Mike Platt

Director of Research and Development

Mike Platt
Mike Platt

I am passionate about food! I love the opportunity to explore across all the categories that we get to work on. Every day is a new inspiration.


Hometown:

Holmdel, NJ

What Inspires Me:

New flavors, textures, and tasting something I’ve never had before. I love applying lessons I’ve gathered throughout my decades-long food career, especially when I get to solve complex technical problems without sacrificing taste.

Guilty Food Pleasure:

Milk chocolate. Some say that adults should only eat dark 70% chocolate, but have you ever had a European-style milk chocolate? It’s astoundingly good.

Area(s) of Specialization:

My specialization is synthesizing my broad experience into scalable client applications. My background includes work in:

  • Food product innovation and formulation
  • R&D strategy and leadership
  • Complex technical problem-solving
  • Sensory science and consumer research
  • Design of experiments and statistical analysis
  • Product commercialization and scale-up
  • New product development and existing-product improvement
  • Cross-functional collaboration with manufacturing, quality, supply chain, marketing, finance, and procurement

My category expertise spans snacks (chips, nuts, popcorn, bars, and frozen appetizers), baking mixes and whole-grain products, desserts, and better-for-you foods.

I love reimagining familiar or nostalgic foods for modern consumers.

Outside the Office:

On my days off, I enjoy experimenting with pizza dough for home-oven baking and visiting pizza restaurants for inspiration (like Apizza Scholls in Portland).

I also love playing board games, video games, miniature games, and role-playing games, where I get to bring friends and family together to laugh and build memories.

Education:

  • Master’s in Food Science – Colorado State University
Contact Us