Bryan Quoc Le

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Hi there! I'm Dr. Bryan Quoc Le, and I am a food scientist, food industry consultant, and author of the book, 150 Food Science Questions Answered (2020, Simon & Schuster). I earned my Ph.D. in Food Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where I studied the biological effects of savory flavors from plant-based sources on mammalian cells.

I recently served as a Faculty Research Fellow (2023 - 2024) in the Department of Chemistry at Pacific Lutheran University, where I am researching ways to valorize food and agricultural waste into sustainable fermentation feedstocks for the alternative protein industry. I also serve as a startup mentor for CoMotion Labs at the University of Washington, a Domain Expert for Carbon13, and as a Research Scholar at the Ronin Institute for Independent Scholarship.

Since graduating from my doctoral program, I've gone on to become a scientific advisor and consulting food scientist for a number of food companies, including Blue Diamond Growers, Lactalis, Sosa Ingredients, Trinchero Family Estates, The Good Food Institute (GFI), Satoria Agro, TurtleTree, Black Sheep Foods, and others. I completed a two-year study on converting agricultural sidestreams into alternative proteins in partnership with GFI.

My consulting work has been recently recognized and I am proudly the recipient of the 2023 Food Science Consultant of the Year for the Global Vegan Awards, hosted by LUXlife Magazine.

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  • In reality, both Gounder and Le confirm that heating milk to pasteurize it doesn’t change its nutritional value. “There are no known scientifically valid benefits to drinking raw milk,” Le says. Most of the claims made about the supposed advantages of consuming unpasteurized milk come from a handful of inconclusive studies — many of which focus specifically on the so-called “farm effect” — which Le notes is still under investigation.

  • "There are almost as many types of soy sauces as there are wines or vinegars," says food scientist Dr. Bryan Quoc Le. "Soy sauces are a very old condiment that has been around for thousands of years, and so the variations in them are extraordinary."

  • "If the area experiences significant vehicle traffic, foot traffic, or wind, the snow could be contaminated with dust or dirt. Urban areas with heavily polluted air can produce contaminated snow," Bryan told BuzzFeed, "However, if the snow appears white and has not been disturbed, there are few short effects and it is unlikely to be contaminated with bacteria or pathogens."