Jugend forscht visits Dr. Oetker

Students visit the production facility

A day full of discoveries, all centered around the pudding being studied by the three students, begins where our delicious pudding originates: in the production facility. Our colleague Petra Huebenthal (production supervisor) and our colleague Mohamed Farissi (filling team assistant) took the time to show the young researchers how the pudding powder we produce is mixed, packaged, and then stored. Our guests had the great honor of taking a look behind the scenes of our production facility.

How is Dr. Oetker pudding made? – Students visit the product development department

Afterwards, the students had the opportunity to discover our product development department. Together with Dr. Oetker employees Martina Mosch (product developer for cakes and desserts) and Kimberly Lill (product developer for cakes) they were allowed to make two different recipes. Similar to the research carried out by the children in the “pudding test,” they made both our original pudding according to the original recipe and a pudding in which they replaced sugar with the sugar substitute xylitol. The three already had experience in making pudding, as they had cooked a total of 900 servings of our Dr. Oetker Original Vanilla Flavored Pudding for research at their school and fed the entire school.

Finally, time to taste: testing products in sensory analysis

To put their research findings into context, the children visited the sensory analysis department, where they learned how a typical product test is conducted at Dr. Oetker. Mareike Floethmann (Senior Sensory Insights Analyst) and Natalie Larisch (Panel Leader) from the sensory analysis department answered questions and gave the children the opportunity to taste and evaluate their own pudding in the sensory analysis booths. Their teacher, Dr. Ziegler, concluded that the sensory analysis setup was similar to the tasting carried out at school.

Young researchers in quality assurance

The subsequent visit to the quality assurance department focused on the question: “How does Dr. Oetker ensure food safety?” Dr. Karsten Schmitz (Head of Quality Assurance) gave the young visitors a glimpse into the laboratories. There, together with Sarah Hillebrand and Daniel Holwas (laboratory assistants), they were able to determine the sugar content of various ingredients and, together with Dr. Schmitz, smell various flavor samples. The result: everyone agreed that bourbon vanilla smells the most irresistible.

Not to be missed: Dr. Oetker World

After an extensive tour of our site in Brackwede, including production and research and development, we headed to Dr. Oetker World. The highlight: a warm serving of vanilla pudding from our Puddingwunder. After this little refreshment, Nadine Wasser (tour guide) led the young researchers through the brand exhibition. Here, guests learn all about the long history of Dr. Oetker and how a small bag of baking powder became a global company.

Content Experience

The Content Experience team ensures that our products always look their best. They test recipes, create professional product photos and videos, and design content for social media channels. Pia Stelbrink (Head of Content Experience) and Petra Elzholz (Content Partner) took the time to present various pudding creations to the children. These tied in with the research conducted by Lina, Maja, and Jonas and impressively demonstrated how the result can be influenced by changing the ingredients used in the preparation and what possibilities our Original Pudding offers as an ingredient for various desserts.

And now: a career at Dr. Oetker?

At the end of the excursion, our guests visited the People & Culture team. Anyone who can achieve such success so early in their school career will certainly be a valuable addition to any team later on. Our two dual students, Sophie Baumann and Jula Volbracht, concluded by informing the three students about the training opportunities available at Dr. Oetker. And so a day full of exciting discoveries, educational experiments, and, of course, delicious food came to an end.

We hope you enjoyed your stay, Lina, Maja, and Jonas. We were delighted to have you as our guests!

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