EnTrends

on to work for Central Soya, a soy
processing company, in their sensory
evaluation laboratories after college.
While there, she specialized in
descriptive analysis, a foundational
science that wine tasters often utilize.
A few years later, she went to work
for Swift & Co., where she
coordinated one of the most
successful consumer feedback
programs of all time, the Butterball
Turkey Talk- Line.

Rodriguez left Swift & Co. in 1985 to
start her own company. The idea for
the company was an outgrowth of
downsizing that occurred in the food
industry in the late seventies and
early eighties. Rodriguez says, "The
first people to go were the people
who were conducting functional
product performance tests-the data
gatherers, many of whom were
scientists. They supported the
exploratory and applied science
groups."

When she first started, Rodriguez
worked out of a separate kitchen area
that she had built in her home,
designing products for various food
companies. One of the first products
she designed was a refrigerated pasta
sauce. Today, Rodriguez's company
is called Food Marketing Support
Services, Inc. (FMSS) and is located
in Oak Park, Illinois.

FMSS is a contractual research and
development company that services
the entire food industry. Rodriguez
and her team of 19 employees create
product designs and develop
collateral marketing support materials
for both retail (supermarkets) and
food service (restaurant) industries.
The company currently has one
laboratory facility.

Another successful product was a
line of nutritional foods designed for
women. The line was advertised in
the center section of the very first
issue of Oprah Magazine.

FMSS is located in an area where
many of Rodriguez's employees have
lived for years. This was done very
deliberately so that a majority of the
employees would be close to the
grade schools that their children
attended. Rodriguez says, "We have
been very available to our children
and we are supportive of one
another."

Now that Rodriguez's children, along
with those of her colleagues, have
grown up, FMSS's new focus has
been in building financial security for
its employees, many of whom had
not worked before joining FMSS.
Therefore, a profit sharing program
has been put in place.

Rodriguez says that continuing
education and training for her
employees is also very important to
her. She sends her employees to
experimental design courses,
specialty food shows, and every staff
member has attended culinary
workshops in LaCrosse, Wisconsin.
"I really like being able to offer
creative growth opportunities to our
employees." In the seventeen years
that Rodriguez has been in business,
she has only had three people leave
the company. "I like to think we
provide a nurturing and creative
environment with an emphasis on
quality and responsibility."

A typical workday for Rodriguez is
regimented and extensive. She is a
morning person, meetings are
scheduled during the first part of the
day. Rodriguez then allocates call
back time for clients between 2 P.M.
and 4 P.M. This allows her private
work time between 12 and 2 and then
4 and 7. Responsibilities include
proposal development and the task
of supervising current projects that

Rodriguez says that the most
successful food products, from concept
through commercialization, use
industrial ingredients and processes
from the beginning. Therefore, the
equipment and processes utilized at
FMSS parallel those used in industry.
In addition, what sets FMSS apart from
other companies in the same industry is
a fine-tuned sensory methodology that
is involved in analyzing all the
attributes of particular products.

What Rodriguez really loves, is the
ability to integrate science, culinary
studies, and sensory methodologies
into her profession. Currently, her
company does a combination of 80 %
innovative and technical work and 20%
promotional work. These proportions
have fluctuated over the years based on
clients' needs.

While FMSS has a long list of
successful products in its portfolio, one
of the most successful was created for
the American Popcorn Company. The
product, theater style popcorn, was
designed by FMSS. Company sales
increased by 23% due to the addition of
the movie-style popcorn to the product
line.