Welcome to employee highlights, where you can see us - everyone who makes up Mycorena, real work and life. Our guest today is Jill Laakso, Quality Manager for our entire Mycorena production system.

What is your job role at Mycorena and how long have you worked here?

My role is Quality Manager and I have been here for just one month, I started in January.

How many people are in your team, what are your responsibilities?

So, we are 3 people in the core quality team. My responsibility is to coordinate the whole quality management system and oversee preparation for when we operate on a bigger scale. I will prepare the company for the FSSC 22000 audit at the new Falkenberg site and level up all quality management activities to meet the requirements, that's this year's objectives.

Do you feel that Mycorena is an innovative company?

I feel that we have a company culture that encourages new ideas, that allows you to be innovative, which is very good, I see a lot of possibilities down the road. We are like a young and brave company, interested in new ideas and there are others like me who have been working in other companies before that can bring in different experience.

What did you work with before you joined Mycorena?

I graduated in 2009, so I've been in several different quality positions since then. My background is more working within the bread and powder industries. For the last three years I've been working as a QES Manager (Quality, Environment and Safety) at Lantmännen just outside of Gothenburg, it was a very similar role but not so much focus on food safety.

What inspires you to work within the food tech industry?

I think it’s very exciting to be a part of something so new, a company that works with brand new products, something that’s potentially going to be the future of food. We don't really know how the product itself acts during storage conditions and freezing etc and so we need to learn that. I think that it’s interesting that we can discover potential new uses of these products. You can't follow any old processes, it's all new stuff to learn, it’s a kind of journey.

let’s talk a little about you away from work. Where are you from?

I'm from Gothenburg actually.

What did you study?

I studied at SLU, the Swedish Agriculture University in Skara, a small university town. I studied a food science engineering programme which was a very good foundation to work within this field.

What do you do in your spare time?

Well, I enjoy running in the forest and just being outside with my family. I have two children which take up a lot of time. I like to try new food products that are launched like wheat, protein, soy, protein and pea protein, a lot of different ones. I have the test panel of two children, it's very good to have them because if they like it then you know that it is really good. I actually tested Promyc on my kids, and it was approved “[Laughter]”.