Jeffrey Bogusz

I am a Food Engineer with 35 years’ experience developing confectionery products and processes. With Hershey in the 1990’s I supported brands such as Jolly Rancher, Amazin’ Fruit Gummies, JujuFruit and York Peppermint Patties. Over these years, the Amazin’ Fruit Gummies were manufactured on 13 different production lines at 9 different manufacturing sites. I was the one person who was there to oversee and maintain continuity of production on all the kitchen and starch mogul operations. Making the same product in so many different environments was a learning opportunity that blessed me with a diverse skill set. With Ferrara Candy I was responsible for a long line of creations and cost savings. I reformulated the company’s premier gummy brands to save over $14 million/year while increasing consumer preference. I was also a key player in development of a liquid filled gummy formulation that has been licensed to 5 of the top confectionery companies in North America. In 2020, I directed the developed of the manufacturing process for Nerds Gummy Clusters. The process simplicity allowed for it to scaled up quickly as the product saw exponential popularity. This has allowed the product sales to grow near $500 million/year. As a recognized expert in the confectionery field, I have provided consultation to patent lawyers, spoken at the IFT, PMCA, and AACT technical conferences, and continue to teach Hard Panning and Advanced Gummy Production at the University of Wisconsin Candy School. In February of 2022 I left Ferrara with the intention of exploring a startup opportunity. I also have been consulting with gummy (starch and starchless), taffy, and panned confections manufactures. I have assisted with sourcing of supply chain challenged materials, shared best demonstrated practices, improved production efficiency, assisted with equipment selection, assisted with production startup, and advised as to strategies for developing new product formulations quickly with a high likelihood of success. I try not to have goals. All too often goals become limits once reached. If adopting goals they are open ended. I am currently playing with the linguistics of a new goal - to be on the board of directors of a company who values words like pragmatic, fast, mastery, listen, nimble, generative collaboration, autonomy, and healthy (mind/body/spirit). Confectionery Technology is a combination of art and science. It is a sport. The more you practice, the better you get. I have been practicing for 35 years. How do you wish for me to help you practice and improve?