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

Jane Scates

Packaging Engineer, US

Henry was a true professional, perfect attention to detail at every step of the process. Would definitely recommend!

Henry Spooner

Packaging, Paper, Recycling

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 & Mining

Veronica Hagborg

Senior Director Global HR, Sweden

I have had the opportunity to co-operate with Joseph in a process and I found him very proactive in keeping me inform...

Joseph Davey

Group CEO

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

Tim Mitchell

Plant Manager, US

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

Stewart Boyd

Construction Materials & Mining

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

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

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

Kay Witte

Global Director Performance Excellence

Joseph was instrumental in making my last professional opportunity happen. He was easy to work with, responsive, and ...

Joseph Davey

Group CEO

Eduardo Valle

Development Mgr, US

This opportunity fell on my lap at the perfect time and the overall process with Christopher was great. It was a very...

Christopher Clay

Real Estate & Homebuilding

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

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

Nathan Radue

Channel Marketing Manager, US

Oliver is a thorough and effective recruiter, representing both sides with character and solid communication. He appr...

Oliver Kiddy

Flavors & Fragrances

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

Kaitlin Lammers

Account Manager

Oliver made the hiring process smooth from start to finish. He was consistently responsive, understanding, and suppor...

Oliver Kiddy

Flavors & Fragrances

Nika Kuchaidze

Senior Continuous Improvement Chemist, US

It was a pleasure working with Joseph on transitioning to a position with a new company. Communication was prompt,...

Joseph Davey

Group CEO

Michael Wilson

Senior Account Manager

Working with Joseph was a seamless and positive experience from our first contact along with the various steps of the...

Joseph Davey

Group CEO

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, Oil & Gas

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