Keith Johnston

What in your background prepared you for your current role?

Science was one of my favourite subjects at school. It was mainly chemistry – I think I was fascinated with the way you could combine things and get something completely different. I began a three-year, extramural New Zealand Certificate of Science and Chemistry. I also received a tip from an uncle about a job at the Cool Stores close to the port in my hometown, New Plymouth. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) had a lab there, one of about half-dozen around the country checking export products before they left the country.

I was hired as a technician and undertook routine testing of caseins, before moving on to micro-testing of cheese. A few years later, barely 20 years old, I was managing some of the work done in the lab. From there, I moved to Hamilton to work in the National Dairy Laboratory – another MAF site. I spent 13 years in the lab, but in the 1980s there was a lot of rationalisation. I could see that not only would that laboratory disappear but the other MAF laboratories as well, so I was faced with the prospect of either staying in Hamilton and looking for a completely different job or finding something that would enable me to take a different path.

I entered the MAF graduate training programme at the age of 34. Back then it was an intensive one-year dairy science course for students who had finished their university studies. I qualified through my extensive work experience. It was a huge crossroads for me. I was married with a young son and everyone else was directly out of university.

I was still working as well, and my participation in the course sponsored by MAF, which meant it took me two years to complete.

As part of my studies I had worked on a cheese project supervised by the New Zealand Dairy Research Institute (DRI) in Palmerston North, the predecessor to Fonterra’s Research and Development Centre (FRDC). I asked my supervisors to remember me if any jobs came up.

They did remember, and their recollection probably helped when I graduated with distinction from the course, finishing top of the class.

I began at the DRI in 1988.

What does you consider the biggest challenge with your work?

Fonterra is spending A$240 million (€169m) on a new mozzarella factory at Clandeboye that will double its output of the product and also create 100 permanent jobs. It is believed to be the single largest food-service investment in the history of New Zealand dairy.

That means Fonterra, supported by the Transforming the Dairy Value Chain (TDVC) Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) programme, has invested more than $350 million in the past few years in the global pizza market, which is worth close to $40 billion.

The TDVC is a seven-year, $170 million innovation programme led by commercial partners, including DairyNZ and Fonterra, and partnered by the Ministry for Primary Industries. The programme aims to enable the creation of new dairy products, increase on-farm productivity, reduce environmental impacts, and improve agricultural education.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Playing a key role in the research and development around mozzarella has been a highlight in my career, the culmination of a life dedicated to science and following a logical approach to reach an end point.

Fonterra was having problems controlling the functionality, the process and the shelf life of the product. One of my supervisors, Frank Dunlop (who would later become head of the cheese section at DRI), was developing a new process. I came in and he said to me, mozzarella’s the cheese of the future, so I helped with trials and I’ve been working on it ever since.

The DRI became the FRDC, but the focus on making mozzarella for the co-op and the wider industry remained the same.

We looked at different processes. Some would fall over as production was scaled up, and others would be trumped by bigger global competitors rushing their work to patent. Eventually myself, another technologist, Peter Elston, and the rest of the team worked out a process we could patent that not only allowed the co-op to produce a stable, profitable mozzarella at production scale, but one that could be used almost as soon as it was produced, rather than waiting many weeks, as is the case with traditional mozzarella.

My effort was recognised in 2007, when I received a Fonterra Distinguished Research Award. And three years ago, the co-op was named most innovative exporter at the New Zealand Innovation Awards for its development of mozzarella. With this new process, the biggest challenge was scale up from pilot plant to commercial scale.

What does a typical day look like for you?

With this project, there was no typical day. Each day presented new challenges and as part of a much larger team, my contributions were focused on process technical and product composition and functionality issues.

Outside of work, what are your hobbies/interests?

Family, jogging, squash, DIY projects

 

Related content

Leave a reply

Dairy Industries International