Harkirat Bansal

Product Development, Technical Services & Pilot Plant.

• Product & Process Scale-Up: Led scale-up and commercialization of 10+ private-label and branded (GoodStart) infant nutrition products across internal and external manufacturing sites. Responsible for strategic scale-up program for the newly purchased manufacturing facility (previously Nestle facility), optimized formulations and ingredient delivery systems for the state of the art manufacturing continuous line to reduce unscheduled downtimes while ensuring full cGMP compliance. • Product Development Collaboration: Partnered cross-functionally to qualify key dairy ingredient (demineralized whey) for GoodStart infant formula, supporting submissions to FDA and Health Canada. • Regulatory & Compliance: Supported FDA audits, process validations, and thermal process regulatory filings while aligning operations with evolving infant nutrition standards. • Team Leadership & Mentorship: Managed and developed technical teams across multiple facilities and established training programs in spray drying, thermal processing, and nutrition manufacturing.

• R&D Leadership & Innovation: Managed formulations and scale-up of 8+ infant nutrition products for private-label and contract customers (such as Bobbie) in the U.S., leveraging new and novel ingredients such as milk oligosaccharides, whole milk, and whey hydrolysates, generating significant revenue YoY. • Team Coordination & Management: Led cross-functional teams as part of Stage-gate, achieving 100% on time delivery. Oversaw teams of formulators, ingredient specialists, and process technologists to enable successful commercialization.

• Co-Manufacturing / Line Extensions: Evaluated new co-manufacturer lines for infant formula manufacturing enabling expansion and resilience of the nutrition manufacturing network. • Process Technology: Evaluated and qualified new powder process technologies such dry-blenders for minor ingredient applications, high shear mixers, etc. • Process Authority Support: Provided technical support to regional factories during FDA / customer audits. Supported process evaluation and validations for heat-treatment systems (HTST, UHT). Supported lethality studies to validate heat treatments.

• Gained knowledge in dry and wet manufacturing systems and ingredients (lipids, proteins, carbohydrates, and minor functional ingredients) for nutrition powder formulation across global markets. • Product Scale-up: Supported scale-up of new recipes and developed manufacturing instructions for infant nutrition powder products for regional factories. Partnered with Operations and Engineering to support process qualification and recipe optimization initiatives. • Process Technology/Thermal Processing: SME on spray dryer and thermal processing of dairy- and soy-based nutrition products. Leveraged visco-elastic and rheological properties of nutrition powders to optimize commercial dryer performance. Collab w Ops and Engg on recipe / process qualifications and dryer upgrades / optimization. • Dairy Proteins: Studied dairy protein systems (whey, casein, hydrolysates) and mineral interactions to mitigate fouling risks to develop framework for formulators. Studied powder physical properties for dry application such as conveying and packaging. • Pilot Plant: Established robust pilot-plant methodologies / PAT techniques and scale-up standards to accelerate and de-risk commercialization. • Collaboration: Developed collaborations with academic / non-academic research institutions on different projects.

• Mathematical Modeling: Utilized physics-based mathematical modeling to simulate heat and mass (oil, water, vapors) in coated snack food systems such as nuggets to gain insights and develop strategies to reduce oil update and optimize for quality. Conducted experimental validation of the mathematical model. Published findings in Journal of Food Science. • Practical Experience: Gained practical experience in the UIUC pilot plant on unit operations such as spray-drying, freeze-drying, retort sterilization, lab instruments, etc.

• Food Textural Properties: Conducted experimentation to measure physical and mechanical properties of various snack foods, including fries and chips, utilizing DMA techniques. • Food Microstructure: Collaborated with UC Davis and UT Austin to analyze food micro-structure using advanced imaging techniques, resulting in published findings in reputable journals. • Mathematical Process Modeling: Developed physics-based mathematical models in COMSOL and Matlab for rice crisps, contributing to published research in Food Research International. • Hydrocolloids: Evaluated cellulose-based ingredients for coating batter systems to reduce oil uptake during deep-fat frying.