Q&A with Ellie Bain

At Chickpea Marketing, our ethos is to nourish with purpose, so we’re speaking to a variety of inspirational people working in the food and drink industry doing just that.

Our next interview is with Ellie Bain, Senior Nutritionist at Gousto.

Ellie tells us about how she came to work at Gousto, as well as shares a sneak peak into what she’s working on right now.

Ellie is also Social Media Officer on the British Dietetic Association Industry Specialist Group and during Dietitian’s Week, Ellie shared ‘a day in the life’ video on the BDA Twitter. If you’d like to see behind the scenes at Gousto, don’t forget to check it out. But first, enjoy the Q&A.

Corrine (C): Can you please tell us a bit about you and your current job? 

Ellie (E): I'm a registered dietitian and my job is Senior Nutritionist at Gousto. I sit within our sustainability team to ensure everything we do has a positive impact on people and the planet. Being the sole nutritionist there is a lot of variety in what I do; I work with the recipe developers on hitting range guidelines and creating new healthy ranges as well as nutritional analysis of the recipes once they're finished; the buying team on sourcing and ingredient reformulation (mainly salt reduction!); our brand marketing team for health claims and PR support; data teams for tracking and reporting; as well as working on our longer term health strategy. 

C: How did you get into your area of work? 

E: I always knew I wanted to work in the food industry rather than as a clinical dietitian. I want to make it easier for people to eat better, I love to cook and believe that's a fundamental part of a healthy diet, but know there are a lot of barriers that stop people doing so. Whether that's because they don't have the time (to think about meals, go to the shops, as well as physically cooking etc), knowledge or skills to cook, Gousto really helps break those barriers down! 

I saw the job as a Kitchen Assistant come up when I was just back from my post-uni ski season, I'd tried Gousto boxes as a student and knew I loved what they did so I was keen to join the team in any way I could! The kitchen assistant role was an internship with the recipe developers, helping keep ingredients stocked and pack recipe testing bags, basically getting stuck in wherever I could and learning the ropes of recipe development. I then got into recipe development full time, focusing on our healthier ranges and recipes, starting to make suggestions to the other recipe devs of how to make things a little healthier.. reducing salt or butter for example. As the business has grown, we've realised the impact we can have on the health of our customers so needed someone to fully focus on all things nutrition, I guess I was in the right place at the right time! 6 years on and the business has changed (and grown) massively so it's felt like 6 different jobs all in one.

What are you most excited about in your work at the moment?

We've got some really exciting things going on at the moment, I'm not sure how much I can share! We've recently launched a new range of recipes that contain all 5 portions of your 5-a-day. We're also exploring how we could prove that Gousto has specific health benefits and working with some leading research teams to design this. We're soon opening our first on-site canteen which I'll be working with the catering company to design healthy balanced menus to give our factory workers a nutritious meal. And we're deep in thinking about what the future of health looks like and where we want to be in 10 years time... any AI experts hit me up! 

C: If you could provide one tip for someone looking to learn more or gain more experience in your line of work, what would that be?

E: Network network network! It is so valuable what you can learn from talking to other people doing things you think you might like to do (or help you realise what you don't want to do!) Dietitians and nutritionists in industry are a friendly bunch and we so often work alone that we're always keen to chat and share our experiences. 

C: Do you have a favourite chickpea containing snack or meal?

E: I'm a HUGE chickpea fan, I love them - roasted, in hummus (obvs), salads, in a stew, I eat chickpeas multiple times a week. Have you tried Ottolenghi Cacio Pepe Chickpeas?! Delish. I've also recently discovered the Bold Bean Co chickpeas and they are a game changer, who knew there could be such a difference between brands!

C: Lastly, where can we find you online?

Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn here!