Food Safety Specialist in Liverpool

Chalice Supplements is a privately owned, family business laser-focused on one thing: gummies. We believe gummy delivery is the future of the supplements industry — the fastest-growing format in the market and the one with the greatest potential to make health products people actually want to take. We have recently made a significant investment in that future — substantially expanding our factory, production capacity, and output to establish ourselves as a leading gummy contract manufacturer in the UK.

This is a fully on-site, hands-on senior role based at our production facility in L36, Liverpool. You will be on the factory floor, in the lab, and at the heart of our manufacturing operation — not behind a desk all day. This is not a remote or hybrid position; we need someone present, engaged, and embedded in the day-to-day reality of gummy production.

As our primary technical lead on gummy formulation and product development, you will own projects from concept through to commercial launch. You will work directly and closely with our CEO, as well as our operations, quality, and commercial teams, playing a central role in shaping how we develop and scale products across our client base.

• Work across pectin, starch, and alternative plant-based gelling systems to understand how each interacts with active ingredients, pH, and processing conditions to influence final texture.
• Develop and document formulation matrices that map ingredient variables to sensory and physical outcomes, building institutional knowledge around what levers drive texture change.
• Manage ingredient compatibility, dosage levels, and regulatory constraints across a broad formulation portfolio.
• Investigate how variations in curing parameters influence texture development, moisture loss, surface finish, and long-term stability.
• Work with production teams to translate lab and pilot curing conditions into commercially viable manufacturing processes.
• Interpret and act on stability data to refine formulations and packaging specifications — including moisture barrier requirements.
• Build robust stability protocols that support regulatory submissions and customer product claims.
• Maintain deep working knowledge of water activity, hygroscopicity, and moisture migration in confectionery systems and how they drive textural degradation.

MANUFACTURING SCALE-UP & PROCESS OPTIMISATION

• Translate bench and pilot formulations into scalable manufacturing processes on commercial gummy lines.
• Collaborate closely with production teams to troubleshoot process variability and optimise yields.
• Drive continuous improvement of existing product formulations from a cost, quality, and process efficiency standpoint.
• Develop formulations targeting specific health outcomes — including sleep, stress and anxiety, women's health and menopause, energy, immunity, and cognitive performance.
• Act as the internal technical authority on gummy technology, food science, and ingredient functionality.
• Partner with commercial and client-facing teams to translate briefs into technically viable product concepts.

Qualifications:

• PhD in Food Science, Food Technology, Nutrition, Chemistry, or a closely related discipline — or equivalent demonstrable expertise at senior level.
• Proven track record in food or supplement product development, with hands-on formulation experience.
• Ability to operate across bench-scale development and commercial manufacturing environments.
• Exceptional analytical rigour, attention to detail, and scientific problem-solving ability.
• Experience in a contract manufacturing or multi-client product development environment.
• Familiarity with UK and EU food supplement regulatory frameworks (FSA, EFSA).
• Knowledge of health categories such as sleep, stress, menopause, or cognitive performance and the evidence base behind key actives.
• Knowledge of clean-label, vegan, or free-from formulation challenges.
• Experience with gummy-specific manufacturing equipment and process parameters.
• Publication record or demonstrable contribution to applied food or nutritional science.
• Proficient in the use of laboratory testing equipment and analytical techniques — including HPLC, rheometry, texture analysis, water activity measurement, and related instrumentation used in food and supplement quality assessment.

Competitive base salary commensurate with experience, with a performance bonus structure built around mutually agreed targets — your effort and results will be recognised and rewarded accordingly.

Participation in our Employee Ownership Scheme — as we scale, we believe the people who help build this business should share in what it becomes. A meaningful equity stake in Chalice will be allocated to the team that helps us reach our long-term ambitions.