For more information on our Food & Beverage Ingredients services, get in touch with

Josh Leaper

Principal Consultant

Hundreds of 'Excellent' reviews

Food & Beverage Ingredients Executive Search

Helping Food & Beverage Ingredients companies unlock their next stage of growth

Specialisms We Cover

Alternative Proteins Applications Directors Baking Beverage Stabilisers Beverages Botanical Clean Label Commercialisation Compliance ESG Formulation Functional Food Ingredients Health Driven Ingredients Ingredient Innovation Ingredient Scale Up Ingredient Sourcing Ingredient Suppliers Natural Food Ingredients Nutraceutical Ingredients Operations R&D Speciality Ingredients Sugar Alternatives Sugar Reduction Supply Chain Sustainable Sourcing Sweeteners Technical Traceability Value Added Ingredients

The global food and beverage ingredients market continues to grow steadily, driven by demand for functional ingredients, clean-label formulations, and scalable, high-quality manufacturing.

Food and beverage ingredients manufacturing is central to innovation across the global food system. As brands respond to changing consumer expectations around taste, nutrition, sustainability, and transparency, ingredient manufacturers play a critical role in developing solutions that are functional, reliable, and commercially scalable. Advances in processing, formulation, and supply-chain optimisation are reshaping how ingredients are produced and delivered at scale.

We work with ingredient manufacturers across flavours, functional ingredients, proteins, sweeteners, enzymes, colours, and specialty additives. Our expertise spans production, engineering, quality, regulatory, and commercial leadership, enabling us to support businesses as they scale operations, improve efficiency, and meet evolving market demands. By aligning specialist manufacturing and leadership talent with operational objectives, we help our clients build resilient, high-performing ingredient operations.

Every decision carries commercial and regulatory weight.

Suppliers and manufacturers operate within tightly controlled environments where formulation accuracy, sourcing reliability, and customer requirements must align. Growth depends on teams who understand how ingredients move from development through production and into finished products.

Assembling the right talent in this sector relies on recognizing where technical knowledge meets commercial application. Connecting businesses with people experienced in ingredients, processing, and customer-facing development strengthens delivery, consistency, and long-term value creation.

Download the Food & Beverage Ingredients Brochure

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Learn more about our services, approach and the sectors we operate in.

Did you know?

Hiring the wrong candidate costs more than just time—it can waste salary, training resources, and opportunities. The Department of Labour estimates a bad hire can cost up to 30% of the role’s first-year earnings.

We hire right

Organisations are often reluctant to use external recruiters due the percieved cost. Think about it like this - what financial benefit could a top candidate bring to your business unit? You could make a 100x return on your investment.

97% Placement Rate 1
1.78:1 CVs Sent to Interviews 2
Avg. 32 Day Engagement to Placement 3

1. Based on all roles engaged on by a client on an exclusive basis from Jan 4 2025 - Dec 31 2025.

2. All CVs Sent from Jan 4 2025 - Dec 31 2025.

3. From Jan 4 2025 - Dec 31 2025.

Stats

387 active opportunities

1,908 placements made across 25 sectors

262,736 companies in our CRM

"At Irving Knight, we don't just fill positions; we build lasting partnerships. Our commitment to understanding your unique needs ensures that we deliver leaders who drive success and embody your company's values. When it comes to identifying the high-performers of tomorrow, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Our bespoke approach ensures every search is personal, diverse, and tailored from the ground up — delivering an individual, unrivalled experience for both clients and candidates. "

- Joe Davey, Group CEO of Irving Knight Group

Anja Florbach

Digital & Commercial Excellence Manager

Thank you so much Joseph! You have given me a great support. It was really nice to be in contact with you and I thin...

Joseph Davey

Group CEO

Vincent Dehousse

Head of Sales & Marketing, Netherlands

Great experience working with Cian from Irving Knight—professional, responsive, and genuinely supportive. Highly reco...

Cian ODonnell

CDMO & CRO

Valeria Pozzi

Procurement Category Manager, Italy

Working with Oliver has been a real pleasure!His highly professionalism and transparency made me comfortable to consi...

Oliver Kiddy

Flavors & Fragrances

Corinne Grice

Strategic Account Manager, US

Luca was an absolute gem to work with ! He reached out to me on linkedin with several different opportunities & was a...

Luca Dowdell

Lubricants and Oil & Gas

Franz-Leo Nedo

Territory Sales Manager

Joseph is an expert in recruting people. He has in-depth practical knowledge and helpful by solving potential issues....

Joseph Davey

Group CEO

Kerry Maye

Regional Sales Manager

Working with Joseph was a wonderfully positive experience from our first contact, through acceptance of my job offer....

Joseph Davey

Group CEO

Jeff Borchardt

Director of Planning, US

Mr. Clay was a wonderful recruiter. He was communicative and helped keep me informed through the process. He also fou...

Christopher Clay

Real Estate & Homebuilding

Brian Carpenter

VP Continous Improvement, US

Stewart was instrumental in helping me through this process and alleviating my concerns as I’ve been out of the workf...

Stewart Boyd

Construction Materials

Tim Staniels

Territory Sales Manager, US

Joseph was very easy to work with. He was motivated and attentive during his recruitment process, very responsive to ...

Joseph Davey

Group CEO

Dipen Shah

Account Manager, Canada

I was assisted by Aiden Kerr on getting a new job in the chemical industry. He was fantastic in terms of timing, comm...

Aidan Kerr

Chemicals

Jon Steele

CFO, US

Grace taught an old dog some new tricks! I had been in my previous position for 30 years. I loved my job for most of...

Grace Smith

Electrical Components and Products

Guillermo Leal

Global Director of Pricing, US

I've worked with a few recruiters in the past but Oliver surprised me not only for his professionalism, excellent com...

Oliver Kiddy

Flavors & Fragrances

Todd McBroom

District Sales Mgr, US

Great Experience!! This was my first time dealing with a recuiter and could not have been a better experience. Jack ...

Jack Purnell

Material Handling & Automation

Tim Mitchell

Plant Manager, US

Stewart did an amazing job representing me for a new opportunity.

Stewart Boyd

Construction Materials

Christoph Snaga

Investment Manager, Germany

Christopher from Irving Knight handled the overall process well and we managed to get to a successful completion smoo...

Christopher Clay

Real Estate & Homebuilding

Michel Cas

Sales Manager, France

Incredibly human oriented executive search, candidates handled with great care and respect, precise and concise infor...

Joseph Davey

Group CEO

Keith Parvin

Automation Division Director

I found Joseph to be extremely professional in every way when going through a recent recruitment process, always doin...

Joseph Davey

Group CEO

Andrew Coutts

Director Global Strategy, US

First Class Service Emma shared details of a relevant opportunity and did a great job helping to manage lengthy nego...

Emma Conlin

Animal Health

Sara Benoit

Regional Account Manager, US

Irving Knight Group is a fantastic company. I was contacted by Aidan Kerr regarding a sales position opportunity in t...

Aidan Kerr

Chemicals

Andreia Sa

Director, Italy

I would like to sincerely thank Evan Ball for all the support throughout the process. He provided assistance at diffe...

Ewan Ball

Food Ingredients & Biotechnology