Lifetime Achievement in Industry
Kofi A. Mensah, Ph.D.
Senior Fellow, General Mills – Riverside Technical Center
If you have ever had Pillsbury’s Toaster Strudels or related treats, savored Kentucky Fried Chicken’s hot biscuits, bitten into a hot pizza from Pizza Hut, or taken home from the grocery store Grands or any of the myriad Pillsbury ready-to-bake pastries, then Kofi A. Mensah, Ph.D. was your chef.
Dr. Mensah, who emigrated from Ghana nearly 40 years ago, is a food process engineer. He is the one concerned with heat transfer as it pertains to manufacturing, warming or cooking prepared foods; the freezing and its effect on uncooked or partially cooked products; and the packaging of foods — particularly breads — so they do not rise until the package is opened and they are ready for cooking.
As one of only two Senior Fellows in the Research and Development department of General Mills, Inc., Dr. Mensah has a hand in engineering the products and processing equipment used in many of the company’s products.
Dr. Mensah began his journey from Ghana when he received a Canadian government scholarship to pursue a degree in agricultural engineering at the University of Guelph in Ontario. The program was evenly divided between traditional agricultural engineering needs — designing tractors and combines — and biological engineering, which included food engineering and waste management. That exposure led to internships with Massey-Ferguson and General Foods, and his future avocation. Dr. Mensah moved to the U.S. to earn first a master’s degree in agricultural process engineering from The Ohio State University, and then a doctorate in food process engineering.
In nearly three decades, he has worked his way up through the R&D ranks at the food giant and, along the way, earned a patent for the development of dough processing equipment and a second filed for dough sheeting and laminating. In his spare time, he also serves as a board member of the Ghanaian Association of Minnesota.
Roger Witherspoon is a journalist and author based in New York.