UGA alum Gaana Nagaraj drives global food innovation and recipe development for Chick-fil-A

By Sarah Lippert

Food that fuels passion

Gaana Nagaraj spent her childhood traveling. Whether to different regions of her home country of India or to countries beyond it, food quickly became her favorite way to explore culture. Her greatest journey so far has been immigrating to the United States to attend the University of Georgia, then building a career in food science, a natural extension of her passion as a self-proclaimed foodie.

“When I was traveling as a child, I was always curious about why food tasted different in different places. When I was thinking about what to study for my master’s degree, food science was such a no-brainer for me,” said Nagaraj, who earned her master’s degree from the UGA Department of Food Science and Technology in 2013.

Today, as international principal culinary lead at Chick-fil-A, Nagaraj spends her days unpacking that curiosity as she helps to launch the brand’s international footprint. While it may seem as simple as replicating recipes for a well-established brand like Chick-fil-A, each new country comes with its own set of challenges.

“We are taking core recipes from the domestic market and translating them to international markets, which sounds simple, but it’s not. We have to match the sensory profile of each menu item as closely as possible, because the goal is for a customer who has had Chick-fil-A in the U.S. to have it in another country and think, ‘This is what I remember it being like,’” Nagaraj said.

The work to deliver the perfect bite of Chick-fil-A’s iconic chicken sandwich begins long before a new restaurant opens its doors. To start, each country has its own set of regulatory guardrails that control which ingredients can and can’t be used. Certain ingredients are often simply unavailable in the region, so suitable substitutes must be found. Plus, processors in other countries have different equipment, capabilities and scale, all of which must be accounted for to deliver the same high-quality product and ensure global consistency.

Reformulating recipes to address these challenges pushes Nagaraj to lean on her decade of experience in the food industry – with roles ranging from product development for KFC in international markets to menu innovation for Pizza Hut U.S. – and the skills she honed during her time at UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Nagaraj was drawn to the food science program by a multitude of factors, including “the caliber of professors and their research, plus the pilot plant, food processing lab and sensory department.” But the chance to get hands-on experience conducting research topped them all.

Initially, time spent in the department supporting small-scale food processors through UGA Cooperative Extension gave Nagaraj the opportunity to see the product-development lifecycle from ideation to placement on a store shelf. Her first U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded research project exposed her to the intersection of research, food safety and food microbiology. That project, which explored radio frequency technology for cooking ground beef, led to her first two scientific publications and ultimately propelled her career forward.

As Chick-fil-A’s expansion continues across North America, Asia and Europe, Nagaraj remains inspired by doing what she loves while helping lead the company’s global growth.

“I always come back to the question of ‘Why am I doing what I’m doing?’ For me, the answer is that I’m trying to challenge the status quo, and I’m doing that in a space where I’m passionate,” she said. “I’m continually researching and developing new ways to make the best product while embracing different cultures. I’m reminded daily that there’s more than one way to do something right.”