Eric Blanchard is French and studied at the ENITIAA Food Engineers High School (Ecole Nationale des Techniques des Industries Agro alimentaires — National School of Technics of Food Industries, now called ONIRIS). He has been working for 22 years at LAITERIE DE MONTAIGU; a French dairy company specialising in infant milk formula powders.
He was Director of R&D, Director of Quality, and Industrial Director in 2008, before becoming General Manager of the company in 2010. Meanwhile, in 2010 he took on the direction of LISA.RD; a new business development and technical consulting company, dedicated to infant milk formulas and nutritional dairy product know-how, research and support in transferring models. Due to its precise network and experience, LISA.RD can support turnkey projects, from specific requests to greenfield manufacturing plants for infant formula.
Eric Blanchard, an engineer in technical agro-food industries, has become a specialist in infant formula and nutritional dairy products. Through his research, industrial practice and influence within technical standards boards, he relentlessly pursues the goal of preserving infant well-being.
With his know-how about ingredient selection, product formulation, and different design stages of the manufacturing process and quality management, for some time now, Eric Blanchard has been particularly busy working toward a better understanding of the drying procedure and the influence of various parameters on the quality and performance of the finished product. For more than 10 years, he has built partnerships with research centres in order to develop a methodical and unique scientific approach to infant formula manufacturing.
In 2006, in cooperation with the INRA (French National Institute of Food Research), he filed patents to help determine the drying parameters of food products (SD²P software), in particular, infant formula, which is a complex model due to its various ingredients.
In 2007, Eric Blanchard participated in the development and design of the first Super Premium infant formula in China — one of the key Chinese players in infant formula powders.
In 2010, he was involved in structuring the international development policy of Laiterie de Montaigu infant formula business unit, through LISA.RD, dedicated to international business development and technical engineering in the area of nutritional products and implementing dedicated methods from the international prospective.
In 2013, because of his success in China, Eric Blanchard was invited by the French President François Hollande to be part of the official French delegation of 40 company leaders for the first official visit of President François Hollande in China, meeting the President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping.
Eric Blanchard is also involved in the development of regional food industries with a focus on research for innovation. Since becoming involved in 2004, he was President of LIGERIAA in 2015, AREA Pays-de-la-Loire — the regional branch of the ANIA (National Association of Food Industries) and is very active in food innovation projects and networking. Since June 2019, he has also been President of CAP ALIMENT, the regional cluster of Pays-de-la-Loire dedicated to strengthening the links between food research centres, researchers and food companies, working very closely with local politicians for economic development of the territory.
On August 2019, Eric Blanchard left the board of Laiterie de Montaigu.
On 1 January 2020, Eric Blanchard took control of LISA.RD Singapore with his partner Sven Hoegh PETERSEN, to form NUTRIXPERTS in order to focus on business development and consultancy in the area of health nutrition.