Xiao is a passionate microbiologist originally from China. He moved to the Netherlands to study his Master’s degree in food safety and later his Ph.D. in food microbiology specializing in bacterial spores. Xiao is a family father and together with his family, he moved to Denmark to pursue a career in Arla as a food microbiologist. Today he has become a senior scientist in Arla’s Innovation Centre in Aarhus near the HQ.
Xiao’s job in 3 words: Delegate. Fact-based. Cooperative.
Xiao is responsible for product shelf life and food safety. He does risk evaluations, troubleshooting as well as research projects with external partners. In this way, Xiao and his team colleagues are the bridging part between the company and academia, which is one of the important steps in transferring, building and implementing state-of-art knowledge in the field within Arla.
Arla's vision keeps pushing toward healthier ways
Xiao’s job is closely linked to the vision of creating the future of dairy and delivering healthy food naturally. “Traditionally some chemicals were used to ensure food safety or product shelf life. But because of Arla’s high standards to naturalness we are constantly challenged to find natural alternatives”, Xiao explains. As Arla expands, the team is constantly challenged for the solutions to prolong shelf life even further, naturally, for overseas markets. “What drives us is that we are forced to look towards the natural options. We are pushed to investigate new technologies and always develop. Challenge and opportunity co-exist here in Arla and that is highly motivating”, he adds.
A close collaboration makes the difference
One of the things that Xiao highlights as unique to Arla is the collaborative culture. “The company culture is very open to discussing things freely. We have a close collaboration with various functions in Arla including marketing, and together we see the full picture. At Arla it is very clear that we all have the same goal”, he explains.
