

Senior Food Scientist (1995-1996)

Developed and commercialized products for key cookie and cracker brands. Investigated concepts and products for future innovation,

such as bridging cookie and cracker technology with other food product categories.

Led the team developing and commercializing 17 cookies and crackers in eight months for a large private

label customer. Recognition received for technical skills, planning, flexibility and teamwork to execute the

startups successfully and ahead of schedule.

Commercialized S Mores, after identifying a pumpable Kosher marshmallow filling. S Mores is the first

cookie in the Fudge Shoppe line designed for kids. Achieved first year sales of $10 million.

Designed and commercialized Truffles, an enrobed cookie with ganache filling. Truffles is the first

indulgent, adult targeted Fudge Shoppe cookie. Achieved initial year sales of $4 million.

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Seasoning Development Specialist (Raw Materials Group) (1993-1995)

Collaborated with food scientists to identify and develop seasoning blends to complement their products through research guidance testing.

Identified and set up appropriate educational vendor presentations for product development teams.

Developed and commercialized improved seasonings for Sour Cream & Onion and Bacon and Cheddar

Tato Skins. Improvements yielded reduced seasoning fall off, 1.5% use level reduction, $1/pound cost

reduction ($136,500 annual savings) and 5% increased sales.

Identified and implemented lower cost seasonings for O Boises and Ripplins, resulting in $349,000 annual

savings. Assisted with reducing the cost of the chip (base) formulas, yielding an additional $452,000 annual

savings.

Educated product development and raw materials teams by conducting a series of 20 spice training sessions

Food Scientist (1985-1993)

Developed and commercialized products for key cookie and cracker brands as well as ideation for new products. This included the

introduction of five new cookies for the Chips Deluxe and Fudge Shoppe brands. Each brand provided Keebler over $100 million in

annual sales.

Developed and introduced five successful new branded cookies:

Rainbow Chips Deluxe with first year sales of $28 million and $41 million in 2008.

Bite Size Rainbow Chips Deluxe generating first year sales of $24 million

Pecan Chips Deluxe generating first year sales of $16 million

Toffee Toppers generating first year sales of $15 million

Holiday Grahams yielding $3 million in sales for each of the three initial seasons

EDUCATION / CONTINUING EDUCATION:

B.S., Foods and Nutrition, Cum Laude, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas

Completed course work for Research Chefs Association Culinologist certification, Le Cordon Blue, Minneapolis,

Minnesota and Southwest Minnesota State University, Marshall, Minnesota

Science of Baking Correspondence Course, The American Institute of Baking, Manhattan, Kansas

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS:

Institute of Food Technologists, serving as local secretary for two years

American Association of Cereal Chemists

Research Chef s Association

American Association of Candy Technologists

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