Kurt Christensen | Food R&D Consultant | Launch Ready Foods

I’m a food scientist and R&D leader who has spent more than 25 years developing products, building technical teams, and helping food companies turn promising ideas into products that can actually be manufactured and sold.

I earned my PhD in Food Science and Nutrition from the University of Minnesota, where my research focused on aroma chemistry and sensory testing. That scientific foundation taught me how to understand food at a detailed technical level. 

My career since then has taught me something equally important: a technically sound product is only successful when it also works for the consumer, the store customer, the manufacturing plant, and the business.

My experience includes roles with Frito-Lay, Pizza Hut, Lance, and LifeSpice Ingredients. I have worked in product development, sensory and consumer testing, commercialization, technical systems, and R&D leadership. At LifeSpice, where I ultimately served as Vice President of R&D, I helped build the people, processes, laboratory capabilities, and systems needed to support the company’s growth from approximately $10 million to $70 million in annual sales.

Throughout my career, I have been most effective in situations where something needs to be built, repaired, or moved forward. That may mean developing and commercializing a product, creating an R&D function, establishing a sensory program, improving a struggling process, or stepping in as an experienced interim leader.

I founded Launch Ready Foods to make that experience available to growing food companies that need senior-level R&D help but may not need, or be ready to hire, a full-time executive.

My wife and I live in Wilmette, Illinois, with our two Maltese dogs. 

The Chicago area keeps me close to family and provides a natural home base in the heart of the Midwest food industry. 

I work with clients locally and across the country, combining hands-on technical work with practical business judgment.

I enjoy solving difficult problems, but I also believe consulting should be straightforward. I listen carefully, tell clients what I actually think, and focus on work that produces a useful result.